Curse you Caillech, Freyr & Oya!

This weekend was supposed to be about enjoying the outdoors and the nice weather, but the aforementioned weather gods are conspiring against me. We were supposed to make our first outing to the Dane County Farmers' Market on Saturday and then use our fresh produce to grill out with friends on Sunday. Instead my weekend was mostly about walking dogs in the rain and sitting on the couch. So if anyone has a spare virgin, please let me know so I can prepare the sacrifice immediately and appease the fickle weather gods. All is not lost, our local Woodman's has a wonderful variety of fresh produce and beer. Both these items are key ingredients to a successful barbeque. Now that I'm stocked up, I just need to brave the weather and grill out in the rain, no problem. I can do this.

Since the weather wanted to do its best to keep us locked up inside, we decided to explore our local library. Funny story here; when we moved, I talked to our previous library about updating my address. They informed me that because of where we were moving to, I would need to get a new library card for the county not just the city. Fast forward to yesterday and the librarian there tells me I need a new card and that it'll actually be a City of Madison card, which was what I originally had. Does it really matter what color my library card is. I'm going to check out the same books at the same library regardless of a red or green or white card. Come on people, it shouldn't be this tough.

Saturday Lunch: Homemade Mushroom, Onion & Pepperoni Pizzas
Saturday Dinner: Leek & Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits

4-6 Yukon Gold potatoes, cut in 1/2 inch dice
3 cups vegetable broth
3 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp olive oil
2 leeks, washed well and thin sliced
1 small onion, medium dice
1 1/2 cups carrots, cut in 1/2 inch dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 heaping tbsp chopped fresh thyme
Fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup frozen peas
1 can navy beans, drained & rinsed

For the biscuits -
3/4 cup plain soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup shortening

Preheat oven to 425.

Boil potatoes for about 10 minutes, while they are boiling start prepping the biscuits. Add the vinegar to the soy milk and set aside to curdle. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt.

Back to the stew, mix the cornstarch into the stock until dissolved. Saute in the oil the leeks, onions and carrots until soft and just starting to brown (about 10 minutes). Add the garlic, thyme, pepper and salt and cook an additional 1 minute. Add the cooked potatoes and frozen peas, then pour in the vegetable stock mixture. Bring this to a simmer and allow to cook about 7 minutes. Finally, mix in the beans.

Time to finish up the biscuits. Add the shortening to the flour mixture in small slivers and work into the dough until you have large crumbs. Drizzle in the soy milk and mix with a fork until moistened. Gently knead the dough about ten times. Now you are ready to add the biscuits to the top of the stew. Roll about golf ball sized chunks and place on top of the stew about an inch apart.

Transfer everything into the oven, bake for about 15 minutes or until the biscuits are just slightly browned on top. Garnish with some more of the chopped thyme, serve and enjoy!

One last note of rainy weekend fun, don't play Wii Bowling with the wife, she's a hustler. She whooped up on me pretty good over a nightcap Saturday night. It wasn't pretty folks, I lost 4 straight games to her. Embarrassing!