A Summer Dinner.

My grandpa who now lives in France has spent the past month and a half with us, visiting. It's been great to have him around, especially before I found a summer job--he kept me company most every day! Unfortunately, his last day with us was Friday. On Thursday night, my boyfriend Andrew and I decided to cook up a little dinner for the family in his honor.

It's been pretty warm the past few days in Seattle, or at least warm enough that we thought we should finally try out one of the chilled soups from Andrew's soups cookbook. We settled on potato leek soup, although I still have my eye on the chilled cucumber one (next time, next time)! This was actually the first soup I've ever made--I'd previously stayed away for fear of them being too difficult or time consuming. This one was so simple, I've decided to make a ton more once fall and winter roll around.

First Andrew cut up the white part of three leeks and three small potatoes. I thought the leeks looked really pretty, like satiny green ribbon.

Meanwhile I chopped a whole onion (you can never have enough, in my opinion), a celery stalk, some chives and a clove of garlic.

After melting some butter into a large pot we tossed in the onion, leeks, celery stalk and garlic. We cooked them on low heat until they became soft. Then we added chicken broth and the potatoes and let it come to a boil.

At this point, I was ready to eat the soup already! Once it came to a boil and we let it sit a little before pureeing it, it was a little less aesthetically appetizing..but the aroma was still delicious!

After we blended everything up it turned a nice creamy pale green (and looked more appetizing once again) so we decided to only add just a little bit of creme fraiche. We let that sit and cool while we prepared the rest of the meal.

For the main course, we thought something light, not too rich and non-fussy would be best, since we weren't going to have too much time to cook, but we still wanted something flavorful and a bit "fancy". The night before I happened to stumble upon a link to a recipe on Perry's Plate via the via the Kitchn blog for Nutty Lemon Herb Brown Rice with Avocado, served with salmon. The picture was so colorful, and immediately caught my eye. Plus, since my mom is such a great cook already, when I cook for my family I try to make recipes she hasn't made, to avoid any comparisons. Earlier this year I had tried to make Andrew my mom's delicious lasagna and failed miserably, creating instead what we now refer to as "beef noodle."

The rice was simple to make, and we ended up zipping through it so fast that I had no time to take pictures. We decided to use almonds for the "nutty" part of the rice, a delicious choice! The rosemary, white wine vinegar and lemon juice all smelled delicious as we added them to the brown rice and the broth. The salmon we just tossed in some flour before throwing it in a pan on medium high heat until we got a nice browning on both sides.

Just before serving the soup we sprinkled chives on everyone's bowls and then it was time to eat! The meal (accompanied by delicious cider) was a success, even my brother who can be picky about food had two helpings of the soup and asked for the recipe. My grandpa raised a toast to the cooks--a job well done, it would seem!