Michael "Dog3" Lonergan wrote:
> The weather is wet, cold and dreary here in St. Louis. For dinner I'm
> doing a plain old roast chicken and soup. I'm using a soup recipe I like
> out of one of my old cookbooks, "LES POTAGES ET LEGUMES" by Marie-Pierre
> Moine and illustrated by Nadine Wickenden.
>
> Potage Bonne Femme
> (Winter Vegetable Soup)
>
> Serves 4
>
> 2 tsp sunflower oil
> 4 tbsp butter
> 2 large waxy potatoes, peeled
> 3 leeks washed, trimmed and chopped
> 2 carrots peeled and chopped
> 1 Spanish onion, chopped
> 1 shallot, very finely chopped
> 1 boguet garni
> 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock
> 4 tsp heavy cream, to serve (optional)
> Sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
>
> *I'll also add a couple of peeled turnips cut into small pieces along with
> a large diced stalk of celery.
>
> In a large heavy saucepan, heat the oil and melt 1/2 the butter over medium
> heat. Add the vegetables and saute' for a few minutes. Season. Pour in
> about 1 quart of boiling water. Add the boquet garni and simmer 35 to 40
> minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
>
> Leave to cool for a few minutes, then remove the boquet garni and process
> soup in a blender or food processor. Strain through a sieve back into the
> pan, pushil well with back of a wooden spoon. Stir in the stock. Adjust
> the seasoning, gently reheat. Just before serving swirl in the rest of the
> butter and add a teaspoon of cream to each bowl.
>
> I'll throw together a salad and this will be dinner. Dessert will be a
> bakery bought blackberry pie a' la' mode.
>
> Michael

Ah, Michael, a perfect meal for a rainy Oregon winter's night
too...will have to try out your soup recipe (sans turnips, but with
celery). We've had thunder & lightning, hail, deluge, and drizzle so
far today... yard work is out of the question...and it's supposed to go
on all weekend. 'Course the poopy weather has an upside...we call it
"soup weather" around here. Put on a pot of home made soup, light the
woodstove, curl up with DH, a pile of cats and a good book - lovely way
to wile away the afternoon.

Nancy T