(i’ll put a real title here later, i promise)

Two people do not decide that they are "courting". One person decides to "court" someone else. It's an action, not a stage in the relationship. A man decides to court a woman because he wants to encourage her to have romantic interest in him. He's trying to win her favor. It's not an exclusive relationship--a woman could be courted by multiple men at once. She'll spend time getting to know the guy who's interested in her, but they won't officially define their relationship as one where they only show romantic interest in each other. If they reach a point where they want it to be exclusive, that's when you propose.

My husband has been harvesting leeks at his farm job, so it’s time to make BAKED POTATO SOUP!! I love this recipe because it uses sour cream instead of heavy cream, so it’s comforting without being heavy. And don’t worry folks, you don’t need an immersion blender, because in this house we don’t believe in reducing our soups to sludges.

I will admit: this recipe takes a little more time, not exactly ideal for a working-weekday. However, like most of the recipes I learned from my mom, it is pretty ideal if you homeschool or work from home—it comes together very quickly in the end, it just requires that you’re in your house earlier in the day to throw your potatoes in the oven to pre-bake. I was not in my house, so I had to scramble a little. But I got home at like 3:40 and it was done at 5:15, so. Not terrible. 

You will need:

4 medium potatoes

Olive oil

Kosher salt

2 or 3 leeks

1 medium yellow onion

6 cups chicken stock (if it’s in the freezer, take it out!!)

6 Tbsp sour cream

Black pepper

For garnish:

Cheddar cheese, shredded

Bacon, pre-cooked and crumbled (or bacon bits from a jar/bag are fine too!)

Scallions 

Step one: bake your potatoes. You can do this step ahead of time, in the morning or even the day before. Preheat oven to 425F (450 for smaller potatoes, 400 for giant potatoes—you want them to cook evenly, so the bigger they are, the lower and slower you’ll want to go), wash and dry potatoes and poke holes in them with a fork (at least 3 holes per potato, 1/2 inch deep). Lightly coat in olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake on the middle rack of oven for 40-60 minutes, or until internal temp of potatoes is 205F. Immediately upon removing from the oven, cut potatoes in half so the steam doesn’t get trapped and make them gummy inside. 

Step two: while your potatoes are cooling, prep your veggies. You only use the white and light green part of leeks, so cut off the tough dark green parts and discard (or you can apparently save it to make stock, if you want). If the outermost layer is really bruised, remove it. Then cut in half lengthwise, and rinse the halves under running water to get all the dirt out of the layers. You should now have something like this.

Slice thinly. Dice your onion. Prep your scallions, thinly slicing just the dark green parts. Look at all those alliums, isn’t that lovely.

Step three: roughly chop your potatoes into generous bite size chunks. My mom removes the skins but I didn’t bother. Your potatoes may crumble a little and that’s okay.

Step four: Heat oil in a pot, sauté leeks and onions until translucent. Add your potatoes, cover with stock, bring to a simmer and cook 20 minutes.

Step five: whisk in sour cream. Season with black pepper.