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Comfort Food for Family & Friends

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We're not exactly experiencing our typical February deep freeze yet, but a comforting bowl of soup or a cheese-laden one-pot casserole is always a welcome winter treat. Our Long Nights and Log Fires cookbook ($27.95) has delectable options to stave off the winter chill — or to treat your Valentine sweetie. The book includes such tasty recipes as Parsnip, Chorizo and Chestnut Soup, Beef and Carrot Casserole with Dumplings, and Winter Vegetable Gratin Endive. From soups and starters to stuffings to slow-cooked meals to desserts, Long Nights and Log Fires won't disappoint. As a special winter treat, here's a tantalizing sample — try our Zingerman's goat cheese for this recipe!


Goat cheese, leek and walnut tart

  • 9 oz. ready-made puff pastry dough
  • 4 Tbs butter
  • 4 leeks, trimmed and sliced
  • 8 oz. goat cheese, sliced
  • sea salt
  • round black pepper
  • hopped parsley, to serve

Walnut Paste:

  • 1 1/4 cups shelled walnut pieces
  • 3 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 6 Tbs chopped parsley

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Roll the pastry out thinly on a lightly floured work surface. Cut out an 11-inch circle using a dinner plate or something similar as a template. Set on a baking sheet and chill or freeze for at least 15 minutes.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and add the leeks, stirring to coat. Add a few tablespoons of water and a teaspoon of salt, and cover with a lid. Steam very gently for at least 20 minutes, until just softening. Remove the lid and cook for a few minutes to evaporate any excess liquid. Let cool.

To make the walnut paste, blend the walnuts and garlic in a food processor with 2 tablespoons water. Mix in the walnut oil and stir in the parsley. Spread this over the pastry, avoiding the rim.

Spoon the leeks into the pastry shell and top with the goat cheese. Drizzle with any remaining walnut paste. Season well and sprinkle with olive oil. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, until the pastry is golden and the cheese bubbling and brown. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.

"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth,
for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the
time for home." ~ Edith Sitwell

 

National Wear Red Day!
picDid you know that heart disease kills more women than all cancers combined? February 3 — today! — is National Wear Red Day to increase awareness, and we want to join in! Wear red to our store between February 3 and February 14 to receive 10% off one item. You can find out more about National Wear Red Day and about heart disease at the American Heart Association.