Sunday, April 16, 2023

Cheesy Potato Soup

Cold Winter, I mean Spring day. Furnace was turned off last week with 80+F weather. 
Today it is 35F, windy (50mph gusts of wind), snowing off and on and so far not accumulating. 
Friday I did some steps (hills for this flat lander) with neighbor
Then I tried 10min of Barre and made it to almost 6 minutes. HARD!

Yesterday Debi and I did four miles on an undulating course for us to work on elevation. Surprisingly, both days were about 100 feet elevation change! 

After some debate between broccoli soup, chicken tortilla and cheesy potato, and then debate on making a cheesy potato eith broccoli and chicken, #TheMike said to make Cheesy Potato, so I did. #goodwife 🤣🙃
Ingredients: 
1 onion diced 
3 carrots peeled and chopped. 
2 pounds of potatoes. Peeled & diced to bite size
1 quart milk. 
3T heavy cream 
1cup freshly / cubed or shredded cheddar 

3T flour + 3T butter to make a roux

1 bay leaf
1T paprika
2tsp oregano 
2tsp basil 
1tsp Marjoram
2tsp onion powder
1.5 T black pepper and salt to taste

Green onion tops chopped for topping (or chives)
If using fresh potatoes, dice, rinse well, boil for a few minutes. Rinse. 

Bacon cooked and chopped for topping. Set on paper towel. 
To the bacon fat (or if skipping bacon, add 1T butter& melt) add the diced onion to cook. After a minute, add a little salt to onion. Add bay leaf. Add Carrot. Cook for a couple minutes. 

Add diced potatoes, stir all. 

Add seasonings to and stir onion/carrots/potatoes. 
Let cook while you make your Roux of butter, pepper and flour. Melt butter in skillet. Add flour. Stir and cook until bubbling. Cook a couple minutes. Turn off. 

Add milk and cream to the soup pot. Bring to boil. Add Roux. Stir well and boil. 
Add cheese, stir to blend. 
If it's too thick, you can thin with water (mine was too 'heavy' so I added some water and then some more- about 2 cups total.)

Bring to boil, then simmer. 
Add pepper and salt to taste. 

Serve and top with bacon bits, scallions or chives, sour cream or shredded cheese. 

*you can add celery to it which would be good. #theMike has been reacting to celery/ celery salt/ celery seed so I omitted. 
*you could add chicken broth or stock instead of water. I did not as it usually has celery in it. 

#Denbypotteryusa #ImperialBlueCoupe bowls for making the food more eye pleasing. 

#glutenfree #glutenfreetastesgreat #quickeats #celiac #coeliac #soyfree #soyoilfree #foodallergies #celeryfree #goodsoup #fullbelly #foodintolerances

Sunday, April 2, 2023

saunter, sourdough bread, and sunflower cookies

Saturday did a 5k walk with running friend and we walked it, catching up on life. Goal wasn't on time, but friend time. It was soo windy and at 32F, it made it feel so cold.  Last year it snowed during the event. It is about memories! 

Experimented this last week. 
Sour dough starter and bread. Will exhaust this starter, bake, freeze, and go on. Am reminded that while SD is fine, I don't love it as much as other bread can make. It is fun to make though. 

Used King Arthur flour's recipe for gluten free sourdough starter. 

Used https://joannaoverly.com/gluten-free-sourdough-bread/ recipe for bread, but don't use psyllium and instead added milled chia to bread mix after letting the milled chia sit in the water a little to absorb the liquid. 

First loaf was baked 60 min (as recipe said) on a cookie sheet. It wasn't done in middle so it fell after a while.  

Second loaf baked yesterday and poofed wonderfully. Baked for 75 minutes in my Staub ceramic pan, so held its side shape and poofed up. 
Today I'm letting another loaf set, and also two long baguettes. Will bake tonight (after collegiate women's basketball final game).

Yesterday made up Sunbutter cookies, recipe from Sunbutter which cuts baking soda for a good reason! Refrigerated dough overnight. Baked those up today. Yummy! Plenty to freeze for snacks.