Well… needless to say this weekend was divine. A Packer win… in the playoffs… against the number one seeded team…. yeah, that calls for some celebration. We did our usual soup thang this weekend but somehow it all just tasted so much better. Was it the soup or the win? Hmmmm….

I especially liked this photo, which we took off of our TV.

That just says it all, doesn’t it? I’m really glad Aaron Rodgers is getting these wins, because with all the “elite quarterback” talk that was the only thing really holding him back. Next week is really going to be something. The Packers play their hated rival, Da Bears, in Soldier Field. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

This week, I again tried a new recipe. I took it from the Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredients, which I got for Christmas. This was the book I also got that awesome Italian Wedding Soup recipe from. I’m really enjoying this cookbook, it has so many great things to make. At first I was hesitant to make this, because I figured we had already made potato soup earlier this year and it would just be a re-run. But I was wrong. This tastes nothing like your average potato soup! I never thought of actually roasting the potatoes and leeks first, but that’s exactly what you do with this recipe. You give them a nice long roasting, then you add the greens to the top of it all to wilt it. Doesn’t that look beautiful:

Ha! Not! Who would think by looking at those ingredients that a wonderful soup would come out of it all. After this comes out of the oven, you put it in a food processor and puree it all, along with some chicken broth. Then you add some additional ingredients and that is what makes up your soup. You also put some crispy shallots on top of the whole thing.

Ina suggested five to six shallots for this. I used three and you can see how many it made, so you could easily cut back. The shallots add a bit of flavor and some nice crunch. I have to say overall this was one of the most delicious soups I’ve ever had. When I first read that you pureed the ingredients, I thought how the heck is that going to taste? But it was delicious.

It’s Wildcard weekend y’all! Who’d have thunk it – the Packers are in the playoffs. Shirley not me. Haha – get it? Shirley? Anywho, since I already wrote at EveryJoe about what I think the Packers chances are this weekend, what I think of the mail-it-in strategy a handful of teams used this year, and who will advance after Sunday, perhaps I should focus my post here on what’s really important: the soup I’m going to make.

I found this recipe for “shrimp and corn chowder with fennel” in the February issue of Real Simple. Do you get this magazine? It’s my all-time favorite. I love the tips on organizing and the recipes I’ve pulled out have been awesome. They also have some recipe books I’m thinking of getting one of these days, too. One is for Easy, Delicious Meals and the other is for Meals Made Easy. I’ve found quite a few really great recipes over the years from Real Simple. One is that beer cheese soup deal that I made the week we played the Vikings. (The game stunk, but the soup was delicious.) Hopefully we’ll have a great game and some good soup tomorrow!