sans chouriço

I'm trying to make kale soup tonight... kale, potatoes, garlic, leek, onion, white beans and chorizo (etc.)-- too far from New Bedford here to get the real thing. Part of the lure was thinking of grilled chouriço this summer at A. & A.'s wedding (a ceremony on the sea, but with an amazing chouriço and karaoke after party). It's in it's last stages, and the chorizo is yummy and the broth rich, ready to be soaked up in bread...

I made my second load of Bittman's NYT "No Knead Bread" (interestingly, same title as my first bread from a Home & Garden red+white checkered kids' cookbook that got this whole thing started) today, this time with 1/3 whole wheat flour. 3 cups flour, 1 5/8 cups water, 1/4 tsp yeast and salt... a wet, sticky dough, rising for 24 hours (Bittman suggests 12-18, but 24 seems perfect), then cooking in an oval 3 1/2 qt dutch oven (I have no idea why he suggests a 6-8 qt -- it'd be flat). Nonetheless, it's the best bread ever. Great crust, soft inside, perfect structure.

Poilâne, you're dead and I'm far I way.

On another note, I'd been thinking of coq au vin, and went to a dinner of exactly that Saturday night. It's really good. Falls off the bone. That, plus wine and bacon, just might be ecstasy. A kale-potato galette was the side, and strawberries and raspberries in lemon juice fiinished us off. Damn fine dinner.