Creme Vichyssoise (Page 82)

RECIPE #827

• Date: Saturday, September 6, 2008 -- 8pm
• Location: Bloomington, IN
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companions: Matty, Nathan, Pam, Irine, Mihai, and Andrea
• Recipe Rating: B-
  

Matty and I invited some of the other post-docs in the department over for dinner last weekend. I had too much work to do to cook a big dinner, so we just ordered some pizza. I wanted to make something though, so I made this chilled soup to go with the pizza. This recipe was quite simple. I cooked leeks and onions in butter then added potatoes and water and cooked until tender. I then added whole milk and half-and-half. The mixture was pureed and strained through a fine mesh sieve. Finally I stirred in heavy cream and white pepper and chilled it for many hours until extremely cold. Before serving I season with salt. The soup had a good flavor to it, but it was completely bogged down by its richness. Potato-leek soup can be excellent even with very little dairy fat. A touch of cream can improve matters, but the amount of cream here was just obscene. The recipe calls for 2 cups of whole milk, 2 cups of half-and-half, and 1 cup of heavy cream. It was way too much. The flavors of the potatoes and leeks were lost behind the richness and taste of all the dairy fat. Don't get me wrong, I like milk and cream, but in this case I would have preferred less. The soup had an excellent texture though, and with more potatoes and less cream I think it could have been very tasty.

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My special gentleman and I had a wonderful day today at Cedar Point, an amusement park in Northern Ohio that many people consider the best in the country, and one of the best in the world. Friday was out two-year anniversary and I planned this weekend trip for us to celebrate. Last year, on our one year anniversary we were apart. We both had to teach that day, me in Indiana and Matty in Boston. We sent each other presents, and talked on the phone (of course) but it was still a bummer not being together that day. So, I figured this year we should go all out. With our new engagement, it seemed all the more appropriate to celebrate!

Our trip almost got canceled three times though. First, earlier this week, I was worried I had too much work to do to go. Then, yesterday we were an hour and half into the five and a half hour drive when we almost turned back. I have some kind of virus, and yesterday I was feeling pretty terrible. But I still wanted to make the trip so we drove on. This morning, after a good night of sleep, I woke up feeling much better. Unfortunately, this morning it was pouring down rain and the forecast was for it to continue pouring down rain all day. I called the amusement park (twice) and they told me the roller coasters might well be closed all day because of the rain. After much debate, we decided to go anyway. We bundled up in sweatshirts and rain ponchos and faced the storm. Indeed the first hour or two we were there the rain did pour down. We rode a bunch of kiddie rides during the rain and had a great time! And eventually it started to clear. Because of the rain situation the park was practically empty, and slowly they started opening all the roller coasters. It was amazing. We went on nearly every ride there, and we only waited in a line longer than 10 minutes once all day! On many of the roller coasters where normally the wait would be more than an hour we just walked up and got on! It was awesome. My special gentleman and I both love amusement parks -- the rides, the food, the festive spirit -- and we had a great time!

It has been such a lovely weekend away -- I am so glad that we made the trip!