Potato Soup

Fall is the beginning of soup season. When it is cold outside I often have the urge to cuddle up with a blanket and a warm bowl of tasty soup. Last night I had made a recipe from 101 Cookbooks called Rustic Potato Chowder. I made this soup about the same time last year, and it was extra tasty. I'm not sure what I did differently this time around, but it didn't taste quite the same as I remember. I believe we didn't use enough milk, which made it a bit chunkier, and had a stronger shallot taste. It was still quite tasty though, and I would definitely recommend giving it a try.



We made two separate batches, one without bacon, one with. The recipe specifies vegetarian bacon, but I revised the meat version to use real bacon, while the vegetarian didn't have either. The other thing we did differently was to use less onions and shallots. I used about 1 1/2 onions and 2 shallots, while the original recipe called for 2 whole onions and 3 shallots. It is a yummy, thick soup, perfect for dipping breadsticks or baguette into. It also reheats very well if you add a bit of milk before heating it in the microwave.

I was unable to find the original link to the recipe on Heidi Swanson's website, so I am posting the entire recipe below. You should definitely take a look at her awesome blog though, or read one of her fantastic cooking books


Rustic Potato Chowder

8 to 10 slices Smart Bacon (or real bacon if you're not-veg)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 onions, chopped
3 shallots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
4 cups diced, unpeeled new potatoes, any color (1/4-inch dice)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
4 cups organic milk (low-fat is fine)
1 cup Gruyere cheese, grated
another 1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper
fresh chives and/or chive flowers

Create the base: In a large pot cook the Smart Bacon according to package instructions, until browned and crisp. Cool and chop into
small pieces. Set aside.

Add ingredients and simmer: In the same pot over medium-high heat, add the extra-virgin olive oil, onions, shallots, and garlic.
Saute for 5 minutes, or until the onions start to get soft.
Add the diced potatoes and teaspoon of salt and saute for about two minutes. Now add the mustard and milk. Bring to a boil, then
simmer for about 25 minutes, or until the soup thickens and the potatoes are soft throughout.

Whisk and season: Whisk in the Gruyere cheese, another teaspoon of salt, and a couple pinches of pepper. Garnish with the bacon,
fresh chives, and/or chive flowers.
Makes about six big bowls.

Canning, the Second.

I have a friend who loves pickles. She can eat pickles all day, every day. Mostly dill, but she doesn't shy away from a good sweet pickle either. Most of the summer we talked about making our own pickles, and finally, this past Sunday we made the jump from eating to cooking. Just like with my apple butter, I was surprised at the simplicity of it. We used a recipe for Single Day Sandwich Dill Slices from The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. The recipe pretty much consisted of making a pickle brine from vinegar, water, sugar, canning salt and pickling spice and then pouring that over the sliced cucumbers inside the jars. We over-estimated on the amount of pickling cucumbers we needed to purchase, and ended up doubling the recipe for 10 jars of pickles instead of 5.
We won't know if our pickling was a success for another 4-6 weeks, but hopefully we'll have some tasty dills to eat and share.

A Summer Bounty

Earlier in the year I wrote about starting a garden in my apartment. The plants consisted of tomatoes, habanero and jalapeno peppers, tomatillo and a variety of spices. Originally thinking that I wouldn't succeed in growing anything, I had an over abundance of plants all over my apartment. I gave away many tomato plants, and moved my garden from inside my apartment to the side of my boyfriends house. Once moved, the garden had 6 tomato plants, 1 tomatillo, 1 habanero, 1 jalapeno ,1 giant basil plant, and a few other herbs. Because this is my first real attempt at growing food, I'm really just happy to have produced anything, even if what came out of the ground isn't exactly what I had hoped for.



This is about what I'm getting off my plants every couple of weeks. Cute little tasty tomatoes. My original plan was to grow enough tomatoes that I could make and can my own tomato sauce for winter. I'm still quite happy with the result though. The oval shaped tomatoes are Roma, both the little yellow tomatoes and the mixed green and red came from rainbow tomato seeds, and the rounder tomatoes are Red Siberian.

My little hot pepper plants are still growing, both have a few little peppers on them. The basil didn't quite make it in the heat, and the tomatillo is making a last sprint at growing before fall hits us. I've had a lot of fun planning and growing my plants, especially seeing them grow from seeds. I will definitely do this again next year, hopefully with slightly better results.

Canning Attempt #1

I've been interested in canning for some time now, but was a bit worried about attempting it on my own. I decided to start with something relatively simple: Apple Butter.



I did a bit of research first. The Ball Preserves website is a good resource, as well as this article from Sandy Moyer.

It was messier than I expected, but the canning process wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I would recommend using an actual sieve or food mill. I used a big spoon with a strainer and it made the process more difficult than it needed to be. The recipe I followed came from Simply Recipes. The only thing I would have done differently was use slightly less cinnamon, but otherwise my Apple Butter came out well.

Not So Weekly Links

This image made me giggle. View the interactive version here: Artwerk

My new favorite habit. It's a lovely glimpse into the lives of a few bloggers I've been following for a while.

The Deal of the Week at The Small Object is The Kitchen Caper Set. This is adorable, like everything else made by Sarah Neuberger.

Roasted Root and Ricotta Pizza at Straight From The Farm

And sheep! LED sheep!

Green Thumb

A couple of months ago I decided that I would once again in my life attempt to grow my own food. I bought many different seeds and planted them in little containers. I wasn't entirely convinced that my efforts would come to much, but after a couple months of obsessive plant watching and a few weeks of bright sunshine, my little windowsill garden is looking very promising. My goal is to have the ingredients I will need to make home made salsa, pesto and pasta sauce. I have 3 kinds of tomato growing, jalapeno and habanero peppers, tomatillos and a variety of herbs. Here is a glimpse at my burgeoning vegetable garden.

May Day

While walking to the library today I noticed that my neighborhood looked as if it had snowed flowers. We walked past an elementary school class who were happily picking up handfuls of the cherry blossoms and throwing them in the air.