You know how on the first day of warm weather after a long and brutally cold winter, people find any excuse possible to be outside? Today was that day. No, I don’t live in the Southern Hemisphere, but I live in Texas. There are plenty of things I love about this state, really, like the fact that I can grow things year round, or, well lets just hold on to that. One thing I truly hate here, is the heat. Now,I’m a summer girl, I like warmer weather, and I whine like a little girl when I’m cold, but the heat her is oppressive. It’s the kind of heat where you can’t even go to the pool because its too hot. I make sure my errands are done by 10 am because anything later and you will melt just getting your seat belt on. You can imagine the scene today as the temp barely got up to 80.
My family and I peered out to see if it was true, and we saw other people. I didn’t even know I HAD neighbors, let alone the fact that they were just as pale and skittish as I. There were children riding bikes and scooters up and down the street. Gardens once left to fend for themselves were being tended to. People were building play sets in the back yards! Someone gave my neighborhood CPR and brought life back to it.
Our family went for a walk, even taking the dog. Then we went off in search of plants, trees, fresh air, and anything else we could find. We settled on a nursery not far from our house. We went looking for trees, but we left with new plants for my garden.
There were a few lettuces, kale, broccoli, and a couple other things that looked fun.
My attention soon turned to dinner, and what to make on this crisp 80 degree evening. I settled on a baked potato soup, and here’s why…. I had the stuff for it.
The only way I can get my kiddo to willingly eat veggies is in soup. He would like to consider ketchup a vegetable.
So here’s what I did:
I chopped some onion, garlic, celery, carrots and potatoes. I don’t know how many to do, it will depend on the size.
About this much:
Roughly
Sauté everybody but the potatoes in a little olive oil
Then add the potatoes and enough chicken stock and or water to just cover.
Make sure you salt this a lot as you go. Potatoes suck up salt. Did you. Know that if you over salt a sauce, you can put a potato in it and it will absorb some of the salt? I learned that from one of my grandmothers. Or, you can avoid over salting by tasting the flavor as you go. I learned that in culinary school.
Anyway, simmer this as long as you want to, or just until the potatoes are tender. Then zap it with a blender or a hand mixer. By the way, if you don’t have one of those, get one. Mine is one of my kitchen essentials along with my Dutch oven. That is by far the work horse of my kitchen.
Isn’t she beautiful? I got her one year for Christmas. My brother asked me what I would use a pot like this for as I squealed with delight when I opened it. As you have noticed, she’s the star of my blog. Maybe I should name her.
How did we get off on this tangent. I say ‘we’ as though you had a choice..
After you wiz the soup up, it’s ready for garnish. Now up to this point, the soup is free of all major allergens, and depending on what broth you use, it could be vegan as well, and you can keep it that by just adding some chopped chives, oooor you could put a big ol dollop of Greek yogurt, chopped bacon, and chives on it.
Mmmmm
I didn’t add cheese for a couple reasons. 1) I don’t like doing dishes when cheese has been added to soup. It’s messy, and sticks to my scratch pad. Weird, yes, but it keeps the extra calories away, so I’ll allow it. 2) who needs cheese when you’ve got BACON?!
I also made a gluten free chocolate chocolate chip cookie out of my own flour blend, but I’ll tell you about that tomorrow!
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