Creamy Potato Cheese Soup

the.best.soup.evar

if you think i'm exaggerating, you, my friend, are WRONG. this is seriously the tastiest damn soup i've ever had. i based it off of this recipe at allrecipes.com. but then i changed so much of it, i don't think it's anywhere near the same recipe anymore.

Best Creamy Potato Cheese Soup EVAR

Ingredients

* 1/4 cup butter
* 1 medium yellow onion, diced
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 - 2 cups chardonnay
* 2 large carrots, diced
* 4 stalks celery, diced
* salt and pepper to taste
* 4 cups chicken stock
* 2 cups water
* 5 pounds yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced
* 1 bay leaf
* 3 lb package of sour cream
* 3.5 cup shredded cheese
* 1-2 cups milk

Directions

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic in butter until translucent. Stir in flour until smooth, then gradually stir in chardonnay, carrots, celery, salt, and pepper. Add chicken stock, and bring to a low boil.
2. Place potatoes in dutch oven, with the bay leaf on top. Pour heated vegetable mixture onto potatoes, and add water to cover potatoes with an inch of liquid.
3. Vent lid on dutch oven and cook over low-medium heat until potatoes are tender, approximately 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove bay leaf. Use blender, stick blender, or food processor to smooth the texture of half of the soup, if desired, and return to pot. Stir in sour cream, and add cheese 1 cup at a time, stirring until it is all melted. Add milk to achieve desired thickness.


**Optional: Before starting the onions and garlic, cook 6-8 slices of turkey bacon in butter. Remove bacon & chop finely. Return most of the bacon to saute pan when adding liquid, saving the remainder for garnish.

(makes about 18 servings)

um, lemme see if i can get a pic of the leftovers before they get stowed away, but the soup's appearance doesn't do it justice.

and i should probably add that i used 2 cups of cheddar, 1 cup of mexican, and 1/2 cup of the incredibly delectable and creamy irish cheddar from costco. if i could have used more of that, i would, but i'd already used a lot of it for the stuffed mushrooms a couple weeks back. ;)

stuffed mushrooms: stupid-easy

here again, a food i love but thought was way more complicated than it turned out to be. i lurve me some stuffed mushrooms. a LOT. seriously, i could eat them all day long and wouldn't get bored with them. i used this basic recipe from allrecipes.com, but tweaked it (as always, right?!) and made it even easier. MY version:

Stupid-easy Stuffed Mushrooms

12 large mushrooms
5 cloves garlic, minced
3 green onions
2 c cheese*
2-3 Tbsp butter, divided
1/4 c dry white wine (optional)

*whatever you have on hand, really. it helps if some portion is a soft cheese, but that's not even necessary. i used 1/4 c cream cheese and grated some leftover irish cheddar for the balance.

Preheat oven to 350*, spray a baking dish with cooking spray.

Carefully stem the (clean, obviously--you're gonna eat them, right?) mushrooms and cut a small slice off the cap so they sit level without fallling over in the pan. Mince the stems and cap slices, set aside. Mince garlic and finely chop the green onion. Saute in butter and wine over low-medium heat until moisture is nearly gone, being careful not to burn the garlic. Transfer from pan into small mixing bowl and cool. (I cheated and stashed mine in the freezer for a couple minutes.) When cooled, add cheese and mix well to create a very thick mixture. spoon onto mushroom caps and arrange them in baking dish. Brush exposed mushroom tops with butter and bake for 20 minutes. I like the tops of my stuffed mushrooms a bit caramelized, so i broil them for an additional 2-5 minutes until slightly browned.

Then I dare you to keep these around longer than 5 minutes. They are so yummy, they disappear quickly!

erm, so quickly, in fact, that i didn't get a picture.



but costco has the mushrooms for super-duper cheap and i think i'll bring these to the superbowl party next weekend. maybe 3 batches. they DO go fast...

bye, bye, dreadies

you were loved. but there's something terribly unfair about telling a four year old that he can't roll around on the ground, do headstands, or otherwise put his hair near anything that may or may not get incorporated into the still-forming dreads. alas, we bid you a fond adieu after 2 full months of adoration. we may see you again on the other side of preadolescence, or whenever it is that he won't need to be told to not rub his head on the rug where dozer the dog lies down. at least, i hope someday he will be able to figure that out for himself. he really adored his dreads and was heartwarmingly proud of them, showing them to everyone he played with (even strangers at the library or parks). :sigh:

i have lots of thoughts on dreading and can basically say i LOVE knotty boy products and techniques. their products are all natural...which is not what i found to be the case with the products the loctician used when we had them started (and paid an arm and a leg for, btw). to wit: while i was taking out the locks this week, i was still combing out the glue-like substance she glopped on his hair at the 2nd appointment. ew. plus, i did a much better job of dreading and incorporating new growth, if i do say so myself. (i used a technique that works best for hair with a smoother cuticle since khary's hair is really smooth.) anyway, i digress.

here's my beautiful boy with his beautiful dreads, in mid-december:

 

...and this is him now, having bid his dreads bye-bye until some yet to be determined future time when he is no longer rolling around on the ground and playing like a healthy four year old. i've got to say, i did miss these curls:

 

 

 

 ...and again i find myself babbling about khary to the exclusion of the most adorable 22 month old in the whole wide world, so here's a pic of him from this week:

 

khalil, playing in the cubbies at khary's xtreme gymnastics homeschool gymnastics class thursday afternoon. our friend eden is on the left, and eoin is on the right.

this and that

Here are a few glimpses into that which  we've been keeping ourselves occupied these past couple days. Without cable, we really DO find more time in our days for productive things!

Khary used the Handwriting Without Tears letter-building blocks to write his name Sunday afternoon

He also decided to create a rocket ship out of random craft supplies. (Note the solid rocket boosters, which "fall back to earth when they're used up so they can be recycled," as Khary always points out.)

This evening, he decided to use his scale to see how heavy a Matchbox firetruck was. When he found out it didn't take much water to balance it, he switched to big wooden blocks so he could use more water. I LOVE this scale!)

 

 Khalil, just being a goof. He's got a snotty cold, so his poor little nose is all red. During his second wind tonight, he decided it was perfectly appropriate to sit inside a wine box and play his piano.

...and we started making the pinecone bird feeders we've been planning for a month now, but that's for another blog post. I'm making it into part of our whole winter celebration, so I'll prattle on about that when we're finished. ...stay tuned...

teacher brother

after a very brief excursion to a nearby park, the boys and i came slinking back home for lunch. khary taught khalil how to make a peanut butter jelly sandwich:

 

and a shot of khalil at franklin park today:

(oh wait, before you ask, he has several layers of clothes on under that jacket; it was 43*)

domestic goddess in the making?

chicken and dumplings--FROM SCRATCH

I've never attempted chicken and dumplings before--just didn't think i'd be able to make the dumplings properly. besides, didn't i need to make my own chicken stock, and wasn't that a pain in the ass? well, monday i decided to make some stock--which,  incidentally, is super-friggin easy, particularly with a crock pot at your disposal. after letting it cool and putting boys to bed, i pulled off the meat and strained the stock. unfortunately for my grand plans, the carcass (and wings and neck) only yielded less than half a pound of meat, so "plain" chicken and dumplings was no longer in the cards.

after waiting a day (okay, not intentionally--yesterday was a clingy, whiny boy day and i needed a nap when daddy got home), i decided to just add some vegetables and beans to it and give it a go. here's the recipe i made up:

Chicken and Dumplings, raegan-style

1 c diced carrots
.5c diced celery
.5c diced onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
.5 t tarragon
.5 t crushed rosemary
1 T olive oil
1 c dry white wine
6-8 cups chicken broth
2 c pinto beans, cooked
.5 - 1lb shredded chicken (to add after dumplings)

In a saute pan, stir together carrots, celery, and wine over  medium heat until most of the wine is cooked off. To a preheated dutch oven (or soup pot), add the olive oil, then garlic an onion, cooking until the onion is translucent or beginning to caramelize. add the carrots and celery, continuing to stir, until onions are caramelized. Add the chicken stock, dried herbs and beans, and bring to a boil. Now it's time to make the dumplings.

I used the dumpling portion of this recipe, which follows (with my minor alterations):

Dumplings
2 – Cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 – Teaspoon Salt
5 – Tablespoons Butter
1 – Egg
1/2 – Cup Whole Milk

Mix your flour, salt, egg, butter and milk in a stand mixer or hand mixer. Continue to mix until a ball forms. Separate into two portions, place a portion between two sheets of waxed paper, and roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch. Remove the top sheet of waxed paper and use a pizza cutter to cut your dough into bite size pieces. If you feel creative try cutting out small circles, squares or diamond patterns.

Bring the chicken broth to a boil. Drop dumplings *one at a time* into boiling broth, ensuring that they submerge. Add all of your dumplings to the broth.  Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Add chicken and simmer until chicken is heated….your dumplings are now ready to serve.
___________________________________


that's it. it's surprisingly fast. and super-easy to keep the ingredients on hand in the freezer. i'm pretty sure every time we get a rotisserie chicken from costco or i make my crockpot rotisserie-style chicken (from which this stock was made), i'll save the carcass and wings to make some stock and probably chicken and dumplings. i actually like that it stretches a small amount of meat into an entire hearty meal for the whole family. and the dumplings had great texture. and to think, it took 14 years of living away from my mom to give them a try!

Tornado Shelter

khary made this tornado shelter yesterday after watching "rescue heroes" on qubo. you can't really tell it from the picture, but he saved several action figures (and their motorcycle) from the huge tornado. they're in the middle of that mass of blocks in the box. it was cute at the time, anyway.

(and apparently we're going through a no-shirt phase...)