braised leeks

Inspired by Sprouted Kitchen, I've been braising leeks lately.  I'm certainly no expert braiser, but I do enjoy Julia Child reruns on PBS on Saturday mornings and have gleaned some basics from her.

Following Sprouted's directions for the leek portion of this recipe, I brown the leeks face down in butter, flip them and add a drizzle of olive oil and honey, let the other side brown a bit, then add maybe a quarter inch of stock and let them braise for 20 minutes.

SK's beautiful Braised Leeks + Muscovado Lentils

Some things I learned: Don't brown the leeks too fast.  Sometimes I get impatient while cooking and turn up the heat too high to coax things to cook a little faster.  With this and other things in my life, I am working on slowing down, enjoying the process, learning patience, and having a much lovelier result.  Also, don't stop braising too early.  You may have to add a touch more liquid if it's disappearing too fast.  And make sure that your leeks are buttery soft all the way through before taking them off the heat. You won't be sorry you waited.

leeks browning, about to braise

Last night, we had yellow split peas with pesto over our leeks, but they're also great alongside roast chicken, a poached egg -- the options are endless, really.

Happy braising!

what I've been eating lately

homemade pasta

egg and avocado sandwich

steak birthday dinner

olive oil crackers

toasted ravioli at Farotto's with friends

lots of citrus fruit and learning what it means to supreme a grapefruit

tiny triscuits in mom's stew

Blake's Frenchie-French toast

pear slices

coffee+milk

New Year Noodle Soup!

noodle soup, up close

pork chops and garlicy greens

tarte tatin (in Wichita, at Christmas)

veggie burgers

I made these for dinner tonight and boy, were they good.  We enjoyed them with sliced avocado and tahini -- and I substituted kale for sprouts (it worked, FYI).

photo by Heidi

And Blake loved them, because I didn't call them veggie burgers.  He thinks anything that hints of vegetarianism is unacceptable as a dinner feature.

We're still working on that one.

summertime

Happy first day of summer!

This summer, you'll find me...

sitting on the back porch with my love

sewing and fixing up some thrift-store finds (which I hope to share here)

writing letters to this guy

enjoying refreshments *withatwist

eating dinner from the garden [arugula with balsamic + OO, et cetera]

in addition to lots and lots of nursing textbook reading and test-studying and care log-writing. :)


What's on your summer list?

ginger fried rice

When I need a quick, filling, feel-good meal, I often end up making some ginger fried rice.  All it takes is leftover rice (I prefer brown for nutrition reasons and for flavor!), a little fresh ginger, red pepper flakes, olive oil, and an egg.

Smitten Kitchen has a great little recipe here, but honestly, it's something that I usually just wing.  Sometimes I add different things depending on what's around or what I'm in the mood for...

Today I made it for a late lunch/snack and ended up breaking the yolk of my egg and smushing it all up into the rice.  It still tasted great, though.  I also cut the ginger instead of grating it -- but I really like a strong ginger flavor.

Never fail comfort food.  gotta love it.

Oh, and happy October!  We have beautiful, cool, sunny, breezy weather today here in DC :) How about you?