my cooking disaster/blessing

I went out to Full Belly Farm yesterday and took a walk with Anna, one of the owners. The fields were green and the day was perfect, perfect, perfect! We walked around the field and she kindly picked me some veggies to take home. There were three kinds of kale (one of which is only grown on that farm), a leek and a celery root. I was so curious about these because I'm kind of a carbotarian and I've been wanting to branch out.

She told me that the kale is good sauteed with olive oil, garlic and tahini sauce. The leek is similar to an onion, but milder. The celery root needs to be peeled and cubed.

I decided to make a soup last night and asked John to pick up the missing ingredients at the store (chicken broth, potatoes, and cream). I planned to make Cream of Greens soup (the recipe is on the Full Belly website). I was going to substitute the onion for my leek though and add some celery root too. So, I fried up my bacon only to discover that the bacon had gone rancid. It had the most repugnant smell ever!

I thought the soup wouldn't be the same without the bacon so I went to Plan B. I found a Spanish Tortilla recipe on the same website that called for kale and onions (which I substituted for a leek). I added some fresh Parmesan cheese to the top and it turned out quite well. The leeks created a wonderful aroma and the kale wasn't bitter (like I feared). It was a succcess! John even asked to save the leftovers for lunch the next day!

I went to clean up and put the kale and leek trimmings in the disposal. I've always thought John was paranoid because he doesn't like me to use the disposal, but this time he was right. Since John wasn't home at this point, I decided to pretend like all was well until he discovered it....which didn't take long. Three hours later we (he) pulled the last of those super tough little leek strings out of the disposal. Not. Good.

So although some (John) might term the evening a complete disaster, I had a blast yesterday out at the farm and in the kitchen!