Yesterday I received another nice package from that terrific company called Amazon (my new best friend), and I got 3 new books which is great because I already ate the two I got last week! I started reading the first one last night and it's really funny and rather cute. Perhaps you've heard of it if you're a blogger- it's the book based on the blog called The Julie/Julia project wherein Julie blogged about her experience of cooking her way through Vol. 1 of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. It's an easy read and kept me up well past midnight.
When I got up this morning I had this brilliant idea of taking my copy of this cooking classic off the shelf and trying the first recipe in the book
Potage Parmentier (Leek and Potato Soup), just as Julie did. Now I'm sitting here and my house is stinking with the smell of leeks boiling away in the kitchen. I thought I'd cook this while P is away because he doesn't much like potatoes and I know he'd scrunch up his nose at the smell of leeks. The recipe is dead easy- boil some potatoes with a bunch of sliced leeks for 40-50 min and then mash with a fork, add cream and butter and enjoy. I'm waiting now for the 'enjoy' part!
By the way, it's the first time I've ever bought leeks, and the friendly Ferdinand (my local shopkeeper) told me that leeks are called 'PRAS' in Albanian, and that they have a saying "He was caught with a leek in his hand", which translates in English as "He was caught with his hand in the cookie jar!" Imagine that!