Potato and Leek soup

Today was my first day back at school, and it felt good to be back. I love feeling like I'm actually getting something done, so it was nice to rise before the sun (I know I'm crazy) and head into the city. My local coffee shop owners greeted me with "welcome back" and enquired about my holidays. Its nice to be missed even if it is just by your local coffee shop owners. I felt really good today...not sure if it was the new skinny jeans, but I got several sly smiles from passes by.

Today we worked on soups, stocks and sauces, which isn't overly exciting, but still I got a little thrill as I thought "I'm here! I'm here! I'm actually at cooking school." Its so exciting to be doing what you love. I paired up with a cute Italian boy for my cooking partner today (I knew it was going to be a boring class, and I needed something pretty to look at.) He was so charming and sweet. What is it with Italian boys? I thought I had learnt my lesson by now, but they still make me blush! Part way through the class I got low blood sugar and standing in front of a hot stove for too long made me feel like I was going to faint. I went outside for a minute and sat down to drink some water. When I came back into class I told my cooking partner that I nearly fainted, and bless his heart (his english isn't very good), I think he meant to say "Oh I couldn't have told from looking at you," but instead said "Oh but you looked so perfect!" I melted right there and then into my potato and leek soup.

I'm having a friend over for dinner tonight, so I stopped by work to get some cakes to snack on for desert. Its sometimes so handy working at a boutique cake store.

I'll put up one of the soup recipes we made today. I love it because its super yummy and you don't need a lot of ingredients for it. Its kind of a through together meal you can make if you don't have much time.

Creamy Leep and Potato Soup.

What you will need:

• One onion diced
• 3 cloves of garlic
• One leek diced (only use the white part, as the hard green part doesn't taste any good)
• 5 washed potatoes diced
• A knob of butter
• Chicken stock (you just need enough to cover your vegetables. You can make your own or add a stock cube to water.)
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup of cream

What to do:

1. Dice all your vegetables
2. Sweat your onion and garlic (this means just cook it on a low heat until it cooks through but dose not take on any colour.
3. Add your vegetables and continue to sweat. Cook stirring for 10 minutes, until vegetables are semi cooked
4. Add enough stock to cover the vegetables. Bring to the boil and return to a simmer.
5. When all your vegetables are cooked, transfer all the soup into a blender and pulse.
6. Add the cream, and season.
7. Serve with some nice crunchy bread.