Perfect Potato Soup

The highest forecasted temperature on any given day this week is 20.

Twenty degrees. And that isn't until Wednesday. This past weekend didn't see a temp higher than 15 and that only lasted about thirty seconds in the middle of the day.

The best thing you can do during these extreme lows is to go outside as little as possible. And if you do go out make sure you cover up all of you epidermis. I do mean all. Get some goggles if you still need to see, but cover it all up.

After shivering under a mountain of blankets all day nothing seems to warm my body and soul more than a big ole pot of soup.

I love soup, but Andy doesn't think it qualifies as a meal so I don't make soup often and when I do it has to be hearty. Because Andy certainly doesn't look like it, but he can put away some food, and if I don't fill him up at dinner he'll spend the rest of the evening pilfering in the kitchen.

This potato soup has served us well for about two years. I think the original recipe came for a recipe website, but I don't have that documented and I've tweeked it so much I feel comfortable calling it my own. It's very basic, so it is perfect for dressing up and making it your perfect potato soup. Have fun with it!

*This recipe is not vegetarian, but can easily be modified to make it so. Replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock and leave out the bacon.

Perfect Potato Soup (for cold, indulgent days)

6-8 russett potatoes, peeled & cut into pieces
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 can chicken stock (if you're using homemade use about 2 cups)
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup water
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
6-8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
Salt & pepper to taste
Cheddar cheese

In a large pot combine potatoes, onion, chicken stock, heavy cream and water. Bring to a boil over med-hi heat and cook until potatoes are soft.

Reduce heat to medium and add the milk, sour cream, butter and crumbled bacon (you can also add in another cup of water if you want a little more liquid). Season with salt and pepper. Simmer until the potatoes start to break down and soup thickens.

You can leave the pot alone and let the magic happen while you do something else, or, if you're in a hurry to eat (like I always am) you can help the process along by "mashing the potatoes." I like to use a whisk. It's not as aggressive as a potato masher and this soup runs a fine line between soupy mashed potatoes and hearty potato soup. When it's done you want some potato chunks left.

Serve with shredded cheddar on top and a cheddar biscuit (recipe below) on the side. Comfort food at it's finest!

If you have any leftovers that need to be reheated the next day you might want to add a little milk or chicken stock if you have it. The soup tends to thicken when it sits.

Cheddar Biscuits (recipe from kraftfoods.com)

2 1/4 cups dry all-purpose baking mix for biscuits
1/2 cup shredded cheddar
2 tbs chopped fresh herbs (optional, I use parsley if I have it)
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tbs dijon mustard
1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 425

In a large bowl mix together baking mix, cheese and herbs.

In another bowl, mix sour cream, mustard and milk. Pour into cheese mixture and combine.

Place dough on lightly floured surface and kneed about 10 times.

Cut into biscuits and bake 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas (kind of)

All Christmas season I've kept my cheer in tip-top shape. I feel like I have so many blessings this year that even stress on the holidays couldn't get in the way of my high. Not a lot of money for presents? No problem! I'm here and able to spend the holidays with my family. That's really all that matters.

So why the Grinchy attitude all of a sudden? Hold on. You'll see.

We need to go back a few days, so I can fill you in.

Wednesday Andy and I went to a funeral. A funeral for a 22 year old that should still be alive. He was healthy and there is no reason he should have passed away. I know that God has his reasons, but so often with death they are hard to see.

After the funeral I asked Andy's sister to take our picture because we are so rarely dressed up together.

(Do you think that's tacky of me to want our picture taken in our funeral attire? I'm not entirely sure that I care what anyone's opinion is. I didn't take the pictures at the funeral or even near it. Seven years ago when my grandfather died, one of my distant uncles took pictures of me with my bereaved family while we were walking to the graveside. That was tacky.)

Andy hates having his picture taken and is a serious pain in the ass, but he's been sick since the beginning of the week so his whining was almost unbearable. This is the best we managed to get out of him before he stormed off proclaiming, "That's it!"


So Wednesday was spent mostly grieving. We got home later than expected and I spent the rest of the evening in the kitchen decorating cookies. Because, like our friend's father said at his son's funeral, "Cameron would want you to have a meaningful Christmas."

I decorated and cooked until I couldn't take anymore and then I woke up early on Thursday morning to do some more.

Thursday was a much more pleasant day. Tiring, but very enjoyable.

I was in the kitchen all day, right up to dinner time. I made sugar cookies and truffles and carrot cake cookies and cinnamon rolls. Plus a few side dishes to go with dinner.


Andy's family came up at about 4 then Andy got home just after 6. That is a miracle in and of itself because Andy never gets home on time on Christmas eve, so we finished up dinner and sat down for a fantastic meal after we opened presents. We gluttoned ourselves as people are likely to do this time of year and after cleaning up and divvying out the leftovers we sent them on their way. They were in a bit of a rush to get going because the forecast was warning of an ice storm on its way.


No matter. Everyone got home safely and, though I was exhausted from the day's activities, I went to bed with great anticipation for the lovely Christmas day ahead of me.

Then the ice storm hit.

Andy slept like a rock because he took his nighttime cold medicine. I, on the other hand, did not self medicate and woke up several times in the night to gale force winds throwing tiny little ice spears at our window. It seemed as though our house would for sure come down on our heads and we would either be crushed or frozen.

Neither of those things happened though and I suffered through the restless night. Waking up at 6:30 to the power flickering on and off. It finally settled on staying on for a bit so I got up to stuff stockings and go ahead and make some coffee lest the power decide to fizzle completely.

I got the coffee made and the stockings stuffed. The power was holding strong; no more flickers. So I attempted to waken my sick, sleepy husband. I don't like to wait to open presents. The five year old in me can not be put off on Christmas morning.

I did not manage to get sir grumps-a-lot out of bed until the power finally died at 8 o'clock.


When he did rise we went into the living room and tore into the gifts... in the dark. Much jubilation for gift opening was had and the bunnies enjoyed playing in the wrapping paper and inspecting their newest treats.


But our little living space was growing cold quickly so we built a fire and Andy set out for the ski shop (which also did not have power). The forecast told of rain to come in the afternoon so I waited a bit before I set off down the mountain to see the family.

Andy came home around noon. The ski shop was cold and going to stay that way until the power came on, so they closed up until that great event occurred and he helped me pack up the car to head off the mountain.

At this point in the day our roads were only wet, so I felt safe making the hour long trek. I kissed my husband goodbye and hopped in the Hulk. Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother's house I went. Until I got to the next town that was covered in ice and people were totally ignoring road conditions and driving like maniacs.

I decided I'd quite had my fill of car accidents for a lifetime so I turned around and headed back to my husband.

On the upside of all this: I haven't spent Christmas day with Andy in about three years because he is always working. So it was a blessing in disguise that we got to have a little Christmas time together. Even without power, heat or water.


We heated up leftovers in the fireplace and Andy made a make-shift cooler for his winter brews.


Then instead of talking, or playing a game or any other shenanigans, we proceeded to fall asleep on the sofa because I was tired from lack of sleep and Andy's cold hasn't gotten any better.

Then at almost five o'clock I woke up to my sickly love telling me the power was back on and he was going to work.

So here I am. Alone.

I have power, but guess what didn't come back? Our water. Yes, that's right we haven't had water all day either. It's been well over 24 hours since I had a shower and my present mood is declining in direct correlation to my cleanliness.

I keep telling myself that I still have so much to be grateful for, but it isn't putting any pep in my step. Right now I just want to be crabby and upset, and wallow in self pity. So that's what I'm going to do.

The sun is supposed to shine tomorrow and I'm going to go see my family then. Also, come hell or high water (which seems not only possible, but likely at this point) I'm going to have a shower. If not tonight then tomorrow at someone's house who has water.

Despite my unpleasant demeanor I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas. Feel free to share your holiday cheer with me. It might help boost my mood.

Mrs.Kringle's Cookie bake off!

Psst!

I entered a cookie contest. After you read my post please go vote for me. If I win I get lots of awesome prizes. And if you go leave a comment and vote for your favorite cookie you can win something too!

Click here to vote for me and view other contestant entries.

This year I thought Santa might like something different when he comes calling. I know the standard is chocolate chip cookies, but those have to get old after the first thousand or so. Don't you think?

I was wracking my brain to come up with something wonderful for Santa, but just couldn't think what to do.

So I had a conference with Santa's helpers.

Wouldn't you know, those sweet little things came right to my rescue. They are partial to recipes including carrots and were positively insistent that I should use those as my feature ingredient. I gave in. They are Santa's helpers after all and they know him better than me.

I spent all afternoon in the kitchen grating carrots and sifting flour to create the perfect Carrot Cake Cookies for Santa.

Once I finished I asked his helpers if they would be so kind as to taste test them for me. "Why of course!" they exclaimed.

"They certainly smell lovely!
Or am I only smelling the carrots?"
"Oh yes! These are positively
delightful!"

The helpful helpers passed judgment on the cookies, "These are certain to be Santa's new favorite cookie!"

So, in case you are reading this Santa, I just wanted you to know that we are ready for you. The halls are decked and the stockings are hung. You're the only thing missing.

And your new favorite cookie is waiting with a nice, cold glass of milk.

But you'd better hurry or your helpers might eat them all.

Carrot Cake Cookies with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 T ground cinnamon
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 (8 oz) can crushed pineapple, drained
3/4 cup shredded carrots
1 cup raisins
1 cup wheat germ
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Beat in the pineapple, carrots and raisins until well incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl again.

Add the wheat germ and flour mixture to the batter and mix until combined.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the oats and walnuts.

Drop in rounded tablespoons onto the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. The cookies will spread considerably while baking. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the cookies begin to brown slightly around the edges.

Allow to cool slightly on the cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the icing:

1 (12 oz) bag white chocolate chips
1 (3 oz) package cream cheese, room temperature

In a double boiler, over medium-low heat, melt the white chocolate chips. Once melted add in the cream cheese. It's important for it to be room temperature. If the cream cheese is still cold it will cause the chocolate to seize up. If this happens just put the mixture back over the double boiler and stir until it's smooth.

Use a fork to drizzle the mixture over the cooled cookies. Allow the icing to set.

Or go ahead and eat a cookie because you can't wait!

*Baker's note and a disclaimer:

The walnuts and raisins are optional. I didn't put raisins in mine because we don't like them.

Also, these cookies are, of course, for humans. I don't feed my bunnies cookies. However, Milton did take a little nibble before I realized he was eating a cookie and not a carrot.

Thanksgiving Redux

Thanksgiving was a success.

Thanks, in no small part, to my husband and mother-in-law.

Everyone arrived safely even though it was snowing.

Andy had the ENTIRE day off and the ski slope opened the next day.

I only got a little frazzled because my kitchen is too small and I need more counter space. In reality my kitchen is large compared to other apartment kitchens, but I need a lot of space.

I went totally overboard and made way too much food, but that was alright because that meant people could take a bunch home and we still had plenty of leftovers.

The floor didn't fall in from all the extra weight (like Andy predicted it would).

The menu consisted of: Appetizers - a cheese ball and crackers, a cheese and meat tray, pumpkin dip with ginger snaps. Dinner- Maple brined turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, stuffing, corn, roasted acorn squash, stewed apples, homemade dinner rolls. Dessert - Apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, cupcakes, brownies, sugar cookies.

Some photos of the day:

Before most people arrived and
before I got flustered

Checkin' the bird
Betty Crocker
The spread

Dessert
(The cupcakes were kept hidden
until the last possible moment)
Brunswick pauses for a moment to say,
"Mom! We've been invaded!!!"
The whole group

The rest of the weekend was peaceful and mostly uneventful. We don't shop on Black Friday because 1) Andy hates crowds and 2) years of working in retail have given me a complex about the day and I avoid it at all costs.

We did go out on Saturday night to get out of the house for a bit. The town and shopping centers were actually calm by that point so we didn't feel like we needed a nap afterward. While we were gone Milton had a temper tantrum. Details to come.

I haven't been hungry since Thursday afternoon, but for some reason I can't stop eating. My stomach is about to stage a revolt!

How was your holiday?

Not box cake

Last year on Andy's birthday he insisted that I make him a cake from a box. He said that was his favorite and it's what he wanted.

With much wailing and gnashing of teeth I complied. Not to be outdone by a cake from a box I fancied things up a bit.

Still, it goes against the baker inside of me to just whip something up out of a box. It causes me serious pain.

Don't get me wrong. I certainly see the advantage to box mixes, but they are so much better if you throw in a little something extra, just to make it your own.

This year I wasn't taking any chances. I found the recipe and told Andy what I was making him for his birthday cake. See the difference there? I didn't ask him, I told him. And I told him while he was busy at work, then I went out and bought all the ingredients before he could realize what just happened.

So here is the finished product. One of our friends called it "chocolate cake concentrate."

There is some serious chocolate going on in this thing, but it's really, really good and worth the effort.

I only ran into one problem and that was with the ingredients. The filling called for mascarpone cheese and it turns out that isn't exactly a high priority item around here. So I substituted cream cheese and the result was delicious.

I highly recommend serving it with a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream to help cut the richness. Also, start with a small piece. Trust me!

As far as I know the birthday boy was pleased. I just hope he knows that box cake is not likely to make another appearance in our kitchen.

This is why he's hot!

I didn't just marry Andy because he's a good mechanic.

He's really quite handy to have around the house as well.

Brave is a also a good descriptive word that comes to mind when I look at these photos.


Very brave indeed to make bread in the presence of his anal, perfectionist wife.

Usually Andy is more of a cook and I'm the household baker. It's a rare occasion when he undertakes a baking project and even more rare that he allows me to be home while he's doing it.

I do enjoy bossing him around and making faces when he does something wrong.

Right about now I'm missing him like crazy.

He's coming home tomorrow.

I'm terribly excited. The left side of the bed has been cold for a week and a half.

P.S. If he comes back without a present I'm sending him back.

What I did on my blog-cation...

Hosted a grilled pizza party and didn't take a single picture. I did, however, drink a lot of margaritas. And ate my weight in lemon cupcakes.

Had a picnic with my man.

Experimented with a carrot cake recipe. The cupcakes turned out pretty well.


Got my first speeding ticket.

Added some pizzaz to our plain black bookshelf

before

After

Nearly watched every episode of Gilmore Girls.

Started the countdown to get my braces off. October 21st here I come!

Took a 7th grade field trip.

Cleaned out my bedroom at my parents' house. My mother took it harder than I did.

Held my best friend's head while she gave birth. It was amazing.


As soon as I said I was taking a blog break I had blog material coming out of my ears. I'm back!

Dark chocolate no bake cookies

If you haven't ever made these you're totally missing out, and you don't even need to know how to bake. They require minimum effort with maximum rewards.

I made them tonight because my sweet tooth was protruding and my options were to go buy a $6 piece of chocolate cake or make something myself. I already had all the ingredients so I whipped up a batch of no bake cookies instead.

I modified the recipe and used dark chocolate cocoa powder instead of regular. It made the cookies extra rich and decadent. Though it also increased their resemblance to cow patties, but I promise they don't taste anything like poo.



Truly, a chocoholic's dream.



**Edit: I forgot to mention that I also didn't use chunky peanut butter. I used creamy because that's what I had on hand. I've never had these with the chunky kind. I imagine it would put a different spin on the texture of the cookie, which I'm not so sure about. But give it a try if you like.

Giant cake and a bump on the head

It turns out that my debit card was somehow compromised and the bank canceled it. They sent me a new one, but it would have been nice to have a heads up. You know, like a phone call or even a letter saying something along the lines of, "Yo, we didn't want anyone to steal your money so you won't be able to use your card anymore." Whatever, at least I know now. We don't know why Andy's card is having trouble. The bank said they didn't see a problem with it and we used it a couple of times today with no issue. Let's hope it stays that way.

While I was at the ATM today testing my card, I managed to give myself a giant welt on my head. As you know my car is, once again, out of commission, so I've been driving around Andy's monster truck Jeep. When I get into my Jeep I can pretty much just open the door and sit down. Not so with Andy's. He has a lift and giant tires which cause me to have to sort of hoist myself up into the car and swing in at sort of an angle. I guess I was agitated from my debit card problems and didn't pay enough attention to what I was doing. So basically I slammed my forehead into the door frame as I was getting in. Luckily, I hit the padding around the frame so that helped not give me a concussion. I'm pretty sure I would have been unconscious for a second if I had hit just metal. But my head hurts and I'm counting on it being blue tomorrow. Right now it's just red and swollen.

After I got everything sorted out and ran some errands I came home to get my bake on. Our friend Ally is leaving Saturday to go to Europe for the next six weeks. She's an awesome cyclist and is getting a free trip to go race with the US National Development team. How great is that?

So in celebration of her achievement and to send her off in glutinous American style I made her a giant cake. With 14 layers. It was really fun and not as difficult and time consuming as I thought it might be. I got the recipe from Bakerella, who is everything I aspire to be. Truly she is my baking hero.

Anyway, here are some pictures from today's baking marathon:

14 cakes, cooling

Icing phase 1

Icing phase 2
Ally with her cake

If you want to see Ally in action she'll be on Versus on April 4th riding in the Tour de Flanders.

A personal battle

I don't do pie. I like to eat pie, but in all of my baking adventures pie is the one thing that I have never been able to make well. I can't make pie, and believe me I've tried, but they've all just been mediocre. Not up to my usual standards. So for a while I gave up and decided I'd leave pie to those who were more talented than I.

Then I got a second wind. I decided it was time. I have heard so many horror stories about using yeast and I have that one in the bag. So if I can conquer yeast I needed to go head-to-head with pie again.

Enter The Pioneer Woman and her delicious chocolate pie recipe and viola:

I don't know yet if it's any good,
but if we're going off looks
I'd say it's a success