Tater Soup

My grandfather was an amazing cook. There are so many meals he made that just make me think of being a little girl and enjoying them with him. He passed away Labor Day weekend in 1999. Ten years already. : ( I miss my Grampa still to this day. When I cook, I try to duplicate his recipes from memory. His potato soup was a favorite of mine. This tastes DARN close to his. And it's EASY to make.

I only use yukon gold potatoes for this. I just find the taste so amazing. and I use a LOT of ground black pepper. Please alter to your tastebuds. And, I know there is a lot of butter in the picture, but trust me, this pot fed all of us for dinner and a guy I work with got 4 bowls (he asked me to try it) from his container of leftovers, and Brett and I BOTH had soup for work lunches. So that is my word on the buttah... it looks like it's a TON, but I swear it's not.



Start with half and half and chicken broth.



Pour into a nice big pot





Cube the potatoes. You can skin them or leave them alone. Entirely up to you.





Add onions. I love onions, so I add a LOT. Isn't this the niftiest cutting bowl? A guy at work gave it to me, his wife was packing up to move to their new house and she decided she did not want it any longer. I am in love with it!



Fresh Ground pepper. This is a blend of different peppers- McCormick makes it. You can pick it up in the spice aisle with the little grinder attached! :)




Add the butter. yes, the whole stick. REAL BUTTER not margarine.


Allow the soup to simmer until the potatoes are soft. About an hour.

My kids look forward to this on cold, snowy Saturdays for lunch... but I was craving it, so I made it for dinner one night! ; ) Hope you enjoy!

Some foodie posts

I thought I would share a few of the lunches I have been making, as well as my recipe for potato soup. I am by no means near as good as some of the mothers out there who make Bento lunches for their children, however my goal was to serve my children healthy food options and I am achieving that goal.

SO! Here is a lunch that I told the kids was "Muncher's Delight" LOL!



Cubed Summer sausage and cheese, frozen berries (raspberry, blackberry and blueberry), fresh cut peppers, celery and cucumbers, a smidge of light ranch dressing and a few vanilla wafers. This was a BIG hit.

My kids are pretty good eaters when it comes to vegetables and fruits. Salads are a big hit. I think they are easy to make and easy to pack.



So this is salad with fresh mesclun lettuce, to which I added very finely chopped summer squash, red bell peppers, zucchini, and tomatoes and topped it with cucumbers and mozzarella cheese. (I have a farmer that brings me fresh produce to work on Fridays for $10.00 a box- and I love to use it in their lunches!) I added whole grain wheat thins and grapes. (PS light ranch rides sidecar in a small container. My kids dip their forks into the dressing and then eat the salad!!! :) SAVES CALORIES!)

And this is today's pack for tomorrow's feast. I am actually VERY excited about this... I can only hope that the toothpicks are not construed as weapons. LOL!




to make the wrap, I used a flour tortilla, spread vegetable cream cheese on it, topped that with thinly sliced chicken breast, added some chopped tomatoes and low fat co-jack cheese. I cut that in half for A1 and B. I stuck toothpicks in it to hold it together and topped the picks with black olives. As you can see, this is accompanied by all natural applesauce and a few vanilla wafers. This started as PINWHEELS but for the LIFE of me, I cannot make good pinwheels, so I opted for a wrap. Eh, live and learn! LOL!

Ok potato soup in the next post...

I am SO Excited!

When I made my New Year's Resolution to learn to cook from scratch, one of the things I wanted to do was to learn to make noodles from scratch. My grandpa Bob used to make "dumplings" at Thanksgiving. They were my favorite. I really should have let him teach me how to make them before he died. It was 10 years ago Labor Day Weekend.

At any rate, every recipe has you dumping clumps of dough into boiling liquids. This isn't how Grampa made them. He rolled them out and cut them into rectangles. He also added a small amount of shredded roast to them.

When we went to Sauder's Sunday they were giving out recipes as they often do. Lo and behold NOODLES!!!!! A ROLL AND RAISE METHOD!!!!!! I cannot WAIT To try this out!!!!!