leeks .... and a favourite kitchen gadget

Here are the leeks, harvested a few days ago from the allotment.
 

....and this is the favourite kitchen gadget.

 Just an ordinary stick blender, but really useful for all sorts of culinary tasks such as blending soups and in this case rescuing a white sauce. My carefully made sauce had lumps in it, but a quick whizz with the blender resulted in silky smoothness. 

Here is the proof!
 

 

 

I turned the aforementioned leeks into a straightforward gratin with cheese and ham.

Here they are wrapped in their velvety blanket .....

 

 

 ...and whilst on the subject of kitchen utensils, a few weeks ago, I spent a cosy afternoon with singing-girl watching the Mary Berry story on i-player.

 I was rather taken with her display of vintage kitchenalia on the wall of her kitchen and thought how nice it would be to have a collection of my own, but the trouble is I am becoming more and more of a clutter phobic and have frequent 'clear-outs'. Maybe I should take to hoarding a bit more!

 

 

P.S. A few days ago, I added the 'join this site' thingy, so a big welcome and thank you to Streetcomber, Rhiannon and A Load of old Tat, who have recently started following.