Tag Archives: cooking

Potato Soup

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IMG_72250Here lately, the weather has been dreary and cool. The gray drear is somewhat of a downer, but I’m not complaining about the cool temps, they’re a nice break from the hot muggy dog days of Summer. Sadly, the days are much shorter. I miss the longer afternoons/evenings of enjoying the sun. A few of the trees are starting to loose some leaves. There’s definitely a feel of Fall all around us.

I told my husband, this is the type of weather just right for a comforting bowl of potato soup. My husband heartily agreed. Happily, I made a pot of potato soup. I used some of our homegrown potatoes and onions. I made a pone of my southern cornbread. It was a mighty-tasty meal, even if I do say so myself.

With my Fall moodiness, I thought it’d be a good time to share my favorite potato soup recipe with you.
If you give this soup a try, let me know how you like it.

I hope the rest of your week goes super.

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3-spcbg

Potato Soup

2 or 3 cups potatoes peeled and cut into 3/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
2  or 3 cups chicken broth
1 cup of water – if needed add water to cover the potatoes in liquid
1 cup milk
About 1/2 cup instant potatoes
Salt and pepper or your choice of herbs to taste – optional
1/2 cup chopped onion or garlic – optional
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Cook the potatoes, onions, salt and pepper in the chicken broth and water.
When potatoes are tender add the instant potatoes & milk.
If too thick add more milk. If it’s too thin add more instant potatoes.
Cook it about 15 minutes more.
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added thoughts:
*After the soup is done, turn the stove on lowest temperature setting and let the pot of soup simmer for a little while to let the seasoning/potatoes blend better. Check it often in case it needs more milk or to be removed from burner.
*enhancements: Add bacon bits, sour-cream, cheese or cornbread
*I realize this recipe reads pretty bland, but I make my own broth, therefore it’s already seasoned with herbs and gives a good taste to the potato soup without my having to add more seasonings.

Original Recipe by my BFF

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8 inch Soda-Pop Cake

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IMG_8501I’ve been wanting to try to make a soda-pop cake. It’s not something that was on my to-do list, but something I thought about from time-to-time (especially every-time there’s a certain commercial on)
The recipe’s really simple, but it’s way to big for me and my husband, so I halved it and made an 8 inch cake

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IMG_84748 inch Soda-pop cake

Put frozen fruit in the bottom of an ungreased 8 inch cake pan
*(You can use fresh or thawed fruit too)
Spoon 2 cups dry cake mix on top of fruit
Pour 1 cup of soda-pop on the cake mix

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes to 1 hour or until nicely brown and done.

*The reason for the broad baking time is that I used frozen fruit and it took my cake an hour to bake. I suspect if I had of used fresh or thawed fruit that it may have taken less time… but I could be wrong.
If you make this cake with fresh or thawed fruit and it takes less baking time, come back and comment and let me know.

The only thing I would do different with this cake is that I would take a small spoon and dip up some of the soda-pop and dampen all the cake mix so it wouldn’t have dry mix in spots on top.

This recipe is that it tastes a lot better than it looks.
My husband says it’s delicious and I agree.

Also, if a person wanted a smaller cake all you’d half to do is half the measurements, bake it in a smaller pan and watch the baking time carefully until it’s fully cooked.

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My Bff says her son-in-law told her that he recently had some orange crush cake and it was one of the best tasting cakes he’s had.
So, I guess you know what my next cake will be. 😉
Stay tuned…

Have you ever made a soda-pop cake?
What fruit and flavors of soft drink and cake mix did you use?

Wishing you all a sweet rest of the week.
🙂

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graphic from picgifs.com

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Homemade Chicken Pot Pie & chicken broth

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The other day I saw a photo of  Bisquick chicken pot pit and of course that made me want to make one. I’d never made it before. Thankfully the recipe isn’t too complicated and I had all the ingredients on hand. It turned out really pretty and mighty tasty.

Here’s a link to the recipe: Bisquick Chicken Pot Pie

Here’s my adjustments and changes to the recipe:
I used Pict Sweet frozen vegetables
I used 1% milk
I used Egg Makers (liquid eggs)
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp thyme
I baked my chicken pot pie in a deep baking dish (about 8-inch x 2-inch deep). I didn’t think any of the pie plates or pans I have would have worked very well.
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The recipe calls for cooked chicken. It didn’t specify how to cook it. I needed to make some broth anyhow so I took care of 2 food stuffs at once and boiled the chicken with some herbs, onions & sweet peppers. The chicken turned out beautiful and tasted really good. It worked great for the pot-pie. I was going to make chicken salad with part of it, but my husband and Shelibean decided that it was the perfect snack to nibble on in front of the tv. lol

Even though I used skinless boneless chicken breasts, I still strained the broth 3 times through 8 layers of cheesecloth.
(Then the next day it occurred to me that I should have used a coffee filter to strain it through. It would have been less work. I hope I can remember the coffee filter the next time I make broth.)

I let the broth cool and pour one cup portions into square plastic containers then freeze them. I take the frozen broth ice cube out of the plastic container and put them in vacuum pack bags, date them and put them in the freezer for future use.
I love the way these look.
(Does that make me odd? lol)
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We use alot of broth in recipes and since salt is a problem in the processed foods, salt-free homemade broth is a welcomed staple to have on hand.

The sun is shining and the temps are warming up. It’s 57°, if the wind would stay calm, it would be a lovely day to go for a walk and look for signs of green.

I’m so happy to finally dare-to-hope that maybe Spring-like weather might be here soon.

Hope you all have a lovely day!
🙂

spcr1

Putting Strawberry Bread to the test

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It’s 50° this gray dreary rainy Tuesday. I have chicken stroganoff in the slow cooker cooking for supper and I just made a fresh loaf of Strawberry Bread.

I’ve been wanting to do a test at baking using some the foodstuffs we’ve switched too and this Strawberry Bread was the perfect recipe to try them on. First I had to half the recipe. Why do folks create such big recipes? Anyway, Plain flour, baking soda and cinnamon were the only original ingredients from the recipe that I used. For the rest I replaced them with olive oil, egg maker (liquid eggs), mix of sugar/splenda, lite salt. The batter was so thick that I added some 1% milk and I then added a bit of vanilla for good measure. lol So really I made a new recipe today. I like that.
The finished bread smells wonderful, looks nice and tastes really good to me. I’m really happy with my success of this bread. I hope my hubby likes it too. If my hubby likes it, I’ll put the recipe in my keeper folder for future use.

I hope your test recipes turn out successful and
your homes are filled with aroma of home-cooking.

Wishing you a pleasant rest of the day.

🙂

2-5-2014- edited in:
I’m happy to say that my husband loved my Strawberry Bread and even carried a couple slices to work in his lunch today. 🙂
I’m so happy, I have another recipe to make from time to time. I just love it when my recipes turn out well.

spcr1