Cheesy Potato Soup

I've taken the next step in learning how to cook - I made up a recipe today. Well, okay, this soup recipe is not completely original - I looked at a few recipes and got some ideas for a base for it - but it's different enough from the ones I looked at that I feel I can say this one is my own. We had this for dinner tonight. I haven't gone grocery shopping yet this week, so I just used what I had on hand. We thought this was pretty good. It is a nice, creamy, comforting soup for a cold day. I added two secret ingredients - Louisiana hot sauce and a little Worcestershire sauce - and they added some depth of flavor without being too prominent.

1 medium onion, chopped
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tbsp butter
5 medium potatoes, diced
1 1/2 cups water
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
2-3 tsp Louisiana hot sauce
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic until onion is transparent. Add potatoes, water, and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes until potatoes are tender. Add milk and flour and increase heat to medium. Heat until starting to bubble and thicken. Mix in cheddar cheese until melted. Add hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. Makes 2-3 servings as a main course.

Super Bowl Sunday

This year's Super Bowl wasn't quite as exciting for me as last year's since the Bears weren't in it, but we still had fun having people over and eating a lot of food. This year we had about twenty people over, some of those being kids. I made way too much food, but now I have lots to eat this week. Next time I'm going to let other people bring more, and I'll scale back a bit. You know, the problem with preparing for a Super Bowl party is that there's no time to relax afterwards. You spend all weekend in the kitchen, have your party, clean up, and then it's back to work the next day. At least with Thanksgiving I had three days to recover!

All in all we had a great time. Here was the line-up:

Buffalo Wings
I made these last year, and they were so good that they deserved repeating. I made about six pounds of wings and made 1 1/2 times the sauce. These were eaten up and I only had about eight wings left at the end of the party. I served them with blue cheese dressing. Just like Hooters wings, but without the degradation of women.
Sweet Chili-Glazed Chicken Wings
I made these last year also, but this time I cooked them in my roasting pan with the wire rack so they didn't get soggy. I baked them for 30 minutes, then broiled them for a few minutes just to get them a little crispy. I left out the chili-garlic sauce and most of the crushed red pepper since kids would be eating them.
New England Clam Chowder
I was rooting for the Giants but I still liked the idea of making this to go along with the New England Patriots. This clam chowder was delicious - thinner than I'm used to, but what flavor! This was an excellent recipe, especially given that it calls for canned clams and bottled clam juice! Unfortunately, I discovered that chowder is just not a popular Super Bowl food. Most people went for the wings and other things that could be picked up and eaten with their hands. But I would definitely make this one again, for ourselves or for company. I used 1/2 cups of flour, and added the reserved clam juice at the end so that I could control how thin it would end up - otherwise I followed the recipe exactly.
Deviled Eggs
Same recipe as last year, always a crowd pleaser. No matter what fancy appetizers you make for a party, deviled eggs are always the first to go.
Guacamole
I stuck with Alton Brown's recipe that I used last year, but doubled it this time. We had a lot left over - we didn't have as many guacamole fans as we thought we would. My avocados were not the best, but this was still very good.
Hummus and Pita Chips
I've made this hummus before and blogged about it here. Very good, but didn't get eaten much at the party, likely because I had way too much food out there. Well, that just goes to show you that I'm a good Filipino. Better to have too much food at a party than not enough! That would be a Filipino host's worst nightmare.
Veggie Tray
I did the same as I did last year, and made my own tray of baby carrots, grape tomatoes, and celery sticks. I made Ranch dip using a Hidden Valley ranch dressing packet and a 16 oz. tub of sour cream.
Grapes
Believe it or not, this may have been the most popular item on the buffet line. Kids love grapes. And when you are full but want to keep eating, a handful of grapes goes down pretty easy. I had a large bowl full of red and green grapes. My husband was sure to cut up the bunches so that guests could grab a handful easily.
Chocolate-Covered Caramelized Matzoh Crunch
I follow David Lebovitz's blog, and was excited to see this recipe this past week. His pictures on his blog just made it look so delicious! This was pretty good, but not knock-my-socks-off. I think it would be better if I had some sea salt sprinkled on top of them like he suggests. This is not very difficult to make, so if you happen to have matzoh crackers laying around, this is a good use for them.
Cinnamon-Scented Devil's Food Cupcakes
I think I have a standard rotation now for the Super Bowl - wings, guacamole, deviled eggs, and cupcakes. These are my building blocks. I made a different type of cupcake this year. I've had this one bookmarked for years, and finally tried it this weekend. I didn't want to use all of my precious Droste cocoa powder (that I had to buy in Wisconsin because they don't sell good cocoa powder in east Tennessee!), so I used half Nestle's and half Droste. I colored the frosting so that 1/3 of the cupcakes had white frosting, 1/3 had red, and 1/3 had blue (since those were the colors for both teams). I used regular cupcake liners instead of panettone molds, and ended up with about 45 cupcakes. These were excellent cupcakes - moist, rich cake, and the frosting has a subtle almond flavor. These were a lot of work, but I've realized that all cupcakes made from scratch are a lot of work. For special occasions they are worth it!

Some of my guests also brought a spinach dip with crackers, chocolate chip cookies, and another veggie tray. Needless to say, we all left with full bellies and happy hearts, celebrating the Giants win and enjoying some good party food.

Carrot Soup with Ginger and Lemon

It was 6:45 pm tonight, I had just woken up from a nap and felt too cold to get out from under my blanket, my husband was watching the Bears game, and I needed to cook dinner even though I didn't really feel like it. We had spaghetti with Walmart sauce last night, so we couldn't have that again... and part of me felt bad about letting my husband eat oatmeal for dinner on a weekend, even though he probably would have been fine with that. So I got our from under my blanket and looked in the fridge to see what we had. Not much. We did have chicken in the freezer, but we already had chicken this week and I didn't really feel like meat tonight.

Then I remembered that we had a five pound bag of carrots in the crisper. I went on Epicurious to find a carrot soup recipe, and I had most of the ingredients for this one. This was delicious! I skipped the tomatoes because I didn't have any, used water instead of chicken stock, and skipped the grated carrot at the end. I also just zested one lemon into the pot rather than measuring the zest out, because I was lazy. We both thought this soup was excellent and will have it again. I would try it with tomatoes if I have them, and I would use less ginger next time (maybe 3/4 of a tablespoon instead of a full one). I liked a dollop of sour cream in my bowl but my husband did without it and still thought it was great. It made just enough for two good-sized helpings, which was plenty for the two of us. A nice, relatively healthy dinner on the fly tonight.


Update 01/11/08: I made this again tonight, this time adding a can of whole tomatoes and a couple teaspoons of chicken Better than Bouillon. I liked it better without these additions. I think I added too much lemon zest this time - next time I will measure it.

Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup with Sesame and Green Onions

This was the last week that we got a CSA basket. This week there was a Chinese cabbage in it, which I have never cooked with before. Generally now when I get a new vegetable in the CSA basket, I look it up in The Joy of Cooking first to figure out what it taste like and how to use it. Sometimes I look on the Cook's Thesaurus website to get more background info too. Then I look for a recipe. I found this one for Chinese chicken noodle soup, and had most of the ingredients on hand. I had to substitute white wine for Sherry, and substituted Thai rice noodles for the yakisoba noodles. I was almost out of tahini so I probably used less than half of what the recipe called for.

This soup was pretty good. It was a good mix of flavors, with just a little bit of kick from the chili-garlic sauce. My husband gave it three out of four stars a la Epicurous's rating system. I've come to the conclusion that it is just hard to make Chinese food that knocks your socks off. Foods that knock my socks off tend to have a lot of butter, sugar, or cream, and unfortunately Chinese food doesn't use much of those ingredients. (That's probably why most Chinese people are skinny, and most Americans are fat.) I would try to get the actual yakisoba noodles if I make this again, because the long rice noodles were difficult to eat in a soup.

Potato, Carrot, and Parsnip Soup

I've never cooked with parsnips before, but we got some in our CSA basket this past week, and I am almost always willing to try something once. I was a little wary, because I have never even eaten a parsnip, and "parsnip" just sounds too similar to "turnip", which I have already discovered to be a really, really nasty vegetable.

Good thing I'm a food risk-taker. I found this soup recipe and had most of the ingredients on hand, so I made this last night. I skipped the parsley, subbed a pinch of dried thyme for fresh, yellow potatoes for red, and white wine for sherry. This is a great fall soup - hearty from all the chunks of vegetables, yet with a smooth rich flavor. I was pleasantly surprised by the parsnips. If I ever get parsnips again I know what I'm going to make.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I just love butternut squash. I discovered it last year, and it is such a wonderful flavor. I usually make a lasagna out of it but wanted to try some quicker (but equally delicious!) ways of making it. I made this soup for dinner tonight and it fit the bill. It was very easy to make - just pop the squash in the oven for 40 minutes, puree it in the food processor, and then mix it with a few other ingredients. I also roasted a leek and a couple cloves of garlic with the squash and pureed them all together. I used a big pinch of nutmeg, and used half-and-half instead of milk (whole milk would have been good too). With the leek and garlic, the soup has a lot of depth to it. We loved it and I'll definitely make it again.

Creamy Turnip Soup

One of my coworkers got a bunch of homegrown vegetables as a gift and was giving them away this week. There were a lot of turnips, and I figured I would give them a try. I have never eaten a turnip before, but since they were free I thought I would experiment with them.

Well, now I know why I have never eaten them. It's because they are bad. I found this recipe for turnip soup, and made it last night. I confess that I did have to make some substitutions (sweet onions instead of storage onions, soymilk for milk, evaporated milk for cream), but even if I didn't do that, I think it still would have been awful. These turnips just had the most bitter aftertaste - I couldn't eat it. I think I forced three spoonfuls down and then I gave up. My husband tried to eat a bowlful to be nice, but I told him he didn't have to eat it if he didn't like it, to which he breathed a sigh of relief. I don't like to waste food but this pot of soup went directly down the drain. It was the worst meal I have ever made. Thankfully, we had also made corn on the cob and biscuits (and had a container of Rocky Road ice cream in the freezer), so we did not go hungry last night.

Now, I have read online since that smaller turnips tend to be sweeter, and summer turnips when it's really hot out tend to be more bitter. So, perhaps someone somewhere makes turnips and they actually taste good. I am willing to eat them again if someone else makes them who can tell a good turnip from a bad one. I, however, will never make them again. There are plenty of other good vegetables out there to eat.

Spicy Garbanzo Bean and Turkey Sausage Soup

My hubby wanted me to try this one. We thought it was very tasty but needed more fluid - otherwise it is more like a stew. Instead of turkey sausage in casings, I bought one of those tubes of turkey sausage which was much cheaper.

Yucatan-Style Chicken, Lime, and Orzo Soup

I've made this soup a couple times before and it's one that we enjoy, but I couldn't remember if I used two jalapenos or just one in the past. Note to future self: just use one jalapeno. Woo! Spicy. It's a great soup, but two jalapenos dominate the flavor of the soup. I used canned diced tomatoes this time - I think I do like fresh tomatoes better with this one. A good soup but better when it's turned down a notch.

Moroccan Chickpea Soup

I made this soup a few nights ago for dinner. It's the national soup of Morocco. Every night during Ramadan every house makes this soup (called harira) to break their fast. There's my random bit of knowledge for the day. :) It was great - a nice hearty soup for a cold winter night. I used spaghetti instead of capellini and it was fine. I'd never cooked with dried chickpeas before - they were good, but take a while to cook. Next time I'll boil the chickpeas the night before.

French Lentil Soup

I'm trying to learn how to cook with lentils more often, since I know we'll have lentils available when we move overseas. I made French Lentil Soup today, which was awesome. There's not a whole lot to it in terms of spices, but the flavors meld so well and the balsalmic vinegar adds some depth to it. My hubby said it was the best lentil soup he's ever had! I made Buttermilk Biscuits from the new Joy of Cooking with it - those were pretty good, but my husband says he likes them as much as the ones made of Walmart biscuit mix, so I'm not going to bother with them until we move somewhere that doesn't have a Walmart (Mars, perhaps).

Butternut Squash Soup with Ginger

I bought a butternut squash last week, and realized a couple days ago that the side it was laying on was developing a veggie pressure ulcer of sorts, so I had to cook it that day. I chopped off the bad part of course. I made this soup with the squash. After reading the reviews I doubled the ginger and roasted the garlic with the squash. The soup itself was pretty good, except I thought the ginger overpowered the subtle flavor of the squash. If I make it again I'll use the amount of ginger that the recipe calls for. I liked this soup, but not any better than this recipe for Southwestern Pumpkin Soup, which is way easier.

I also learned the hard way that you really should follow the directions for the Cuisinart, and not fill the bowl too much, unless you like to have squash puree all over your kitchen counters, which I prefer not to.

Barley and Lentil Soup with Swiss Chard

Made this soup last night, but substituted spinach for the swiss chard and used dried dill instead of fresh. Eh. I had company over and all of us were adding salt to it at the table. Even with that, this soup just didn't have the "wow" that I was looking for. I had forewarned my guests that this was a new recipe that I was trying, but I still felt kind of bad for serving guests an okay-tasting soup.