Soup Season

It's finally officially CHILLY out! I love it. I especially love that I can try making all different kinds of SOUP and not feel guilty! I sometimes have trouble eating leftovers but soup is easy to reheat for lunches during the week.

This week I tried making my sister's baked potato soup recipe. It was AWESOME! You can view a picture on her (somewhat defunct) food blog, but I'll post the recipe here (so I can refer back to it later!) This weekend I'm going to steal another awesome-sounding recipe from My Kitchen Apron--beef stew! Yum! I can't wait. :)

I had intended to make this on Wednesday night, so I was going to bake the potatoes on Tuesday so they'd be ready to go when I got home from work the next day. Of course, when I got home my husband informed me that he had been invited over to a guy friend's house on Wednesday for clam chowder and horror movies. So... I made my soup a night early and my husband had to wait an extra hour+ for dinner while the potatoes cooked. Oh well!

Restaurant-Quality Baked Potato Soup
3 russet potatoes
3 tablespoons butter
2 cups chopped white onion
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1/8 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups instant mashed potato flakes
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup heavy cream (I had some leftover cream from making mashed potatoes, so I did 3/4 cup heavy cream and 1/4 cup 2% milk)
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
8 ounces bacon – cooked and crumbled
2 green onions, chopped (optional--I didn't have these.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Bake potatoes for 1
hour, or until done. Set aside to cool. (Or put in the fridge for 3o minutes.)

Melt butter in a 3 quart saucepan over medium heat. Saute onions until
tender and golden brown. Stir in flour, and cook 5 minutes to make a
roux.

Pour in chicken stock and water. Add cornstarch and mashed potato
flakes. Season with salt, pepper, basil and thyme.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove the skin from the cooled potatoes, and discard. Dice the
potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes, and stir into soup, along with the
half-and-half.

Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until thick. Spoon into
bowls, and garnish with shredded cheese, bacon and chopped green onion.


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In non-food-related news, I'm so glad it's the weekend. It's been a really slow week but very stressful at the same time. Not a fun combination. I had to laugh at (with?) my husband tonight, though. He has a part-time gig where he supervises rental facilities--so people rent a building for a party or wedding reception or rehearsal dinner, and he sets up tables and chairs and sits in the back room watching TV until the event is over and he can mop the floor. A pretty easy gig, usually, but sometimes it's more than he bargained for.

Because my husband is in the back room with a TV, he can sometimes be a kid magnet. He often becomes the unofficial "babysitter" while Mommy and Daddy are drinking and chatting with friends in the other room. If the kid(s) sit down and watch The Incredibles and don't bug him too much, my sweet guy usually doesn't mind. Tonight, though, he had a couple of young boys in the room with him, running around playing while my husband tried to tune them out. Suddenly he heard, "I'm going to pee on you!!!" and turned around to find both boys, pants dropped, PEEING at each other (and all over the floor!) Of course he yelled at them, "What are you DOING?" and went and found their parents, but oh man... I can just picture it!

So now my husband says it'll be 7 years until we consider having kids. When we got married (less than a year ago) we said 5 years. A long weekend with the nieces and nephews (who did a lot of ear-splitting noises and crazy running around) made us say 6. And now we're at 7! Good thing we have older siblings who will be looked to first to supply grand-kids... at this rate, it's gonna be a while before we get around to it. ;)