Baked Potato Soup

I had potatoes that I really had to use up before they got bad, and $1 bunch of chives from the farmer's market... what's a girl to do? Potato soup of course!!

Now I hope I can remember everything I put in - I just used things in my kitchen that sounded like they would be good in a soup! And be warned - measurements are VERY approximate!!

Ingredients

4 potatos, peeled and cut into cubes
2 tbs. butter
salt
1 cup water
1 cup chicken stock
3 slices of bacon, cut into pieces
1/2 onion, diced
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. oregano
pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic seasoning (I used Garlic Garlic from Tastefully Simple)
1/3 cup of velveeta, cut into small pieces
chopped scallions
sour cream

Directions

Put potatoes into a large pot with water, stock and butter. Add some salt to season the potatoes (but not too much - the bacon will add a lot of salt later). Boil the potatoes over medium high heat.

While that cooks, saute the bacon until almost cripsy. Add onions and saute with the bacon a few minutes. Remove from heat.

Once the potatoes are soft, use a fork to mash up about 1/4 of them. Lower the heat to medium low. Add the bacon and onion mixture. Add cream, oregano, pepper to taste, garlic, and velveeta. Heat until velveeta melts. Lower heat to "low" and let the soup simmer a few minutes to let the flavors develop. Add some scallions to the soup.

Dish up, top with sour cream and more scallions for garnish. Enjoy!!

Flatbread with Bacon, Onions and Pesto

This is the first recipe I've tried from my new Food Network magazine that my mom got me for a present! I love the magazine and was really excited to try this dish which looked like it would make a delicious and beautiful appetizer.

It is beautiful (as you can see) and was good, although I would tweak a few things next time. That is - I would not put lemon zest in the sour cream - it was a little too lemony. Also, I would not use parsley for the pesto - I think a nice basil pesto would be a little more tasty. But because those are just hypothesises (sp?) I will post the original recipe! If I was you, I would trust a professional chef over Britt any day! :)



Ingredients
4 thick strips bacon, cut into pieces
1 large white onion, sliced
pinch of sugar
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
6 scallions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon capers
1/2 cup fresh parsley
grated zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
1 pound frozen pizza dough, thawed

Directions
Preheat oven to 450. Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium heat until browned and crispy. Transfer to a plate with a paper towel, keep warm. Add the onion slices to the drippings in the pan. Sprinkle with sugar and season with salt and pepper. Cook on low heat until light brown, tender and caramelized.

Combine the scallions, capers and parsley in the food processor. Add salt and pepper to taste and half the lemon zest. Pulse gently to chop and blend. Gently stream in olive oil. Transfer scallion pesto to a bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk creme fraiche and remaining lemon zest until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

Roll pizza dough onto sheet covered with non-stick spray or flour to keep from sticking. Drizzle with olive oil. Place in center of oven and cook for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

Spread creme fraiche mixture on the crust. Dot with onions and sprinkle with bacon and pesto. Slice into pieces and serve.



Might also be fun to try some mayo instead of sour cream and add some tomato slices for a more BLT themed flatbread. I think this is a fun recipe because you can change it to whatever you like! My favorite part was the onions - they were so good!!

Ever feel this way while watching cooking shows?

I love Ina Garten - one of my top 3 favorite shows to watch is Barefoot Contessa. But this is just too funny - anyone else feel this way when watching cooking shows sometimes?



I got it from foodnetworkhumor.com. Some of it gets a little mean and tasteless, but for the most part its just a funny website that pokes fun at our favorite food network chefs. Although folks can say almost anything they want about Bobby Flay in my opinion- he's just a jerk.

:)

My favorite Mac-and-Cheese

Mac and cheese is my favorite comfort food. Absolutely!! We have this at least once every two weeks. I always have the ingredients on hand - its fast, easy and cheap so it's my "go-to meal" when I'm too lazy to cook anything (and we're not in the mood for Subways!). My mom would always make it this way - and even during college when I went home it was the thing I asked for most.

Now I make it for myself (a lot), so much so that Sam said he would like some box mac and cheese - but when its this easy, why settle for a box? The great thing is I can heat up the tuna and peas for me and Sam can just have the noodles and sauce.

All I do is cook some fun-shaped noodles in salted water. In another pot, heat up a tbs. butter, cubed velveeta and heavy cream (add as much cream and velveeta as you want until its the thickness you like). Then I heat up tuna and peas in the microwave. Mix pasta, tuna & peas, and sauce together. YUM! The best mac and cheese you'll ever have.



I'm curious - what's your go-to meal? You're favorite, easy, never gets old, comfort food?

Jambalaya and Red Lobster Biscuits

This is a jambalaya recipe I got from my friend Angie who served it at the Oscar party last year. It has a tremendous amount of flavor - plus it cooks for so long you get to wait and get more hungry!

A few notes - I made half a recipe and we have enough to feed a small mid-sized army. So unless you are the mother of the Duggar children, chef for a high school cafeteria or clinically insane really hungry, just half the recipe and plan on leftovers!

Also, the recipe says to let it cook in the oven. Angie made hers on stovetop just by simmering if I did the same. I think I might have cooked mine a little on the long side because my rice was pretty soft by the end. But still yummy yummy!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter
1 large onion, diced
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
3 bay leaves
3 tablespoons Creole Seasoning Blend
4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 (28 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, chopped
7 cups chicken stock
3 cups chopped cooked ham
3 cups cooked andouille sausage, sliced (I used chorizo because it was way on sale)
3 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces (I used canned chicken)
3 cups frozen cooked shrimp
4 cups uncooked long-grain white rice

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt butter in large stock pot. Saute onion, green pepper, celery and garlic until tender, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add tomato paste and cook to brown slightly, stirring constantly. Stir in bay leaves, Creole seasoning blend and Worcestershire sauce. Pour into a large roasting pan. Squeeze tomatoes to break up into pieces, and add to mixture in pan. Stir in juice from tomatoes, chicken stock, ham, sausage, chicken, shrimp and rice. Mix well. Cover tightly with aluminum foil.

Bake in preheated oven for 1 1/2 hours, stirring once halfway through baking time. Remove bay leaves before serving.

CREOLE SEASONING

2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons dried basil
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon white pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
5 tablespoons paprika
3 tablespoons salt

Before....



And after 1 1/2 to 2 hours - viola! :)







And now for the Red Lobster Biscuits! I was at a Tastefully Simple party where they had delicious looking mix for these cheddar biscuits. I was pretty sure I could save some $$$, and have an unlimited supply, if I could just figure out my own recipe. Turns out, there is a ton of recipes on google - and BONUS - they are EASY. Like ridiculously easy. They were delish with the jambalaya.



INGREDIENTS

2 cups bisquick
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup grated cheddar
1/2 cup melted butter (What?!?!)
1/4 tsp. garlic salt

DIRECTIONS

Mix bisquick, milk and cheddar till soft ball forms. Beat vigorously for 30 seconds.

Drop by balls onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Mix garlic salt and butter. Brush on rolls while still hot.

Enjoy!

Simple Supper with Linguini & Tomatoes

Just wanted to show you what we had for supper tonight, mostly for my mom to see, since I used her produce!

After being on the road, it was nice to have a fresh, homecooked meal. The shallots and tomatoes were from mom. Thanks!! It was delish!

I just sauteed red and yellow tomatoes, chopped shallots, minced garlic, fresh thyme, salt and pepper in lots of olive oil. (Sam added red pepper flakes to his - another nice touch). Here is the pretty dish!

Homemade Mayonnaise

As you know if you read my other blog, I got to go see Julie and Julia today! This movie was great... take your mom, sister or girlfriends, and go!

It was kind of like when Sam left The Fast and the Furious and drove 80 miles an hour the whole way home - I just wanted to get home and cook! I can't wait to try Julia's Boeuf Bouorguignon, kind of her signature dish, but I didn't have 3+ hours tonight. However, I did want to try something so I thought, how about her homemade mayonnaise? I always see them making stuff like this on food network, and all the talk of how difficult it is to emulsify the mixture scared me away. But, Julia Child inspired me to try! (Another thing I didn't know was that she didn't start cooking till later in life - how cool is that to begin something new, perfect it and be such an authority on the subject? Never too late to learn - what an inspiration!)

Ingredients
Round-bottomed, 2½ to 3-quart glazed pottery, glass or stainless steel mixing bowl. Set it in a heavy casserole or saucepan to keep it from slipping.
3 egg yolks
Large wire whisk
1 tablespoon wine vinegar or lemon juice (more drops as needed)
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon dry or prepared mustard
1½ to 2¼ cups of olive oil, salad oil or a mixture of each. If the oil is cold, heat it to tepid; and if you are a novice, use the minimum amount
2 tablespoons boiling water

Directions
Warm the bowl in hot water; dry it. Add the egg yolks and beat for 1 to 2 minutes until they are thick and sticky.

Add the vinegar or lemon juice, salt and mustard. Beat for 30 seconds more.

The egg yolks are now ready to receive the oil. While it goes in, drop by drop, you must not stop beating until the sauce has thickened. A speed of 2 strokes per second is fast enough. You can switch hands or switch directions, as long as you beat constantly.

Add the drops of oil with a teaspoon, or rest the lip of the bottle on the edge of the bowl. Keep your eye on the oil rather than on the sauce. Stop pouring and continue beating every 10 seconds or so, to be sure the egg yolks are absorbing the oil.

After 1/3 to 1/2 cup of oil has been incorporated, the sauce will thicken into a very heavy cream and the crisis of potential curdling is over. The beating arm may rest a moment. Then, beat in the remaining oil by 1 to 2 tablespoon dollops, blending it thoroughly after each addition.

When the sauce becomes too thick and stiff, beat in drops of vinegar or lemon juice to thin it out. Then continue with the oil.
Beat the boiling water into the sauce. This is an anti-curdling insurance. Season to taste.

If the sauce is not used immediately, scrape it into a small bowl and cover it tightly so a skin will not form on its surface.

YAY!! Success - it worked! And it does taste incredible compared to store-bought. (And I always love store bought as well - pass the mayo). Again, this is NOT a health-food blog. :)



Julia Child’s tips for homemade mayonnaise:
Room Temperature: Have all ingredients at room temperature. If they aren’t, warm the mixing bowl in hot water to take the chill off the egg yolks; heat the oil to tepid if it is cold.

Egg Yolks: Always beat the yolks for a minute or two before adding anything to them. When they are thick and sticky, they are ready to absorb the oil.

Adding The Oil: The oil must be added very slowly at first, in droplets, until the emulsion process begins and the sauce thickens into a heavy cream. Then, the oil may be incorporated more rapidly.

Proportions: The maximum amount of oil one large egg yolk can absorb is six ounces, or ¾ cup. When this maximum is exceeded, the binding properties of the egg yolks break down, and the sauce thins out or curdles. If you have never made mayonnaise before, it is safest not to exceed ½ cup of oil per egg yolk



I'm so proud of this!! Look how awesome!!



Making this leads me to a question for my fellow cooks and blog readers... what do you think constitutes "homemade"? Generally, I guess I think anything in a cookbook or on Food Network counts. But I just got done reading an article on how Julia Child-style cooking is gone in place of "30 Minute Meal"-type recipes. Instead of laboring in the kitchen over a truly homemade creation, today's cooks use canned tomatoes and pre-made ravioli when they cook.

I can see both sides. I think with the 40+ hour workweeks many women are engaged in, even a 30 minute meal is an accomplishment. You are still trying to make healthy non-processed food for your family and spending time in the kitchen, around the table, and cleaning up together. That's a lot different than carry-out regardless of if you used canned tomatoes or not.

However, I can see the argument that making bread from dough and butter instead of the frozen pie crusts is an art that could be lost in this generation. Opening a can of crushed tomatoes is NOT the same as picking out (or growing!) fresh tomatoes and simmering them. Using a certain amount of packaged food has become ok - even on Food Network. While I was whisking my homemade mayo (I can barely type my arm is so tired!!), I was thinking about the fact that years ago, women did make every part of their recipe by hand. Am I cheating most of the time?

So, what do you think? What can you get away with and still claim you made it homemade? Or, alternatively, what should we strive for as cooks to truly be an artist in the kitchen? Surely we don't need to churn our own butter?

Or do we?