No fixed plans. Not intent upon arriving.
It is unwise to stray far from the obvious and simple, lest untoward effects result elsewhere.
Baker, F. “Requirements for IP Version 4 Routers.” June 1995. <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1812.txt" title="Requirements for IP Version 4 Routers"><http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1812.txt></a> (15 October 2003).
Leeks usually come priced per leek — 79¢ or something like that. You use only the white part so you want leeks with the most white you can find — maybe 6 or 8 depending on their size. You cut off the green part and slit the other end so you can peel back the layers to wash out any accumulated dirt. Otherwise, you get a gritty soup. It is not hard to do.
Melt the 3 tablespoons of butter in the bottom of a big pan — add the sliced leeks — and cover to steam the leeks on a low to medium heat for about 5 minutes. You want to soften but not brown them.
Then add the 3 tablespoons of flour, still on medium heat, and stir the leek, flour, and butter mixture for 2 or 3 minutes to cook but not brown the flour.
Then add your chicken broth — a cup or so at first and stir well to get up all the flour and butter and dissolve it. Then add the rest of the broth. I use Campbell’s canned chicken broth — you will find it with the rest of Campbell’s soups. A cup is 8 ounces but a can of soup is about 10 ounces — so I usually use five cans of soup or a little less.
Now peel and chop your potatoes and add them to the soup. Add the salt. Bring it to a boil and simmer (low boil) for about 40 minutes.
Then I mash the vegetables into small pieces — you do not want the vegetables too smooth.
Add the Half & Half just before serving and check to see if it needs a little more reheating.
It sounds complicated but the first part only takes 20 minutes or so and then it does not need much care. Just be sure it simmers enough to cook the vegetables but does not boil so hard they burn.
Good luck.
This will make about eight cups of soup.
It freezes well.
A good French bread and a mixed green salad go well.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
“Stay where you are until our backs are turned!”
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
“Why do they make good neighbours? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.” I could say “Elves” to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
Frost, Robert. “Mending Wall.” <i>North of Boston</i>. 1915. <a href="http://www.bartleby.com/118/2.html" title="2. Mending Wall. Frost, Robert. 1915. North of Boston"><http://www.bartleby.com/118/2.html></a> (15 October 2003).
Breakfast was a bowl of cereal and two of Gretchen's jam bars.
<ins datetime="2003-10-15T13:10:00-05:00">I walked downtown to Rinaldi’s on Allen Street to get my hair cut today. I would guess it is about three miles round trip. Since I was downtown anyway, I went to McLanahan’s Downtown Market and got myself a <a href="http://68.9.143.167:84/yocrunch/granolainfo.html" title="YoCrunch">YoCrunch Raspberry Mild Lowfat Yogurt with Granola</a> (220 Calories — 15 from fat).</ins>
<ins datetime="2003-10-16T08:18:00-05:00">Dinner was a “Big Salad” (no beer).</ins>
Breakfast was the last slice of Gretchen’s apple pie (yum!).
<ins datetime="2003-10-14T15:11:00-05:00">Lunch was a granola bar once again. I took a three mile walk over lunch, returning at the seal on College Avenue.</ins>
<ins datetime="2003-10-15T06:53:00-05:00">Dinner was left over bean soup, a slice of whole wheat bread, and some left-over bumble berry cobbler (no beer).</ins>
Breakfast was scrambled eggs, two sausages, and half a slice of raisin toast.
<ins datetime="2003-10-13T19:02:00-05:00">Lunch was a granola bar. I managed to get in a short walk over to Shields Building (maybe 1½ miles). Dinner was ham and bean soup and a slice of apple pie (no beer).</ins>
<a href="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/2003_10_01_journal.html#id106570422328451087" title="My Old School">The other day</a>, I mentioned my High School and Grade School. So they do not get an inferiority complex, I thought I would also indicate which universities I have taken classes through:
The <a href="http://milwaukee.tmstv.com/aboutus.html" title="Tribune Media Services TV Publishing Division">Tribune Media Services</a> <a href="http://www.channelguidemag.com/index.html" title="The Publications of Tribune Media Services - Channel Guide Magazine - Cable Connection Magazine">Channel Guide Magazine</a> has <a href="http://www.channelguidemag.com/brown/" title="Alton Brown">an interesting interview</a> with <a href="http://www.altonbrown.com/" title="Alton Brown.com">Alton Brown</a>. He talks about his background and how he got where he is. He seems like an interesting person and not at all like I expected.
I always refer to Alton as “Science Boy,” so I was a little surprised by this exchange:
Have you ever heard of Bill Nye the Science Guy?
Enough people have now mentioned Bill Nye the Science Guy to me that I now desperately avoid it all costs. Because if I saw him, I would probably start working to avoid it. Whatever naturally is analog between me and Bill Nye the Science Guy, I would probably start trying to weed out. I avoid him like the plague. Enough people say, “Hey! You’re like Bill Nye meets Julia Child meets Monty Python!” and I can appreciate the analogy, but I don’t get it, because I have never laid eyes on the guy. (Lundquist)
A little later he expanded on that point:
Are you by nature a really smart guy?
Dumb as a log. Seriously. I’m not very bright, and it takes a lot for me to get a concept — to really get a concept. To get it enough that it becomes part of me. But when it happens I get real excited about it. (Ibid.)
He also has interesting views on society:
Do you watch much television?
I like television. I still believe that television is the most powerful form of communication on Earth — I just hate what is being done with it. The fact that we have now made up for our utter lack of imagination by pummeling everyone with these reality shows, I find to be the most sickening turn in American culture, and quite possibly a strong sign that American culture is in rapid and irretrievable decline.
It doesn’t necessarily show the better part of human nature, does it?
We are now being encouraged to be as mean as we can be. And I don’t just mean “mean” as in nasty, I mean “mean” as in small.
When I say it makes me physically ill — I mean it makes me physically ill. I am revolted by it. I would no more watch a public execution. Which is kind of what it is like. We’re going back to Rome. It’s the gladiators all over again… except with better sponsorship. (Ibid.)
Amen to that, brother.
Lundquist, Lori. “Alton Brown.” <em>Channel Guide Magazine</em>. 2003. <!-- Document date or date of last revision [if different from access date] --> <a href="http://www.channelguidemag.com/brown/" title="Alton Brown"><http:// www.channelguidemag.com/ brown/></a> (12 October 2003).
We have guests this weekend so our normal diet has changed a bit. Yesterday we had a fritata, corned beef hash, and orange juice for breakfast. I had a couple of beers during the day. Dinner was marinated strip steaks, au gratin potatoes, and baked beans — and a couple more beers. This morning, I had the remainder of the fritata and corned beef hash and some sausages.
<ins datetime="2003-10-13T08:22:00-05:00">We had dinner at Freya’s house. It was pork tenderloin, potato salad, coleslaw, bumble berry cobbler, and a couple beers.</ins>