Last winter when we learned of the trip, Ed and I looked around the house and saw that it needed work. A lot of work. The kitchen was a sea of ‘70’s harvest gold complete with dingy brown cabinets, old appliances and flooring they stopped making in 1979. The bedrooms needed painting, the carpets could use cleaning and somewhere under the splintery spongy deck around the hot tub was a leak that we were pretty sure was buried under a concrete slab. We’ve been working at it, really we have, but every job just seems to take so much longer than you think it is going to. Right now the score is 6 to 2, six weeks of work left to do and two weeks until they arrive.

But we have great day trips planned for them and who will care if the kitchen cabinet doors are still sitting in a pile if you’ve spent the day out on the ocean on a whale watching boat and a female whale and her baby have surfaced just off the bow?

Besides, I’ve planned the perfect picnic. We’ll have steaming mugs of leek and potato soup because it can get really cold out there, spicy Asian chicken wings (Column # 16 in the archives at somocorealestate.com), cherry tomatoes, some cheese and crunchy chewy bread, maybe a little wine and chunks of bittersweet chocolate.

The first time I made leek and potato soup was kind of a disappointment because it just didn’t have the depth of flavor that I wanted. The next time, I cheated and used leeks and yellow onions and that had better flavor. If you want to make this ahead and freeze it, don’t add the half and half until just before serving. As with any soup, this tastes better if made a day ahead.

To remove the sand from leeks, chop them first and wash the pieces in a salad spinner, changing the water until the sand is eliminated.

The French classic, vichyssoise, is this same recipe, pureed very smooth, enriched with heavy cream instead of half-and-half and served cold with a garnish of chopped chives.

Sue Kleber

Peel the potatoes and grate onto several layers of paper towels. Squeeze out the water from the grated potato and add to the soup. Do this last step quickly or the potatoes will darken. Slowly simmer the soup until the grated potatoes have dissolved into the soup. Refrigerate overnight. If you want a smoother soup, puree in a food processor. To serve, heat slowly and add the half-and-half and do not allow the soup to boil after the cream addition.