I love soups. And on a cold drizzling rainy day, I love them even more. So here’s another soup recipe. I made this one tonight and I thought it was amazing. The croutons are so good, I’ll never be able to eat bag ones again. And the soup was sublime. Not to mention beautiful (and insanely green). You really should try it.
French Pea Soup
Potage Saint-GermainFrom The Gourmet CookbookServes: 6
Active Time: 35 minutes
Start to Finish: 45 minutes
For Croutons:
1 baguette or loaf Italian bread, crusts discarded if desired and cut into ½-inch cubes (1 ½ cups)
2 TBLS unsalted butter, melted
Salt
For Soup:
1 ½ cups chopped leeks (white parts only; 2 large leeks)
2 TBLS unsalted butter
3 cups chicken stock or store-bought low-sodium broth
2 cups water
2 (10 oz) packages frozen peas, thawed, or 4 cups shelled fresh peas
4 cups chopped Bibb or Boston lettuce
½ cup fresh mint leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup heavy cream (optional)
Make the Croutons:
Put a rack in middle of oven and preheat oven to 350.
Drizzle bread cubes with butter in a shallow baking dish, tossing to coat well, and bake, stirring occasionally, until golden and crisp, 10-15 minutes. Season with salt.
Make the Soup:
Wash leeks well in a bowl of cold water; lift out and drain well. Melt butter in a large saucepan over moderately low heat. Add leeks and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 6-7 minutes. Add stock and water and bring to a boil. Add peas and lettuce and simmer, partially covered, until peas are tender, 6-10 minutes. Stir in mint.
Puree soup in batches in a blender (use caution*) until very smooth. Return soup to pan, season with salt and pepper, and reheat over moderately low heat, stirring, until hot.
Beat cream, if using, in a small bowl until slightly thickened but still pourable. Season with salt. Ladle soup into six bowls. Drizzle drops of cream, if using, on each serving and draw a skewer or knife through drops to form a decorative pattern. Serve with croutons.
.
*Use Caution When Blending Hot Liquids (a note from The Gourmet Cookbook)
When it comes to transforming hot broth and soft vegetables into a perfect pureed soup, an old fashioned blender is hard to beat. But be careful. The hot steam escaping from the soup gets trapped between the liquid and the lid, creating a sort of combustion chamber. When the steam expands under pressure, a blender can literally flip its lid, spattering it searing cargo over the kitchen and the cook. Since soups must be pureed while they are still hot in order to become as smooth as possible, it’s best to blend them in batches, filling the blender jar no more than halfway and starting the blending on low speed. It also helps to open the small center cap in the blender’s lid slightly, to decompress the contents. Drape the blender jar with a kitchen towel, press the button, and stand back.
Pictured: Ethan in his favorite of three Thomas shirts (this one lights up), and wearing Percy socks. Thomas roller backpack, Thomas Laptop, Thomas lunch box with Thomas puzzle inside, and Thomas friends which include: Thomas, Gordon, James, Harold, Percy, Henry, and Billy. 
French Pea Soup
The Tulip Festival
I love plucking my eyebrows. I think it’s fun. Several years ago, I think I was verging on obsessed. During my freshman year of college, I liked it so much that I convinced my roommates that they needed to start having their eyebrows plucked. A few were scared to pluck their own, so I happily offered to do it for them. It was probably a good thing that I had other people's to pluck, otherwise I might have plucked mine out entirely! My obsession isn’t quite so extreme now for two reasons. I have kids and bangs. Kids make me busy enough that I don’t think about my eyebrows as much and bangs because you can’t see my brows anymore anyway. I still think it's kinda fun though.
Serves: 4
Four Cinnabar, four Heather. I already have plans to collect the Tangerine and Plum. Someday that is . . . when I’ve saved my money. 
