Creamy Potato Soup

I feel like a real chef because I made this soup up. Well, sort of. I looked at a few different potato soup recipes and then came up with this. And guess what! It's really good! 

CREAMY POTATO SOUP

Ingredients:

8 strips of bacon

2 cups chopped onion

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp butter

1/4 cup flour

1 cup chicken broth

3-4 potatoes, peeled and diced

2 1/2 cups milk or cream

1 cup corn

shredded cheddar cheese (1/2-3/4 cup)

salt (1/2 tsp) & pepper (to taste)

hot sauce (to taste)

Directions: 

Cut strips of bacon into bite sized pieces and cook for a couple of minutes (don’t make them crispy) then add chopped onion. Cook together until onion is soft and translucent. Add minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add butter and flour. Stir together then pour in chicken broth. Stir continuously until things have thickened slightly. Add milk/cream and potatoes and bring to SIMMER (don’t boil!). Simmer for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Add corn and shredded cheese. Stir until cheese is melted and corn is warm. Add salt, pepper and hot sauce. Enjoy. 

Serves 6-8

Grilled Sandwiches

While browsing through Pinterest I keep seeing these delicious looking veggie grilled sandwiches. These are nice because you can change the ingredients all the time depending on what you have on hand. The ones I just made had pesto, avocado, tomato, and pepperjack cheese on whole wheat bread. Delicious. I can't wait to try things like sprouts, spinach, and different cheeses - I might even throw on a slab of ham if I feel like it.

I need to put more effort into taking better pictures of my food, but...meh.



Note: I normally don't like my bread so grilled/burnt/black. I'm still learning to pay attention to the time I leave it on the stove.

Sopapilla Cheesecake Pie

So after I returned home last night quite late from a meeting and put on my cozy robe, I decided to check my email right before bed. Cierra's Spanish teacher had sent out an email to all of the parents saying she hoped our student informed us of the "Celebration of Cultures" party the following morning, and would we please remember to send something from the culture our students are studying to share with the class. Seriously? It was 11:00 and the following morning I had an entire day of meetings starting quite early. I immediately Xed out of my email and went to allrecipes.com to find the simplest mexican recipe I could find. I looked at the very first recipe that had a lot of stars next to the title (even though I really didn't care if it tasted good or not), printed it out, got dressed, ran to the store and went to straight to bed when I got home. I made this recipe before Cierra left for school at 7:30 a.m. and then... oh.. my.. yum! This dessert was divine and so easy!

Bad for you? Of course it is. Why else would I label it divine?

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp. Mexican vanilla

2 (8 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent rolls

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/4 cup honey

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Beat the cream cheese with 1 cup of sugar and the vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth.

3. Unroll the cans of crescent roll dough, and use a rolling pin to shape each package so that you have TWO 9x13 rectangles. Press one of the rectangles into the bottom of the baking dish. Evenly spread the cream cheese mixture over the dough, then cover with the remaining piece of crescent dough. Stir together 3/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, and butter. Dot the mixture over the top of the cheesecake.

4. Bake in the preheated oven until the crescent dough has puffed and turned golden brown, about 30 min. Remove from oven and drizzle with honey. Cool completely in pan before cutting into squares.

Gourmet Ham & Cheese Sliders

Another Pinterest recipe. This website is making me domestic. I used light/low fat/low sodium/whatever ingredients and they were delicious, but you can use the fatty stuff if you want, I guess.

Ham and Cheese Sliders

24 good white dinner rolls (I used Rhodes Rolls)
24 pieces good honey ham
24 small slices Swiss cheese
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup miracle whip

Poppy seed sauce
1 Tablespoon poppyseeds
1 1/2 Tablespoons yellow mustard
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 Tablespoon minced onion
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

In a small bowl, mix together mayonnaise and miracle whip. Spread onto both sides of the center of each roll. Place a slice of ham and a slice of Swiss inside of each roll. Close rolls and place them into a large baking dish or heavy cookie sheet. Place very close together.

In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the poppy seed sauce ingredients. Pour evenly over all of the sandwiches. Let sit 10 minutes or until butter sets slightly. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until cheese is melted. Uncover and cook for 2 additional minutes. Serve warm.

** sandwiches can be assembled a day ahead and kept in the fridge ready to bake.

These are how mine turned out.

Grilled Turkey and Swiss Sandwich

Matthew and I LOVE this quick and insanely delicious sandwich, not to mention filling because you can make as many as you'd like. I found it back in the spring and we have decided we love these sandwiches any month and for any meal. I don't have any photos of our sandwiches because we eat ours the moment they are done. So, for more photos and a step by step you can check out the recipe at, Jamie Cooks It Up!. 

My advice: The sauce is awesome and you should go with making it strong, but the sandwich can stand on it's own two feet if you decide to go a bit more mellow. I also guesstimate on all the measurements because you can't go wrong with making it how you like it. Load up everything how you like and you will have a filling and amazing tasting sandwich.

INGREDIENTS

1 loaf french bread

soft butter

1 1/2 - 2  pounds thinly sliced turkey

1 pound thinly sliced Swiss cheese

2 - 3 tomatoes

Sauce:

1 C mayonnaise

1 1/2 T stone ground mustard (you can use plain mustard if that is all you have)

1 1/2 T red onion, chopped fine (if you want more add more)

1 t dried thyme (1/2 tsp ground thyme works too)

 

How To

1. Stir all ingredients for sauce together in a bowl

2. Butter one side of bread, plop it in a small skillet pan, spread on the sauce, cheese, tomatoes, turkey and then butter and sauce up the other piece of bread and place it on top. (Make it like you were making a grilled cheese sandwich- EASY)

3. I sometimes cover the pan with a lid if my cheese is a bit thicker and needs help melting, but you don't need to use a lid.

4. Flip it over and cook the other side

5. Cut it diagonally (it tastes better). 

 

ENJOY!

Creamy green chile chicken enchiladas

Holy cow, these are awesome. Sky said they were the best enchiladas he's ever had. I got the recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. I followed the recipe exactly except for the cilantro. We don't do cilantro over here.

Filling:
3 cups cooked, chopped chicken
2 (4 oz.) cans of green chiles, lightly drained
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, cubed
1 can white or black beans, rinsed and drained (you can really use any type of bean you prefer here)

Sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped onion (about 1/2 medium onion)
2 tablespoons flour
1/3 cup chicken broth
¼ cup milk
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 can (7 ounce) green chile enchilada sauce
½ cup sour cream

8 ounces (about 2 cups) Monterey jack cheese, shredded
8 medium (soft taco size) flour tortillas
Handful of chopped fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine the softened cream cheese and green chiles. Mix well. Add the chicken and black beans. Mix to combine. Set aside.

In a large nonstick skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens and starts to turn translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir well. Cook for 1 minute, stirring. Slowly whisk in the chicken broth and milk. As you whisk and the mixture cooks, the flour will get less lumpy around the onions and the mixture will become smooth. Cook over medium heat until the mixture is bubbling and has thickened, about 4-5 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the enchilada sauce and sour cream.

Lightly grease a 9X13-inch baking dish. Spread about 1/4 cup of the sauce on the bottom of the dish. Fill each tortilla with about ½ cup of the chicken/cream cheese filling. Top with a small handful of shredded cheese, a couple tablespoonfuls for each enchilada. Save at least 1/2 cup cheese for the top of the enchiladas. Roll the tortillas up and place seam side down in the prepared baking dish. Continue filling enchiladas until the dish is full.

Pour the white sauce over the top of the enchiladas. Top with remaining cheese. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the enchiladas are bubbling, hot and lightly browned. Sprinkle fresh cilantro over the top and serve.

Creamy Chicken Soup

Yesterday was the first cold and stormy day of Fall so of course last night I broke out the soup recipes. I like this one because it's super fast to make and a comfort food to boot. Since I have left overs, my one and only EVER love of my life (to whom I've been married to for 32! years today) and myself are going to take this soup up to the mountains and have lunch while we watch the snow fall. A beautiful life.

2-3 Chicken Breasts or 1 Rotisserie Chicken (I just use however much of it I'd like)

1/2 Cup each of diced Celery and Carrots (I add way more carrots)

1 medium Onion chopped (about 1 cup)

2- 14 oz. cans Chicken Broth

2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup

1 Cup Half & Half

8oz. package of Wide Egg or Homestyle Noodles

Simmer celery, carrots and onions in chicken broth until barely tender.

While vegetables are cooking, cook noodles and set aside.

Add the cans of Cream of Chicken Soup to the veggies. Add Half & Half and stir carefully with wire whisk. Add chicken and noodles. Serves 6