belated PFW

I feel so bad, but I totally missed this month's Party Food Wednesday. So we're celebrating a little late. And also hopefully next week, for the real May PFW. Have any of you observed this holy food holiday yet? If you haven't, you should.

Its been incredibly quiet and boring at work lately. So I've been passing the time by doing a little homework, listening to npr podcasts, pretending to be busy, and checking out some food blogs. This week, I was looking at Deb's spring inspired recipes on Smitten Kitchen and decided that her leek toasts with bleu cheese would be a perfect edition to this week's hors d'oeuvre dinner.

I started by chopping and washing two large leeks, and soaking them in cold water. Don't skip this step! It was pretty disgusting how much dirt was in the bottom of the bowl after a few minutes.

Then, I sauteed them in a little booder and awl. Actually, I melted the butter and oil in high heat, then added the leeks and turned them down to low, covered and let simmer for a while, stirring occasionally.

A few cranks of pepper and some sea salt, and they're done. Easy!

While those were sautéing, I started on my shaved asparagus pizza, also from Smitten Kitchen. Shaving asparagus with a potato peeler is actually a lot harder than it looks. It took the entire length of Sanne's shower for me to finish shaving a bunch of asparagus. 

This pizza had 1/4c parmesan cheese, 1/2c mozzarella cheese, and shaved asparagus...

but I didn't measure, obviously...

I grated a little extra parmesan on top, and a little salt and pepper, and broiled it on high for about 5 minutes. 

And no Party Food Wednesday would be complete without some bone marrow and parsley salad...

and Indian boxing (?).

We may or may not have been given a little Indian rum after dinner, and Susieji may or may not have made some of his beef curry. It was a genuine Party Food Wednesday, complete with matching party.

I'm going to miss these guys so much when I'm gone...
Susieji and I were talking tonight and he said something that managed to stick in my foggy mind: "When you are cooking, you get to just be you." He is a wise one, that Susiegee.

oh man, this smell...

I made a quiche with the rest of my leeks, which turned out to be perhaps my best quiche to date. 

Susieji and I share not only a love of cooking, but a love of the Cranberries. I can't even tell you how happy this video makes me:



And that was PFW3. A very good one.
By the way, we are a mere 10 posts away from 200!!! Hopefully I can knock those out before I move. I think I can...

m