TUESDAY

Potato, Green Cabbage & Leek Soup with Lemon Crème Fraîche  |  Galway O.’s Irish Soda Bread

I knew today was going to be busy.   We are beginning our preparations for next week’s horse show in Southern California…a 10-hour drive for us & the horses.  Both girls will be competing and the list of “stuff” to collect & get ready, well..it always seems endless!  I had an aggressive number of items I wanted to check-off  that list today, along with an early afternoon committee meeting, picking up children at school and then heading off to a consultation with an oral surgeon {Mallory needs to have some teeth extracted before getting her braces on}.  After dropping the children off at school, I returned home determined to get tonight’s dinner made in advance…

I began with the Potato, Green Cabbage & Leek Soup with Lemon Crème Fraîche {adapted from Epicurious}

• ½ cup crème fraîche or sour cream
  
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• ¼ teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
• 2 tablespoons {¼ stick} butter, divided
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 6 cups diced green cabbage {½-inch dice, from about ½ a medium head}
• 3 cups chopped leeks {3-4 large leeks ~ white & pale green parts only}
• 3-4 large garlic cloves, pressed
• 3 cups {about 1¼ pounds} peeled & cubed Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1 {2 x 2-inch} piece of Parmesan cheese rind {optional}
• 1 Turkish bay leaf
• 6 cups {or more} homemade chicken broth {prepared, low-salt broth can be substituted}
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives {for garnish}

1. Whisk crème fraîche or sour cream, lemon juice, and lemon peel in a small bowl to blend.  Cover and chill.  DO AHEAD:  can be made 4 hours ahead.  Keep chilled.
2. Melt 1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoon olive oil in a heavy, large pot over medium-high heat.  Add the diced cabbage, sprinkle with salt & freshly ground pepper and sauté until cabbage is almost tender but NOT BROWN, 6-8 minutes.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer 1 cup of the cabbage to a small bowl and reserve for garnish.
3. Add 1 tablespoon butter to pot with cabbage…add leeks and garlic.   Sauté over medium heat until leeks soften a bit, about 3 minutes.  Stir in potatoes, Parmesan rind, if using, and bay leaf.  Add broth & bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until all vegetables are tender, 20-25 minutes.  Discard Parmesan rind, if using, and bay leaf.  Working in batches, purée the soup in a blender until smooth.  Return the puréed soup to the pot & simmer until heated through, adding more broth as needed to this the soup to the desired consistency.  Season to taste with salt & pepper.
4. Ladle soup into bowls.  Top each serving with some of the reserved, sautéed cabbage.  Drizzle crème fraîche mixture over soup, sprinkle with chives & serve.

And this is where the cooking stopped…

Right in the middle of chopping the very first leek {with my chef’s knife that was newly-sharpened this past Saturday afternoon}, I started chopping, a bit to fast {remember, I wanted to get both the soup & bread done!} and proceeded to slice a gash in my left thumb that caught my attention.  It was deep…really deep…deep enough to create quite a flap of skin and the blood…WOW!  I grabbed a dish towel, wrapped it around my thumb and, in under a minute, it was soaked red.  Yep…I decided it was time to head to the ER!

I left the kitchen, frozen in time, exactly where I stopped…ingredients gathered, my knife laying next to the partially chopped leek…one might have thought I just stepped away to switch the laundry.  Armed with several rags, I headed off to the ER…almost.

You see, I have been waiting for my new {really cool} eyeglasses for over two weeks & yesterday evening I received a message that they had arrived at the optometrist’s.  Picking up these beauties was on my to-do list today before, well…you know.  A girl has got  to do what a girl needs to do.  Let me tell you that a finger, wrapped in a blood-soaked towel really gets you great, fast service at the local optometry office! The optometry staff looked a bit horrified but I assured them I was going directly to the ER…as soon as they could give me my glasses!  {DISCLAIMER:  this stunt is not advised and can be considered harmful to your health}  To be perfectly honest, after applying pressure for a bit, the bleeding seemed to subside, almost to the point where I thought I may not require stitches.  The ER doctor quickly set me straight.  Several hours, a missed committee meeting, a few stitches, some steri-strips, a little skin glue, a HORRIBLE tetanus shot & a rather large bandage later…I was good to go!  Made it to school pick-up with time to spare {3 seconds} and our appointment at the oral surgeon’s office!  By the way, the staff at the emergency room LOVED my new specs…

And why not…they are bright, happy, cheerful…everything the ER is NOT.  Plus, the bright red frames {hand-painted in Israel…no two frames are alike} perfectly matched the blood, leaking from my thumb!

I left the ER with my discharge papers which explicitly instructed to “keep the wound dry for 24 hours”.  Well, it is impossible to cook without getting your hands wet, right?  I came home, placed the untouched soup ingredients back into the refrigerator, the leek in question was placed into the garbage, and I decided that the children & I would greet Michael at the ferry and go out for sushi tonight.

Home now, the fire is blazing in the fireplace & it is pouring outside.  My comfort soup, planned for this evening, will pop up on Friday for dinner I think.  BTW…have you ever seen the movie”Elf” with Will Farrell?  Do you remember the part where he is in the pediatrician’s office, after having blood drawn from his finger, and he tells the little girl he is sitting next to that his “finger has a heart beat“.  Well, today folks, my thumb has a heart beat all it’s own…throbbing with a capital “T”!

On that note, I am signing off with the message…”chop with care & caution“!