the Double Wedding Ring (which is also the UFO Challenge for Sept/Oct) and a Recipe

DH said to me last night "you're going to start getting complaints about your blog"  Yes.  I know.  I've just been busy this week.
This is the starting point of the DWR for October 2015.  One row is completely sewn, and the second is mostly complete. If you recall, last year the puppy Anni was taking off with some of my bits.  Little bugger.  She was much better this year.  When she tried it the first time I scolded her and she dropped it right away.  Hah.  Obviously I am FIERCE.

This is the ENDING point for October 2015.  Sewing that second row and laying out row three took me a whole day.  Whose brilliant idea was it to make a double wedding ring?

When I got home from Tobermory I needed to dry out had some leftover cream cheese and half a pound of bacon that I wanted to use. I also had some puff pastry in the freezer that was at least a year past it's best before date.  Not poisonous, but a little dried out.  Nothing that I wouldn't feed to DH.  pfftt - I'm such a bad wife.  There was a recipe for a Leek Galette on the internet, but it needed a few modifications to include my leftover ingredients.  It made for an EXCELLENT supper.  If you add a salad it would rate higher on the "healthy" scale.

This was a 'mission' for me because I have two long rows of leeks out in the garden, that I am DETERMINED to cook with.  Two years ago I spent a whole day digging the leeks, cleaning them, chopping them, and then freezing them.  I think they are all still in the freezer.  Grrrr.  This year I decided I'm not doing that - I'm just going to EAT the damn things.  so...

Here is my version of the recipe:
LEEK GALETTE

Ingredients

• 1 puff pastry sheet, thawed.  **Get the good kind, made with BUTTER, not shortening. That shit will kill you.  Honestly, you are totally worth the $4.00.
• 3 chopped leeks, the white & light green parts - I think I had about 2 cups worth. 
• 1/2 tsp sugar and a dash or two of salt
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped, or more depending on how much you like garlic, 
• half a pound of bacon, chopped into 1/2" pieces.
• 1 chicken breast, chopped into 1/2" pieces.
• half a block of cream cheese (4 oz./125 g.).
• 1 c. vegetable broth
• 1 egg blended with 1 T. water

Directions: 

•  Preheat the oven to 400.
• Roll out the puff pastry until it is 11 or 12 inches.  Try to make it into a round-ish shape. Leave it on the parchment paper and put the whole thing on a cookie sheet.  Keep it in the fridge until the filling is ready.
• In a large frying pan fry the bacon until crisp.  Remove to paper towels, reserve 2 T. bacon grease.
• Cook the chicken in the same pan until no longer pink. Add the chicken to the bacon pile.
• Add the 2 T. bacon grease to the pan, add the chopped leeks and garlic and sugar and salt.  Cook on medium/low for 15 minutes until beautifully fragrant and greeny-golden brown.
• Add the vegetable broth and deglaze the pan, mixing until all the crispy mess stuck to the pan is incorporated in the broth.
• Add the cream cheese, the bacon, and the chicken and cook gently until blended.
• Mound this filling in the center of the puff pastry, leaving 2" of pastry around the edge.  Fold that pastry up and over the filling to contain it, sort of like a pizza crust.
• Brush the visible pastry with the egg wash.
• Bake at 400 for 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes (just enough time to pour a glass of wine and set the table).  Yum.  Enjoy.