Perfect Cold Day Soup

Jaime Oliver's Leek and Potato Soup

It is SO simple, and SO delicious, I almost need to double the recipe so I have leftovers. I like to leave it chunky and not puree it, the flavors stand out more.

ingredients

• 2 carrots
• 2 celery stalks
• 2 medium onions
• 1 pound leeks
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 ¾ quarts chicken or vegetable broth, preferably organic
• 1 pound potatoes
• olive oil
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To make your soup
Peel and roughly slice the carrots. Slice the celery. Peel and roughly chop the onions. Cut the ends off the leeks, quarter them lengthways, wash them under running water, and cut them into ¼-inch slices. Peel and slice the garlic. Put the broth in a saucepan and heat until boiling. Place a large saucepan on a high heat and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add all your chopped and sliced ingredients and mix together with a wooden spoon. Cook for around 10 minutes with the lid askew, until the carrots have softened, but are still holding their shape, and the onion and leeks are lightly golden. Peel the potatoes and cut them into ¼-inch dice. Add the boiling broth to the vegetables . Add your potatoes. Give the soup a good stir and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes with the lid on

To serve your soup
Remove the pan from the heat. Season with salt and pepper. Serve like this or pulse until smooth using an immersion blender or liquidizer. Divide between your servings.

A new take on Steak and Potatoes

One of my new years resolutions is to have more dinner parties. I like making dinner, but I like to make an event out of it rather than just eat it myself. And I love making food look pretty and sitting at a table and having conversation with people I like. So this year I am inviting people I like to eat with me twice a month. So far, so good.

We started out with some warm pita bread and dip. The dip is essentially plain Greek yogurt with grated cucumber, grated garlic (I don't mess with a press) fresh lemon juice and mint (or dill if you want). Make sure you buy the Greek pita bread -- not pocket pita.

Who doesn't like a good steak (not counting vegetarians)? This is a flank steak and the marinade is the BEST marinade I've ever tried. I actually got the recipe from my friend Scott.

Flank Steak marinade:

1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup soy sauce (preferably tamari)
1/3 cup lime juice and zest (about 2 limes)
1 tsp freshly grated ginger root
steak seasoning

(marinade over night, if you can, turn the steak halfway through marinade time).

I don't have a grill, so I broiled this. Each side, about 6 minutes. The trick is not overcooking it. You want it to be pretty pink in the middle.

Most people I know love mashed potatoes and gravy. I don't, but I'm pretty sure it's the gravy I don't like. I don't have a problem with potatoes, but they need a good flavor. My flavor of choice happens to be horseradish, and horseradish goes great with beef, so this worked.

I'm not going to bother with a recipe for the potatoes because I honestly don't know how much of everything I put in here. Basically I boiled the potatoes, added some butter, half and half and a teaspoon of horseradish. Salt and pepper (garlic salt if you want).

My friend Annie made this salad. The key to good salad (if you ask me) is quality ingredients and a good dressing. I prefer to make my dressing from scratch. You save a lot of money that way and it's so much better for you.

Salad:

Green leaf lettuce
avocado
orange slices
cranberries
blue cheese

Dressing:

olive oil
orange juice
white wine vinegar
salt and pepper

The Best Sunday Dinner

This meal is sort of our signature meal at our house. It is so good. It originated when I went to dinner at my friends house and she cooked this spectacular meat, I thought she was some sort of chef goddess. When I called her and asked her for the "recipe", she said "Morton's of Omaha.... at Costco."

Ever since, whenever we share this meal with others (which we usually do, because this is a big hunk of meat and we are only a wee family of three) they go on and on and on about how delicious it is. So this isn't so much as a recipe, as an idea. But I'll give recipes for my sides, cause they were good, and I totally take credit for them.

Tri-Tip with Potatoes and Rolls

One Morton's of Omaha pre marinated tri tip from Costco

(You can borrow my membership if you don't have one..)

Tri tip is yummy barbecued, as long as it's a good barbecue, and a good barbecuer.

We started cooking it in the oven, as to not mess it up with our crappy BBQ.

Preheat oven to 450.

Tri tip takes 1 hour to cook, and will continue to cook inside if left sitting after coming out of the oven. We like ours a little medium- so maybe 50 min is good for us. All preference on how you like your meat. We pour some worschester sauce on ours to keep it nice and moist and add a little bit of garlic salt.

Potatoes

5-6 Yukon Gold potatoes

Seasoning Salt

Garlic salt

butter

water

Slice potatoes into thick slices. Put them into a large skillet and melt 1-2 T of butter. Stir to coat the potatoes. The seasonings are all preference. I like about 1-2 T of seasoning salt, and 1 T of garlic salt. The potatoes will cook on med-low heat and you will need to stir occasionally and add 1/4 c. periodically to keep them moist and keep them from sticking. Continue to stir and add the water till potatoes are nice and tender.

Buttermilk Rolls

3 cups Buttermilk (room temperature)*

3 cups flour

1 T. yeast dissolved in ¼ cup warm water (first let rise a few minutes)

½ cup sugar

3 eggs, beaten with a fork

2 tsp salt

5 cups flour (sometimes you need a cup more--it should not be too sticky)

½ cup oil

1 tsp baking soda

Dissolve yeast in ¼ c. warm water and let proof a few minutes. Mix the buttermilk, 3 cups flour and yeast together thoroughly in a large mixing bowl. Let this stand at room temperature until double in size, about 2 hours.
Add sugar, eggs, salt, 5 cups flour, oil, and baking soda. Mix well and kneed for 7-10 minutes. Roll out what you want and place the rest in the refrigerator, covered. The next time you want some fresh baked rolls, take from the bowl what you want and again put the rest back in the refrigerator. It will keep for 7 days. (This is perfect for Sunday meals because you don’t have a lot of mess to clean up and it’s quick.)
Let rolls rise on baking sheets until double in size. Time depends on the room temperature, usually 1½ - 2 hours. Dough from the refrigerator will take longer because the dough is cold.
Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes. Brush with melted butter if you like.

Makes 2 dozen rolls. (I halfed it, when making for my little family..)

*I used buttermilk substitute, which is 1 T of lemon juice to each cup of milk. Worked just great.