Melt My Heart with Cast Iron (and other food)

All of sudden, I want a dutch oven. I had no desire to make stews or casseroles, but now I want nothing more than to brown some beef and make some bourguignon. This Le Creuset dutch oven is so adorable, and it melts my heart. A while ago I watched Julie & Julia and while I hated Julie Powell's character with a burning passion, Meryl Streep made a wonderful Julia Child. I nearly started crying when Paul Child bought her an ENORMOUS pounder for a Valentines Day surprise.

But no matter. I have a blender that was a present from an ex boyfriend...might as well make the next best thing to stew: soup.

I was at Le Pain Quotidien buying a medium latte with maximum shots of espresso at 8am as I flipped casually through the Food and Wine magazine and saw a recipe for zucchini soup which looked so green and refreshing for a hot hot HOTTTTTTTT day ahead. I'd already bought all the ingredients, including some purslane on a whim, which is a strange coincidence because I've never bought purslane before and I suppose it is an unusual thing to buy on a whim. After yesterday's epic day of cooking and wilting on my part, I thought I'd take it easy and eat leftovers today. But...NO REST FOR THE WEARY. POTS OF SOUP! INTO THE BLENDER. INTO THE FRIDGE. I've reached new limits of bursting at the seams fridge, I almost need to ram into the fridge to make sure it stays closed.

Hopefully this pays off. It's been so hot lately and I'd like nothing better than to drink cold soup all day, ESPECIALLY since I was too lazy to make some and ended up with food poisoning from some tasty but lethal gazpacho. Nevvvver again. Time to make my own soup.

Here is what it is!



I realised it wasn't quite chilled enough yet (it is a HOT day and my fridge is a little overcrowded), so I've popped it back into the fridge for a while. I'm sure it is delicious.

Then, I felt an impulse to poach some eggs even though I have never done it and have only heard stories about how it went wrong. So as I was watching tv, I casually watched a 2 minute video on the side on how to do it, went to the kitchen and repeated what I saw. Since it was a rousing success, I decided to make an impromptu brunch: poached egg on smoked salmon toast and salad with apples, beets, goat cheese and balsamic with a sprinkling of lemon thyme.



FINALLY. The result of countless weekends of brunch now manifests itself in my tiny New York City kitchen. I am overcome with joy.