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!!!!!

My battle with Dad's Cancer Doc's office

That seems like a lengthy title, but the problem isn't with Dr. G. It's with his finance office. Dad was deemed eligible for Medicaid with a start date of October, 2008 initially.

My father passed away April 7, 2009 from Stage IV rectal cancer with metastases to his liver and lung. He was only 56 years old. He died under a tragic set of circumstances surrounding his life, and to be brutally honest- he was homeless, and penniless. All of that means nothing now, however there are still some things that remain to be done and since I am the Power of Attorney, they are my tasks to complete.

In early July, Dr. S.- Dad's surgeon- called and informed me that Medicaid had retro-activated (I know that's not a real word, but that's the jargon for it) Dad's account to August, 2008 with a "spend-down" month of September, 2008. Since Dad had had surgery in August, 2008 and had put $150.00 down, I was due back this amount and the surgeon's office submitted the bill to Medicaid and was paid for it.

I had Brett stop by Dr. G's office to alert his staff of the same thing- not once, but twice. No one looked into this, and no one has presented me with reimbursement for close to/or for the entire amount of $900.00 that Dad paid them prior to October, 2008. As I understand it, I am due back the money EVEN IF Dr. G's office failed to submit the bills to Medicaid.

I have to hire a probate attorney because Dad and I did not get the title of his Chevrolet Avalanche out of his name before he died. I am going to sell it and use the funds to buy Dad a tombstone. He did have DI insurance on the truck, and it paid off everything on his loan, save for about 2500.00- which is due on or before Feb 26, 2010. However, since the Title is in his name, a mere POA will not allow the Title department to transfer a temporary Title over to me. I have to have a court order to do so.(The full title will transfer upon the loan pay off). I need the $900.00 back from Dr. G's office to pay for the probate attorney I need to hire.

So today, A2 started preschool. I took off 3 hours of time this morning to see him off to school and be close at hand- "just in case". I came home and drafted my letter to Dr. G's office, which I am cc:ing to the County Medicaid office. I am not trying to get anyone in trouble, I just am tired of Dr. G's office staff refusing to address this matter. All they have done is call to tell me Dad's account is current!

The whole ordeal has been frustrating, but I don't mean to complain. Dad thought he and I would get more days to work these matters out. We would go to breakfast and talk about things, or I would sit with him and talk about his affairs and to be honest, I think it depressed him. Who wants to admit they are dying at 56? I am not upset at all that I am the POA, I am simply upset that Dr. G's staff did not bother to check into what Brett was relaying to them for me.

YEAY ANGELA!

My cousin, Angela, and her yoga studio were given a positive review @ yogacitynyc.com!!!! How thrilling! :)

you can read about it here

Menus...

At work the other day I sat down and wrote up an entire list of meals for Monday through Friday. Of course, I cannot locate said list now. Meh.

So I am going to focus on recalling what I had listed here...

Monday:
B- scrambled eggs, toast, oranges, milk

L- watermelon, half of a pb sandwich, side salad, graham crackers with frosting

D- meatball subs, buttered parm noodles, broccoli

Tuesday:
B- french toast, sausage, orange juice

L- Salad with hard boiled eggs, mini banana, pudding

D- potato soup, salad, crusty bread

Wednesday:
B- egg bake

L- muncher's delight- cubed meat, cheese, grapes, berries, melon, sliced peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, corn bread

D- lasagna, garlic toast, salad

Thursday:
B- pancakes, bacon, milk

L- subs, celery with pb, trail mix, banana

D- roast, potatoes and carrots with rolls

Friday:
B- burritos

L- pita chips with salsa, fruit, lean turkey, vanilla wafers

D- left overs

Saturday:
B- toast

L- hot dogs, mac and cheese

D- ham, au gratin potatoes, broccoli salad, rolls, hot milk cake

Ahhh Wednesday- the happiness post! LOL!

I came home from work and made pancakes from scratch and froze them. I made a batch of sloppy joes and froze them too. I also made the stock for my chicken noodle soup. mmmmmmm. That made me happy. We were able to purge a few things and found more uniform pieces for most of the kids whooooooooot! That makes me VERY happy.

Now Saturday we will be cleaning cleaning cleaning. I will be cooking a few more things- including my chicken noodle soup (I make Brett pull the meat from the carcass!) and hopefully 3 more loaves of pumpkin bread, meatballs, lasagna, breakfast burritos, and more sloppy joes.

Saturday afternoon we will go to Mass and the our church picnic. On Sunday we will be cleaning some more. A guy I work with GAVE us a set of bunk beds! We *REALLY* needed a new set. So we will be deep cleaning the bedrooms, putting fresh sheets on all the beds and getting everything in it's place. That will make me EXTREMELY Happy! LOL!

And the best news of all... I have found an old dear friend on Facebook and we are catching up and I have the name of a doctor in Cincinnati who specializes in adhesions! I cannot wait to call and get an appointment set up.

I am resting in bed watching Ghost Hunters and waiting for my sweetie to return from work. Tomorrow night we have R's band show and carry in. Friday night is the band show at the County Fair.

September 12 A1, B, A2 and I Are going to Lowe's to make drums!

So please pardon my giddiness but this has been an amazing day. I cannot wait for tomorrow! :)