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

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.

Valentine's minicake. perfect for two

Homemade gluten free white cake (adapted recipe from this recipe from GlutenFreeOnAShoestring using my GF flour blend, a couple Tablespoons less sugar, and powdered egg whites, along with 1 2/3c buttermilk instead of 1 1/3c as my recipe has more whole grain flours. 

I used powdered eggwhites mixed in separate bowl with the water. In hindsight I should have gone ahead and whipped with thr stand mixer to be more eggy...what happened instead was I whipped the butter, added the eggs, and had a bit of soup. Once i added the flour it was normal-thick-looking, and then I added the buttermilk to the batter being pour able. 

Baked in my mini Fat Daddios cake pans. Made three mini cakes and two six-inch cakes. Lovely part of making small cakes (or cupcakes) is freezer for future quick cakes. 

Baked about 30minutes, removed from oven. Pressed down on centers to be flat. Let cool, flipped out on cooling rack. Then sliced in half, rimmed with chocolate frosting, filled with strawberry preserves / jam. 

Chocolate frosting around, then royal icing for hearts and XO trim.  I used.'all natural' food coloring ehich results in a muted red (ahem, pink), but it doesn't have red dye #40!

(Chocolate frosting made with Hershey cocoa recipe and Stam Chocolaterie  cocoa powder). 

Next time I probably would slice on thirds or fours instead of halved, and get more strawberry preserves in it. 

broccoli cheese soup

I received this recipe from a friend and mostly followed directions. Here is what I used and/or how I'd tweak it for next time. 

Ingredients:

3T butter

1 medium diced onion 

1tsp minced garlic 

2T gf flour blend 

2C milk (I used whole)

2c veg broth/chicken broth/water* See note 

1.5 pounds broccoli- diced

1C diced carrots (diced/bite size)

1tsp salt/pepper, Hungarian Paprika

1C American cheese block, cubed

1/2c sliced from block cheddar cheese (white cheddar)

*optional cubed ham, cubed chicken, Avocado

*[note] While we thought TheMike was reacting to Annato /orange coloring in cheese, it turned out he is reacting digestively to celery/celery seed/salt/coriander/cilantro/parsley (which are all part of celery family). 

As to this, I had crock pot cooked a chicken earlier this week using some seasonings *not celery*. 

I had leftover gelatin/stock from this and used it in the recipe for flavoring, and then used water.....as the chicken and veg broth I have on hand uses celery (as most will). 

Directions: 

In stock pot melt 3T butter.  

Add onion. Cook until almost translucent. Add garlic. Cook for a minute. 

Add flour and mix, stir, blend, and cook for 2 minutes. 

Add Vegetable/Chicken Broth/ *OR* water, add milk. Stir. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer, and simmer for 15 minutes. 

Add chopped broccoli and carrots. Use larger pieces if you want that. Use diced/bite size pieces if you want that-or don't want to use food processor /hand held blender to blend to a smoother consistency.  

[I had used larger pieces and then removed, let cool a bit, then blended to puree. Next time i will dice broccoli and carrots to small pieces in prep.]

Cook until veggies are tender, about 15 minutes. 

Add salt, pepper, paprika (and whatever seasonings you'd like- Thyme or Marjoram would be good). 

Add cubed  or sliced cheese.  Stir to blend. 

Top with cheese or avocado if desired. 

Would be good with precooked cubed chicken or diced ham after adding broccoli and carrots - or after pureeing the veggies. 

Enjoy!   Perfect for after a snowshoe hike on overcast day! 

*Denby blue bowls are perfect contrast to first eat with the eyes. 😊