I'm a Barefoot Blogger!

Prior to the birth of our bundle of joy #4, and prior to embarking on my new "little hobby" you just happen to be reading, I used to watch TV and The Food Network was one of my favorite channels. Of all the wonderful shows on that network, the Barefoot Contessa was one of my absolute favorites. Ina Garten was always making beautiful food from fresh, simple ingredients (most of the time, anyway - sometimes she went crazy with the gourmet stuff, but not often). So when I learned there was an online baking group working through her recipes, I knew that I had to join.

This week's recipe, Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup was selected by Chelle at Brown Eyed Baker and to be honest, I wasn't looking that forward to it. I was kind of bummed that my first Barefoot Bloggers recipe was for something I could only imagine using to make this:

But oh, was I so mistaken in that oversimplified association! Ina's version of this creamy soup is chock full of wonderfully flavorful mushrooms and leeks (a favorite soup-vegetable of mine!). It came together so nicely and the flavors were sublime. And I love recipes that call for wine - I always make sure to follow Justin Wilson's advice and have a little for me. "I ga-ron-teee it tastes more better."

I ended up making half of the recipe and, in an effort to try to cut back on the fat content, I made the following changes:

• The recipe calls for sauteing the veggies in olive oil and butter for the stock - I eliminated the butter;


• For the leeks and mushrooms, I only used one Tbsp of butter;


• I used 3/4 cup low-fat half and half and only 1/4 cup heavy cream.

• And finally, I have to thank Rachael Ray for showing me how to properly clean leeks (and, totally unrelated, for the idea of using a garbage bowl). I know some people don't like her, but I think she's great and thanks to her, I don't have gritty leeks in my soup.

I just wish it were like, 30 degrees cooler (it was 85 today) - I'm too cheap to turn the air back on so it was very warm in the house by the time I had finished making this. Even in the heat, this soup was magnificent and I thoroughly enjoyed it for dinner last night.

The kids on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with it whatsoever. Fine by me - this is what they had instead (and all was right with the world in their eyes)

And yes, those are in fact dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets. I'm sure (er, I hope) I'm not the only foodie-Mom who feeds her children something quite less than what Ina would expect.

Be sure to go and check out how the other Barefoot Bloggers did here.