I'm drowning in zucchini...

Not really. But we got a couple big ones in the farmers market, and had some left from a past week that weren't great, but needed used soon. So... what to do? Why, zucchini soup, of course. This made a wonderful lunch, paired with goat cheese and a baguette, and a gorgeous pinot blanc from Michigan.

The soup was uber-simple. Basically, dice up an onion (or 2-3, depending on how much soup you're making), some garlic. Sweat them down in butter and olive oil for about 5-10 minutes. Add coarsely chopped zukes--about 4X more in volume than onions, I'd say. Maybe a bit of celery, though that's optional. Sweat that all down for another 5-10 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Add some wine (white) if you want, and some chicken stock (homemade if you can; it's SO worth it). How much? Well, that depends on what you like your soup to be like. This chiefly determines whether you will have a thick, almost porridge-like soup, or a thinner item. More fluid = thinner soup. I like it thick and hearty. So I only did enough fluid to cover the zukes by maybe 1/2 inch. after 15-20 minutes in the fluid, take a stick blender to it (or puree it in batches in a blender, or whatever you like). Blend to a level you like for texture. Add cream to taste and health desires. If you really don't want to spend hte money, calories, and fat content on putting real cream in, you can get alot of the same effect by cooking a couple of potatoes into the soup at the start (add at the same time as zukes--and use starchy potatoes, not more waxy ones.) Adjust salt and pepper, and add some heat if you like from hot pepper flakes. At the end, I added a couple eggs, tempered in to prevent curdling. This helps hte texture, and thickens things up a bit. Yum!

with a soup like this, a baguette is almost a requirement. TOday, we added some goat cheese from a producer at the Farmer's Market. We get our goat yogurt from them, too. It's so good and fresh. Yum.

Finally, the wine... Left Foot Charley's 2008 Pinot Blanc. This is perhaps the most exceptional PB I've ever tasted. It outshines most from Alsace; it outshines most from Oregon. It's got a beautiful floral, minerally nose, with clover honey notes, an acidic palate, and an immense, mineral finish. There's more complexity and more beauty in this than you could ever expect, and the price is right at $18. Very deservedly, this wine won a double gold at the Michigan Wine competition, and sadly, the winery is virtually out of it. We've got 4 more bottles of it, and I intend to drink at least two more this year, and perhaps keep one for next year, and for grins, age one for a few years. I love its youthful fresh beauty, so I am reticent to age it, but I sense it's got the acid, minerals, and fruit to hold for a few years and perhaps become a real wonderful nutty aged white. So, we shall see.