Tuesday, September 29, 2009

An Evening at Home

The wind was really blowing this afternoon.  I was taking a cardboard box to the garbage and it was almost blowing out of my hands!  Needless to say, no bike ride this afternoon!  I thought about maybe going to the gym and doing weights, but ultimately I decided on a quiet night in at home.  My fur ball Finlay will be off to stay with my parents shortly so I really just wanted to hang out with him.  (For those of you wondering, November and December are crazy busy times at work with lots of overtime, so Finlay goes to stay with his grandparents.  To top it off I have a big project starting in January, so busy times ahead as I close out the year!)DSCN1515

So anyhow, I decided to try making a delicious looking mushroom soup that I found here yesterday.  Check out the link for the main recipe, but I did make a few changes.  First off I sliced up some double smoked bacon and rendered it in a soup pot.  DSCN1516

I removed the bacon once it was crispy and the sweated leeks and onions in the bacon fat.  I deglazed the pan with some white wine instead of sherry since I accidently purchased sweet sherry instead of dry.  It wasn’t labelled either way, but it sure tastes sweet…oops!  I removed those from my pot and started cooking up my mushrooms – oysters, shitakes and button.DSCN1517

After adding the leeks and onions back in with the mushrooms I added the broth in the pot, some thyme and let it simmer away for 20 minutes.  While it simmered I figured I’d better taste test my wine…DSCN1518

Luckily the wine passed the test!  Once the soup was done simmering I blended the soup and added in just a touch of cream.  I topped it with a teeny bit of bacon and served it with a spinach salad, plus a piece of fresh ciabatta with a little goat brie on top.  Yum!DSCN1523

Maybe not the healthiest dinner ever, but it sure was tasty!  Hope everyone else has had a great evening!!

10 comments:

Wes said...

Super healthy IMHO... Bacon is part of every healthy diet I know :-)

Meg said...

oh my. That looks delicious!

Julie said...

That looks like something out of a fancy schmancy restaurant, Leana!!! I am not joking!

Did you secretly attend the Parisian Cordon Bleu school? :) :)

Spokane Al said...

". . .so Finlay goes to stay with his grandparents." - words and thoughts of a true dog lover - I can relate!

The presentation of your food creations always make me hungry!

Mel-2nd Chances said...

yep, i'm hungry too! Yum! wind and rain nixed my ride last night too :(

Marlene said...

Sounds like a perfect evening!

kristen said...

mmm...bacon.
It looks delightful and since you included plenty of vegetables, It seems healthy enough to me :)

Lindsay said...

very yummy looking dinner. that's sad that finlay isn't there to welcome you home on the cold winter nights! :( but, i'd hate to keep a dog crated/alone in the house for long hours day after day too, so i understand.

Lily on the Road said...

Sounds good to me, (except the bacon part, I'm a veggie), I'm so going to try this recipe, thanks for sharing.

Little Findlay looks like he knows he is going on a Vacay!!

Its been crazy windy here too...

RoadBunner said...

I love it when Finlay makes an appearance :)

I love mushrooms and that soup looks delish!