Soup & Apple Galette

Festivities over, an evil flu virus struck. Boom. Down for the count. A restorative garlic soup was in order, so I headed down to the larder for some onion and garlic. Look at that sad little hand. Can't you just tell its been clutching Kleenex for the last few days?

The garlic was tiny but still moist and juicy. Heavenly aroma. 

Happily there were still plenty of carrots and potatoes from the garden, some dried thyme and leek and celery in the fridge. I sauteed the garlic and leeks.

Then tossed everything else in a chicken broth and simmered up a simple soup. 

Salt and pepper. Done. Leeks are magical vegetables, they make everything taste rich and yummy.

Once restored, I realized I needed an apple galette. Back down to the larder to retrieve a jar of apples put up this fall. They came from my brother's tree. (Notice the robust grip, after the restorative soup.)

My doctor has been reading me the riot act again about my cholesterol (let no man say I haven't had my full share of butter in this life) so I decided to try a low-fat phyllo recipe I found on the Internet. 

This recipe uses honey and warm water instead of butter between the phyllo pastry sheets. I was skeptical about the potential for flakiness, but a 50% cholesterol reduction is my single New Year's resolution this year, so I thought I'd give it the old yeoman's try.

You lay a sheet of phyllo in the pie plate and use a pastry brush to smear it with honey steeped in a small amount of warm water. Here's a link to the recipe if you'd like to try it. 

No preparation was needed for these apples, which were seasoned and precooked during the canning process, so this was a really quick dessert to make. Yet another reason to preserve food in advance,

35 minutes later. The final result. Voila.

I did find the crust on the bottom to be a bit gluey instead of flakey, but it wasn't bad considering how little effort went into it.

Take that flu virus!