I felt like pie.

Thanksgiving dinner would be pie and T’s phenomenal leek and potato soup.  Pie was going to be the main, and the dessert.  We had picked up our veggies at the Perth Farmer’s Market, all local and organic.   Foodsmith’s in Perth sold the Original Field Roast Grain Meat Co. veg sausages we wanted for the pie so we picked up a package of those and some green beans, parsnips and a freshly made pie crust. Lucky us, we also discovered the Sunflower Bake Shop & Cafe where we bought pastries and a pumpkin pie.  While the pumpkin pie turned out to be delicious, I should have bought the lemon meringue too.  There it was before me on the pie stand at eyeball height, sitting with about 8 inches of meringue on it, perfectly browned, glazed and coiffed like a 1960s beehive hairdo.  A work of art I tell you.  Too bad I didn’t have my camera!

Our veggie pie was kind of thrown together a little haphazardly but came out fine, if not a little too broth-y (I used a recipe that called for vegetable stock and in hindsight that amount of stock would have better suited a pot pie).  I sautéed onions and garlic off the stalk in butter, added celery, carrots, mushrooms, chopped sausage (which I would sauté separately next time to brown, but they still managed to stay firm).  I added about two cups of soup stock and let it simmer for a while, then added some more soup stock mixed with corn starch to let it thicken.  I think a reduction would have worked better or the use of ramekins instead, but it was still terrific.  We poked fork holes in the pie, put it into the oven for about 40 minutes at 425 degrees F and then let it cool.

I can’t tell you what magic went into T’s perfectly delish leek and potato soup but I do know the fresh leeks and potatoes were just a part of that. Complimenting the meal were the roasted rutabagas, nicely seasoned and very tender. They too were bought fresh and local, and unlike the waxed  5-pin bowling balls that we usually call rutabagas, these were shaped in a variety of ways, and not waxed.  Stir-fried Swiss chard rounded out the meal perfectly.

Then pumpkin pie and ice cream.  Nice.