As I was cooking it I was tempted to add cream. I tasted it and fell in love!

Creamy Three Potato Soup with Fresh Rosemary

Ingredients

* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 red onion, chopped
* 6 potatos, peeled and chopped
* 2 cups chicken stock
* 1 1/2 cups water
* 1/8 cup butter
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped (or 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary)

Pour the olive oil into your soup pan and let it warm up while you dice the onion. Add the onion and let cook until the onions are translucent. Add the cut up potatoes, stock, water, butter, salt and rosemary. Reduce heat to lowest heat setting. Cover and let simmer until potatoes are done. Use a slotted spoon or a potato masher and mash up the potatoes. There will be some lumps. Ladle into bowls.

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I used garden fresh rosemary and diced up a couple of sprigs. I also topped mine with black pepper and a little diced parsley.

YUM CITY!

easy potato soup

Nutritious No Bake Cookies

2 c sugar
1/2 c milk
1 stick butter
4 T cocoa
1/2 c peanut butter
2 1/2 c quick oats
1/4 c peanuts (optional)
2 t vanilla

On top of the stove, in a saucepan, cook the sugar, milk butter and cocoa for 1 1/2 minutes. Start counting after the mixture reaches a full boil. Remove from heat and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper.

YUMM!

no-bake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan combine cream and garlic; bring to simmer over medium heat. Simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes, don’t boil. Remove from heat.

Generously butter 3- to 3-1/2-quart baking dish. Layer one-third potato slices. In small bowl combine grated cheese, 1 teaspoon salt, nutmeg and pepper. Sprinkle one-third cheese mixture; pour one-third hot cream. Repeat layers twice. Cover with foil.

3. Bake 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours until potatoes are almost tender and liquid mostly absorbed. Uncover; bake 20 to 30 minutes, until liquid is absorbed and potatoes are browned and moist. If dish is broiler-safe, broil 3 to 4 inches from heat for 2 to 3 minutes, until top is crisp and brown. Let stand 10 minutes. Makes 8 servings.

Make Ahead: Prepare through step 2. Cover and chill up to 2 days before baking. Remove from refrigerator and let stand 20 minutes at room temperature. Preheat oven to 350°F. Continue as directed. (You may notice some darkening on the edges of the potatoes when you remove the casserole from the refrigerator. This is to be expected as the raw potatoes are exposed to the air. This is not harmful and does not impact the taste of the potatoes.)

potatoes au gratin

White Chocolate Chip Cookies

2/3 c butter
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 3/4 c flour
1/2 t soda
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 t ginger
3/4 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs. Mix in the vanilla and flour followed by the soda, salt and spices. Stir in the chips.

Bake 8-10 min at 350 or until golden.

Sometimes I make these with all white and sometimes I mix it up - half and half is a good mixture for people that aren’t used to white chocolate. Still gives the ‘I want my chocolate’ people their little fix…

whitechocolate

Sometimes you like to use things up that have been in the pantry awhile… for me it was this lone can of crabmeat. WHAT do to with it?

AHA!!!

Crab Stuffed Deviled Eggs

6 boiled eggs
1 can crabmeat
1/2 c mayo
1/4 diced onion
1 1/2 t lemon juice
1/4 t seafood seasoning
1/4 t dry mustard
1/8 cayenne pepper
3 T parmesean

Cut the boiled eggs in half longways and put the yellows in a bowl. Take a fork and smash up the yellow part. Stir in everything else (well except the egg whites and the cheese).

Use a spoon (or you can get fancy and use a pastry bag, or a ziploc with the corner cut off - but i think that’s wasteful…) and fill the egg whites with the yolk mixture. Sprinkle with the parmesean. You’re done.

Deviled eggs NEVER last long around here - no matter what you fill them with!

cauliflower

CAULIFLOWER AND POTATO CURRY

4 cups potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 small cauliflower, cut into florets
1 pinch of asafetida (OPTIONAL - HARD TO FIND)
3/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp salt
1 big pinch of sugar
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 tsp garam masala

Add all ingredients to a crockpot and cook on low for approximately six hours. (or at a low simmer on the back of the stove!)

Ever look your little local stores over trying to find some?

Know what’s in it?

It’s a blend of coriander, cumin, chili, clove, bay, cinnamon and ginger!

Take some thawed out chicken and place in a greased pan. (I like EVOO). Let it cook until golden then put a lid on it.

While the chicken is cooking, clean out your fridge.

In this chicken I used, the last of the Carolina yellow sauce (swished around with some chicken broth), the last of the ranch dressing (same swishing around with chicken broth), and some bbq sauce. It wasn’t the last of the bbq sauce, but I thought that Chili-man would ‘notice’ the sauce was a little pale and ask me what was in it. I knew that if I put a little bbq sauce in it, that it’d tone the color down and he’d never ask….

Turned out great!

ckn-sauce

Clean Out the Fridge Chicken

1 lb ground beef
1/2 c brown sugar
1 T cornstarch
1 can pineapple chunks
1/3 c vinegar
1 T soy sauce
1 bell pepper chopped (or chunked)

RICE

Cook the hamburger in a big skillet. Toss in the brown sugar and cornstarch. Stir to combine with the browned meat. Pour in the soy sauce and the vinegar and the can of vinegar. Toss in the cut up bell pepper and simmer. Put a lid on it and check it - should take about 10 minutes.

Serve over rice..

sweet sour ground beef

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In the event that you have to ‘hold’ dinner for someone that’s late… … …. Just use a little chicken broth as needed. You can pour enough it to keep the sauce from getting too thick and put the burner on low.

If they’re ‘really’ late, you can end up using an entire can… … …

Here’s the recipe as it came:

Italian Marinated Chicken

INGREDIENTS:
1 3/4 cups Swanson® Chicken Stock
1 tablespoon canned diced tomatoes, drained
1 teaspoon grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning, crushed
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

6 chicken breasts

DIRECTIONS:
1. Stir the stock, tomatoes, cheese, Italian seasoning and garlic powder in a shallow nonmetallic dish or a resalable plastic bag. Add the chicken and turn to coat. Cover the dish or seal the bag and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. Lightly oil the grill rack and heat the grill to medium. Remove the chicken from the stock mixture.

3. Grill the chicken for 15 minutes or until it’s cooked through, turning it over once halfway through cooking and brushing often with the stock mixture. Discard the remaining stock mixture

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Here’s what I’m going to do. First of all I don’t need six chicken breasts, only two. Secondly Chili-man won’t eat anything made with diced tomatoes….. (sigh) so I’m going to substitute a heaping tablespoon of tomato powder. I’ll also only use ¾ cup of the stock and save the rest to make rice with. Since I’ve drastically reduced the amount going into the recipe, I’ll half the seasonings.

Sounds like a plan. Lets see how it goes….. after all I’ll be driving home in the heat of the day. Sure, I’ve an air-conditioned vehicle – but the heat still zaps ya.

italian chicken

UPDATE: The chicken turned out great - tasty too! Although the recent humidity did in my tomato powder, so I left that out. So in reality, my recipe was really nothing like the one above…. lol

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