Potato Carrot Soup slow cooked in the crock pot

Potato Carrot Soup slow cooked in the Crock Pot

I happen to adore potato soup. I sit and dream about it, a lot.  I've even made it a couple of times.  The last time I made it was about 15 years ago.  The experience was so horrible, I've never tried it again.

When I lived in the beautiful state of South Carolina, the winters weren't very wintry.  They were more. Cold with some wind, sprinkled with cold sprinkled with a few warm days.  My opinion is this, if it's winter, then I want snow.  If it's winter, and there is never any snow, it's time to move.  I did move, but not because of the soup.
 I remembered making a batch of potato soup while I lived in Virginia. It turned out very well.  Despite not having the recipe, I decided to give it a try in SC.  I imagined coming home from work to the smell of potato soup, of having a big bowl of it while curled up in front of the TV.  Dreaming of snow.
The next morning before work, I cut up the potatoes, veggies, added seasoning and the cream.  Set the slow cooker on low, walked out excited for the evening to come.  When I came home from work, I went straight to the crock pot for a peek.  I opened the lid, and. Shut the lid. Unplugged the crock pot.  Placed it outside on the steps.  Got into the car, and went to a fast food restaurant. Crushed.
Why?  I found out later, that you don't add the cream/milk at the beginning of the cooking process or it will.......anyone.........curdle.  Yes, curdle.  As in sour milk.  Disgusting.  But wait, that's not the end of the story.
When I came home, I decided to deal with the soup later.  I was not only tired, but disappointed as well, and the soup was already bad so it wouldn't hurt it to wait.  The problem is, my room mate saw the crock pot on the steps and moved it.  Why? Anyone's guess.  Out of sight, out of mind.  Several days later I remembered the crock pot.  If you can imagine, already curdled milk, potatoes, and some SC heat..... the smell of a rotting elephant would have been a welcome breeze to the stench that "soup" put off.  Gingerly taking the pot, lest any of that horrible stuff dripped on me, I dumped it into the wood pile at the back of the property.  I hosed out the crock pot, scrubbed, hosed, scrubbed, hosed and finally brought it inside to put into the dishwasher for two or three cycles.  Just in case.  Thankfully the ordeal was over, the next day was Saturday.  I'd just enjoy the unseasonably warm winter weather.

The next morning, I got my cup of coffee, a good book, my comfy clothes, and took my seat in the rocking chair on the front porch to enjoy my day.
During this time in SC, I had adopted a pit bull, named Mumblie Peg.  He got this name because he couldn't bark and he was missing part of his back foot.  The, person, who owned him before I got him, fought him in the pits.  Despite being scarred all over, missing part of his back foot and only having the ability to "mumble" when he barked, he was one of the greatest dogs I have ever owned.  He knew exactly how to "work" his nubby foot.  He was, what I call, a watch dog.
 Imagine you were a thief who had just broken into my house:  Mumblie would watch you take everything out of the house, make no move to stop you, make no sound, until.....food appeared.  Then he would watch you melt, as he tucked that stumpy leg under him and limp toward you.  Head lowered, tail wagging, then thump down on his behind so you could feed him, pet him and so on.  As you can see from the picture, Mumblie was not hungry.
 Quite the contrary, everyone in the neighborhood knew about our watch dog, and they fed him.  Many a worker gave that dog their entire lunch, only to realize they'd been had (that's Southern for, tricked), when Mum saw me and came bounding over on all 3 legs and the stump.  He was quite the character.  This morning he came toward me, grinning, tail wagging.  As he came closer, I noticed an odor.  It grew, the closer he got.  My first thought was, he'd gotten hurt and the wound was infected.  No, that wasn't it.  No the smell was of something rotting.  Definitely something rotting, something big.  We were near the river, alligators might have killed something...no, he wouldn't go down there.  By now, he's nearly on the porch and I was gagging because of the horrific stench this dog was putting off.  I ran inside.  I discussed this turn of events with my room mate.  We decided to look around the property to see if there was anything that would explain the smell the dog was emitting.
 Upon leaving the house, I saw Mum heading for the woods.  I followed him.  He went straight for the wood pile.  The same wood pile I had dumped the offending soup into.  I held my nose, went in for a look, and there was no sign of the soup. Anywhere.  Not a scrap, drop, drip, nothing.  Mum had eaten the soup.  Mum smelled like the soup.  My days of  making potato soup were over.  Mum's days of me petting him were over until the smell that permeated his body was gone.  Poor guy.
15 years later, I've worked up the nerve to try again.  Man am I glad!  A girl I worked with had given me her recipe for crock pot potato soup, after I relayed the story to her.  Once we stopped laughing, she wrote it down for me.  That was 12 years ago.  No one can say I'm a coward, well, a chicken, but not a coward.

Sunday I cut up the veggies, put in the seasoning, turned the crock pot on low and left it all day long.  The smell was fantastic, mouth watering, everything I hoped for.  That evening, when it was time to finish the recipe, I couldn't.  I was scared it would be bad, and all that food would be wasted.  So, I waited, on what I don't know, but I waited.  Monday came along, time to do it.  In for a penny, in for a pound.  Let's just say, it was delicious.  I put too many carrots in it, so it wasn't exactly potato soup.  What can I say, I guess potato soup is not my strong point! None-the-less, it was delicious.

Potato Carrot Soup:

2 qts water (or enough to cover veggies) use chicken stock if you like
7 large red potatoes
1 small bag pre-cut carrots
1 large red onion
4 stalks celery
salt
pepper
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter
2% milk

Cut the veggies up
Place in crock pot
cover with water, add seasoning
cook on low until the potatoes and carrots are fork tender

Pour out the water, reserve some of it

In a skillet melt butter, add flour and brown, gently over medium heat
add some of the reserved liquid until thick and bubbly
add the milk stirring constantly until you achieve a creamy consistency
remove from heat

Take a potato masher and mash the veggies in the crock pot
Add the thickened soup in with the veggies
Stir, serve immediately. Or.....

Fry up some bacon to sprinkle on top, with cheese, scallions, chives.......

Serve with crusty bread and some sweet tea.  OoooooWeeee that's some good stuff!

Slow cooked Boneless Chicken thighs with Saffron rice and Glazed dill Carrots

Let me just start by saying, I love my crock pot. It's a fantastic way to cook a meal that makes your family think you slaved away in the kitchen all day. The first time I ever cooked raw chicken in it, I just knew we would all have salmonella. Thankfully, that didn't happen. What did happen? We had BBQ chicken drumsticks with the meat falling off the bone. It was so delicious. I've been experimenting with different ways to cook the chicken, flavors, seasoning, and things like that. Sometimes it's a hit, sometimes it's a big ole miss, but at least it's a try.


I don't understand how people are willing to sit on the side lines and watch, instead of try, because they are afraid of failure. That, to me, is the ultimate failure, not even trying. I love to ski. I use to work at a ski resort as a ski instructor. Sometimes, when I didn’t have a class to teach, I’d go on a “clinic” with a more advanced skier, to better my skiing ability. Before we started went down the run, we were discussing the last big fall we had. I proudly said I hadn’t fallen all season. To which the Clinic leader promptly answered, “Then you haven’t been trying hard enough.” I was shocked, I thought the idea was not to fall. He went on to say that the only way to improve is to give it 100%. No one learns on the first try, but you can’t get better if you don’t push past your fears and limits. That means don’t be afraid to fall, it’s not a badge of shame,  it’s merely gravity reminding us what happens to objects that go up. Speaking of objects that go up, another good piece of advice I learned: Be careful who you step on going up the ladder of success, you might just have to pass them again on your way back down. So I learned it's ok to fall, it's just not ok to stay down.

My husband and I love to eat at a little place in Falls Church, VA. Panjshir, they serve authentic Afghan food, which is delicious. Great atmosphere, wonderful service and the food is always wonderful. We always get Sambosay Goshti, which is a deep fried pastry filled with ground beef, chickpeas and parsley for an appetizer. For my main course I get the Kebab-E-Murgh, which is chicken kebab served on a bed of saffron rice. The food leaves me full, not stuffed, with warmth all over from the wonderful mix of flavors.

For some reason, cooking with saffron has always been very intimidating to me. It’s very expensive, so I don’t want to experiment with it, not knowing how it will turn out. So it sits in the cabinet where it will end up being thrown out when I clean my spice racks out. That makes no sense, instead of trying (for fear of wasting it), I let it sit in the cabinet where it, gets wasted. Time to get up and try. I got on www.FoodNetwork.com and typed in Saffron Rice, one of the first recipes that came up was from Paula Deen. I didn’t need to look any further. Recipe from Paula Deen, *win*. Saffron Rice with a few ingredients, *win*. Level listed as easy, *win win*.



Saffron Rice
By Paula Deen, 2007
http://www.foodnetwork.com/search/delegate.do?fnSearchString=saffron+rice&fnSearchType=site




 
Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter

¾ cup diced onion

1 cup long-grain, white rice

3 cups Chicken stock

Pinch Saffron threads

Salt and freshly ground black pepper



Directions:

In a large saucepan or pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions while stirring in the rice to coat with the butter. Pour in the chicken stock, saffron, salt and pepper. Raise the heat to high and bring to a boil. Cover, turn the heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes. Remove the lid and fluff with a fork before serving.








Slow cooked Boneless Chicken Thighs:



Large package of boneless, chicken thighs

1 package onion soup mix

1 carton organic chicken stock mix

1 low sodium chicken bouillon cube

1 cup water

2 cloves garlic minced

2 Stalks celery, rough chopped

1 tbsp sage

1 tbsp thyme



-Best to start this in the morning, so it will be ready for dinner and the house will smell delicious-



Pour chicken broth and water in slow cooker

Add the bouillon cube, onion soup mix, garlic, celery, sage and thyme

Salt and pepper to taste

Put the lid on and turn to low leave it alone until it’s almost time to eat



Carrots:



2 cups chopped carrots

1 tbsp dill

2 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsp butter

Salt to taste



Gently boil the carrots until they are soft, drain water

Melt butter in sauce pan coating the carrots; add the brown sugar and dill

Cover to keep warm and set aside.


Dinner was superb, if I say so myself.  The Carrots are my Moms recipe.  They are so delicious!!
Have a super dinner!!!

Home made Parmesan cheese breaded Chicken nuggets, tator tots, salad with Garlic Feta cheese

Hey Paw! What's for supper?
Home made chicken nuggets, cut from breast meat fillets. Coated in bread crumbs, and Parmesan cheese and baked in the oven. Crisp tator tots, served with a salad sprinkled with Feta cheese. Yummmmmyyyyy

You may notice that one day of recipes is missing. That's because the church had a dinner and we ate there Thursday night. It was very good, but since I didn't make anything, I don't have a recipe. I thought I should have brought something, as I was pulling into the church's parking lot. I don't know why I didn't, it wasn't very thoughtful of me, was it?! Anyway, no one seemed to mind and we had a wonderful meal. The baby got to hang out with his Grandpa, and that made him very happy. He said "Paw Paw" a couple of times, pretty clearly. It was a proud moment for my Dad. It was also kind of sad when later on the baby went looking for his Daddy. His Daddy had to work, and I was bringing him a plate home. The little boy went to several closed doors, and shouted for his DaDa, he then cupped his ear and listened for a reply. We all kind of felt bad for the little guy, but he didn't cry, he just ran back to us. He sure loves his Dada!
Last night, I wanted to try my hand at chicken nuggets. I didn't want to fry them, I wish I had let them marinate in lemon juice for a little bit, but live and learn. They still turned out really well, moist and tasty. I think if I had added the lemon juice, it would have given the coating something to stick to, some moisture to stick to. I will try that next time. I'm sure you noticed the tator tots, I just love them. I used a Greek Feta cheese crumble over the salad, with romaine hearts, tomato and chopped carrots. My husband really enjoyed it. The little boy ate some tots, a lot of ketchup and a few nuggets. I should have made him eat his chicken before I gave him the tots and ketchup! Again, live and learn. Let's get started.

Tator Tots:
Frozen, out of bag, follow instructions.

Salad:
Hearts of Romain lettuce
Greek seasoned Feta cheese
Tomato
Carrots
Ranch dressing
Toss in a bowl

Parmesan breaded Chicken Nuggets:

Boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 1/2 cups Plain Bread crumbs
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 good hand full of finely chopped parsley
Lots of Parmesan cheese ( I used the kind you have to grate your self)

Heat oven to 375
slice the chicken into strips, then into chunks
Pour the rest of the ingredients into a zip lock baggy, add the chicken then mix thoroughly until the nuggets are coated.
Place aluminum foil on a baking sheet and rub with olive oil
Dump the nuggets, in one layer, onto the foil
Bake for 15 minutes, put the tator tots in and bake another 20, until the tots are crisp
Check the nuggets after 30, depending on their thickness, it may not take that long to bake

I hope you enjoy this, and would love to hear your comments! Let me know you've been by to ask Paw what's for supper!

Hot dogs and homemade coleslaw

Hey Paw! What's for supper?

Hot dogs with chili and homemade coleslaw. YUMMMMYYYYY!

I haven't blogged in a couple of days, been really busy. Like everyone I suppose. I was out for 3 days in a row and the house looked like an elephant had come through, eating and throwing everything in sight. So I've been trying to catch up. The little one has hit his, GRAB everything in sight and ignore the word "no", stage. You know, he looks at me with those innocent eyes and does exactly what he's not suppose to do. The last couple of days, he's figured out how to remove the safety plugs from the electrical outlets. He brings them to me and says, uh oh! I tell him no, and try to explain it's not safe to touch outlets. I then go put the plugs back in, and he waits until I've moved on to something else, then I hear, Uh Oh. There he stands with the plugs. I took them from him and told him, he's being bad and again "explain". He promptly turned around and went straight to the outlet and tried to stick one finger in each hole! I had to raise my voice and get sharp with him. So far, it's worked. Honestly, sometimes I feel like I should just talk to the refrigerator, I might get a better response than from the little one. He's definately hitting the "terrible two's". After dinner last night, I'm in the kitchen cleaning up. I look over to the kitchen table and there he is, in the middle of the table! He climbed into the chair and up onto the table. Oh dear, I'm in big trouble with him. He's a climber!

NOTE TO MOMS:

When you load the dishwasher, make sure to put all sharp objects facing down, toward the bottom of the dishwasher. I personally can't imagine anyone who doesn't do this, but apparantly there are people who put sharp pointy objects facing upwards. It will save you from getting stuck by your knives or forks when you reach in to empty the dishwasher. Most importantly it will save your little one from getting cut or hurt. My neighbor told me a little girl was killed in NC when she ran into the kitchen and fell into the dishwasher her Mom was unloading and was stabbed by a knife facing up.

I was reading in a magazine about Pediatric ER doctors. The article was about the top 10 things Pediatric ER doctors wanted parents to know. The first one they wanted parents to know is: cut grapes and hotdogs into small bite size pieces before giving them to your child. They said that one of the worst things they have to do is tell a parent their child has suffocated to death on a piece of hotdog or a grape. Anything that is round and can get stuck in their throat should be cut into bite size pieces: cherry's, cherry tomatoes, hot dogs, grapes, or gum drops, to name a few. Gumballs should be avoided until the child is older and able to chew really, really well. You should cut the gumball into half, if possible, or avoid it all together along with jaw breakers!

Back to the blog:

Let's get to the supper menu. I didn't know what to fix, and hot dogs sounded really easy. I have never fed my little guy hot dogs. He did have a few bites of my corn dog in Disney World, and loved it. I remembered what I had read about hot dogs being such a choking hazard, so was a little timid about it. Then I had an idea, pop into my head, cut the hot dog in half length wise. Then cut that half, in half again, lengthwise. So instead of one hot dog wienie, I now have 4 pieces. I would then, put two on a piece of bread, add some chili, then wrap the bread around and press it closed. It sounded good to me, so that's what I did. I also thought to cut the wrapped up hot dog into 4 bite size pieces he could pick up with his little fingers. Eureka!

What about the cole slaw? The last time I attempted cole slaw, it was so bad, it went directly into the trash can. Do not pass go, do not collect $100, just go straight to jail, errrr, trash! Well, the food network always has tons of ideas, so I went to their website. I found a recipe that was quick and easy, so I took it. It's by Robert Irvine, from his show, Dinner Impossible. I love that show, anyway, this was a hit. I only added one small sprinkling of something to give it a little more zing, since I didn't have the "white wine vinegar." You'll see in the recipe notes, what I did. It was very good! Let's get to the recipes!

Hot Dogs:

Ummmm, you need hot dogs, buns and chili. heat on stove and there you are!

Cole Slaw:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dinner-impossible/cole-slaw-recipe/index.html

6 cups shredded cabbage
1 cup shredded carrot
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 cup sugar
Salt and pepper
Directions
In a large bowl, combine cabbage and carrots. In a smaller bowl, make dressing by combining mayonnaise, vinegar, celery seed, sugar, salt and pepper. Toss dressing into cabbage mixture and let chill. Serve in a family style bowl.

I didn't have the white wine vinegar or celery seed, so I used apple cider vinegar, and thinly chopped celery. It was good, but lacked a little punch, I thought maybe the two missing ingredients would have added. So, I sprinkled, just a very little bit, of garlic powder in and that did it. This will be my "go to" cole slaw from now on, it's YUMMMMYYYY!

My guys loved it, and gobbled it all up! I have to say, I thought it was pretty tasty myself!