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...

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!

chili redux (and wine?)

thursday evening, i made chili for supper, no big woop. recipe:

1/2 large onion, chopped finely
3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1lb ground beef
2 pkts chili seasoning
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
2 c cooked brown rice
pinch thyme
dash nutmeg
dash cinnamon* (*i think i'll omit this next time; i'm just not made for Cincinnati-style chili, i guess)
1 Tbs balsamic vinegar
4 Tbs brown sugar
add water to achieve desired consistency

i split that batch into two--in one container, i added 2 c pinto beans. the other i put straight into the freezer, and will add beans (either black or pinto), if necessary, when we eat it. that batch we ate was pretty good--even dawud ate it without complaining. but we had tons left, even with the others in the freezer!

the beef is from a local organic farm that pastures its cattle; plus, by splitting the batch into two, we reduced the amount of meat we consume at a sitting without sacrificing protein since i added beans and (organic) brown rice.  and if you wanna talk "green"-ness, making multiple batches at once--not just the chili, but i also bulk cook my rice and beans--uses the same amount of energy as cooking one batch, plus only a little more to re-heat your frozen portion.

so tonight, after a week's worth of errands saved up for one (warm-ish?) day, when we were at a loss for supper, i had an epiphany: CHILI CHEESE FRIES!!!! we're talking divine intervention here. so i cut up some potatoes, fried 'em up, poured the heated up leftover chili on them, topped with cheese, and voila! supper. not just plain supper--novel supper, tasty supper, perfect supper to accompany some football playoffs.

okay, so i didn't think to take a pic until mine was almost gone. so this is what you get. it may not *look* good, but let's face it, chili cheese fries aren't really visual art. but you can tell by the nearly-cleaned plate that it sure as hell tasted good, right?!

also, one of my saved-up-because-of-the-never-freaking-ending-snowstorms-and-dangerous-cold from this week was to pick up my january case of wine from cellar rat wine merchants (happy birthday to ME!). and since i won't need ALLLLLL TWELVE bottles for my host month for wine club, i took an inventory and decided the Quinta do Casal BrancoTinto should be my wine of the week. uncorked, poured, allowed to breathe a bit, and omg, i am a new fan of portuguese wines. this stuff is so good--true to its notes (click above on "january case"), and soooo soft with just enough bite and complexity to keep you coming back for more.

not the recommended accompaniment to chili cheese fries, but whatevs.

ARRG! blue(berry) beard

khary made himself a snack of blueberries this afternoon.

quinoa risotto

trying this tonight; no idea if it'll turn out yummy or not, but i need to use my quinoa!

edit: THIS ROCKS!! i think i'll add a cup of white wine instead of water next time, though.
(even dawud raved about it. khary wouldn't touch it, unfortunately. odd, b/c i KNOW he'd devour it if he tried it.)

i served it with crockpot "rotisserie" chicken and mustard-brown sugar-glazed carrots. it was all thrown together quickly, but the meal went together really well! :)


Quinoa Risotto

* 1 cup quinoa
* 1 Tbsp. olive oil
* 1 cup chopped onion
* 3 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 cup vegetable broth
* 1 cup skim milk
* 8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
* 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Rinse and drain quinoa three times, using a fine mesh strainer to remove the bitter outer coating.

Heat olive oil in a heavy saucepan or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook until soft, stirring constantly. Add garlic and quinoa and continue stirring a minute or two. Stir in broth and milk. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer until quinoa is tender, stirring occasionally, approximately 10-12 minutes.

Add mushrooms and cook another 3-5 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat. Add cheese and let stand a few minutes, so risotto can thicken.

Serves 6.

see:
Quinoa Risotto with Italian Cheese: An Italian-inspired vegetarian quinoa recipe

i hereby resolve...

here are just some ideas about what i want to accomplish in the next few months. not necessarily resolutions, per se.

1. FINISH MY MASTER DEGREE!
back when i got all knocked up and shit with khary, i was in the MPA (Master of Public Administration) program at UMKC. all the nausea, sleeping 12+ hours/day, etc, prompted me to opt for "incomplete" status in three of my courses. the only things i needed to do for each of the classes was finish one more paper. 3 papers total, for those keeping track. so sadly, i'm only 3 papers shy of a master degree. not that i'm going to go off and quit my current gig as a SAHM, but i want to mark that goal off my "to do" list, yk?

2. Become a Runner Again
in my journey to regain "runner" status this past year, i managed to have a fabulous first trail run in years. until i broke my ankle, anyway. so i got to spend most of the summer on my duff and hopped up on pain pills. (okay, i wasn't on the pain pills for *that* long, but July 18 to August are pretty hazy.) once this cough i have is gone, i'm hitting the elliptical in the basement in order to get my body and my ankle back into running form. i won't break any records (hopefully no more bones, either!), but just being able to get out on the trolley trail for a jaunt whenever i feel the need to burn off some energy/frustration will be so welcome.

3. Get on Top of My Food Allergies
i am 99% certain i am allergic to wheat/gluten, but there are other allergies going on that i haven't been able to pinpoint. in the next week or two, i'm getting my blood test for 200 foods/additives so i can make healthier choices. last year, when i was gluten free for several months, i happened to lose about 15lbs without "trying." i imagine something similar will happen whenever i figure out what foods i can eat without triggering some serious and chronic immune problems.

4. Calm the HELL down
i yell a lot. too much. i feel bad about it, but that doesn't fix the problem. we got a "nonviolent communication" guide and workbook that are already helping a little bit, and all i've done so far is read some of the guide. there are several other families who have the book with whom i hope to form a study and practice group.

and that's what i've got for now. i think that's more than enough.

urban window garden

http://windowfarms.org/

i want.

fo realz, tho. i have thought that the sidelights at the front door needed *some*thing to provide camouflage from the outside since before we moved in. we tried standing planters, but they got knocked over.

the new solution: hanging hydroponic planters for growing FOOD, by golly. FOOD!

and i think i could manage to keep the damned squash bugs and borers away from them.

blueberry madness & tag-team driving

we went to hy-vee last night & the boys had a ball with the dual-driver racecar cart.



khalil tried blueberries this week. his fingers are still stained purple!

cookie exchange madness

for those following on facebook, you know i've been working on peanut butter balls for a cookie exchange. success! and the cookie exchange was wunnerful.



a list of the fare:
dark chocolate truffles (dusted in cocoa).
rocky road, chocolate-peanut butter cookies, chocolate chunk cookies, and mini cupcakes.
cranberry and pistachio biscotti.
sablé snowflakes.
peanut-butter balls.
fudge.
nut bread, gingerbread (thin), and chocolate pretzels.
chocolate chip cookies.
pumpkin cookies.
oatmeal raisin cookies.
chocolate crinkles.
chocolate chip cookies and the cookies dipped in crushed candy canes.

EDITED TO ADD:
apparently someone brought an unexpected surprise: pukey germs!!! o_O it was an epidemic. and apparently not an isolated incident but part of a larger midwestern outbreak of pukiness. just glad we got ours out of the way right away. a lot of our friends got the next round & had pukey christmases. :(