Potato Leek Soup

Potato Leek Soup

This soup is exceptionally simple, quick, warm, and comforting.  I could eat just this for dinner with some nice, crusty bread, but my husband needs meat with his potatoes, so I'll usually serve it with hamburgers, chicken nuggets, or sandwiches.  The original recipe called for ham, and it does taste good with ham, but really only if it's real Honeybaked ham. If you're not going to put in ham, the bacon bits add a nice saltiness and a little more texture.

If you've never worked with leeks before, you need to know that they come with some dirt at the tops of the white parts.  I clean them by chopping off the dark green part (which I discard) and then I chop off the root end.  I cut each leek once lengthwise and rinse thoroughly in cold water, fanning out the tops to get all the dirt out.  Once they're clean, I pat them dry with paper towels and slice.

Oh, and be sure to use russet potatoes.  I tried golden potatoes once, and it just didn't work for this soup.

Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients
:

• 2 Tbsp butter

• 4 cups thinly sliced leeks, white and light green parts only

• 4 cups chicken broth

• 2 large russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

• 1/4 cup cream or half and half
• Salt to taste

• bacon bits for garnish, if desired (I use the real bacon bits in a jar)

Instructions
:

1 Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the leeks, cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add broth, potatoes and pepper. Bring to a boil over medium high heat.

2 Reduce heat; cover and simmer 25 minutes or until vegetables are very tender. Using a immersion blender, blend until smooth.  (You can also work in batches in a regular blender, but the hand blender is so much easier.)

3 Stir in cream or half and half. Season to taste with salt. Garnish with bacon bits, if desired.

Serves 6.

Adapted from a recipe offered by Jones Dairy Farm.

Apple Berry Crisp

Apple Berry Crisp 

Not the best pic, but you can see the crumble size here.

Only a few berries turn the whole thing magenta in the end.

It's been a long, looooong week. Being a working mom who tries to be both an awesome teacher and an awesome mom is exhausting, and I often wonder how close or far from awesome I really am. Today was one of those days where I was just too tired to care. I was looking forward to spending an evening at home with my kids (unfortunately, the husband is a VP at a high school, and it's a Friday night in the middle of football season...), and this evening included baking something and then eating it with ice cream.
I pondered making a pie, but the crust would have been too time-consuming, so I settled on a crisp. Apples are what I had, but I wanted to jazz it up with something, so I added the berries. I made the recipe up on my own based on some of my Dutch apple pie experience, and I have to say, my friend who came to dinner and I really, really liked it. I'm looking forward to having some more for breakfast tomorrow. And yes, I will be eating it with ice cream in the morning. 

Apple Berry Crisp

Ingredients:

Topping:

• 1/2 cup rolled oats (I used quick cooking)
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 6 tablespoons butter, cut into smallish chunks

Fruit Layer:

• 3 medium Granny Smith apples
• 1/2 cup frozen triple berry mix (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries)
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch of salt

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a 7x10 inch baking dish. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix the oats, flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and baking powder. Add the butter chunks and with your fingers incorporate the butter into the dry mixture until you form uneven crumbs, but butter is thoroughly mixed in. Place crumb mix in the refrigerator until the fruit layer is ready.
Peel, core, quarter, and slice the apples into 1/8 inch slices. Place in a large bowl. Add the berries, 1/3 cup sugar, cinnamon and salt. Mix thoroughly with a spoon, and then pour fruit into the buttered baking dish. Sprinkle topping evenly over the fruit and give it a little shake to even it out.
Place baking dish on a foil-lined baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake at 375 degrees for about 30-35 minutes, or until juices are bubbly and begin to thicken a bit.
Remove from oven and allow to cool for about an hour before serving with vanilla ice cream, if desired.
Cover and refrigerate leftovers (I think you need to refrigerate it. I kind of just made that up to keep you safe.)
Makes about 8 servings.

It was so late in the evening by the time we ate this,
that the natural light was gone, and I was left with less
than perfect lighting. Still tasted great, though.

Coconut Oil Popcorn

Coconut Oil Popcorn

Coconut oil. I first heard about it in reference to its use in movie theater popcorn. Back in the 80s they said the saturated fat in coconut oil was super terrible for our bodies and if eaten in mass quantities it would clog up our arteries irrevocably. That was the 80s, and along with fluffy hair-sprayed  bangs and cheesy romance movies, the coconut oil villain myth has gone by the wayside. Apparently, it's now super healthy for us. My friend Katie over at Riddlelove.com has been using coconut oil for lots of things for a long time, but I thought it was only for superhuman raw food homesteaders like Katie. Bon Appetit Magazine, though, just told me yesterday about the fact that the medium-chain fatty acids in coconut oil are actually GOOD for me. Another internet article at Authoritynutrition.com discussed ten different health benefits of coconut oil, including weight loss and better brain function. Awesome. 
I should have listened to Katie sooner, because not only is coconut oil good for you, it helps make food more delicious. Now, full disclosure obligates me to tell you that so far I've only used it on popcorn. Popcorn that I eat every morning for breakfast with a smoothie. At first I only used the coconut oil, but because I limit my sodium, not enough slight saltiness was achieved with my two twists of my sea salt mill. So, I added just a smidge of salted butter when popping to achieve the flavor I wanted. Oh my goodness, this is fabulous popcorn. My husband thought it tasted too coconutty, but the flavor agrees with me: fragrant, slightly nutty, reminiscent of movie popcorn. I LOVE this popcorn. And I expect within a week or so I should be down at least ten pounds and thinking like Einstein.

Coconut Oil Popcorn

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons organic virgin coconut oil
• 1/3 cup unpopped popcorn kernels
• 1/2 tablespoon salted butter
• salt to taste

Instructions:
Get a large popcorn bowl ready and place it to the side of your stove where you'll be popping. In a medium-sized heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat, melt the coconut oil. Place two kernels in the pot and cover. When the kernels pop, add the remaining popcorn kernels and the butter. Cover and shake for about 10-15 seconds to distribute the melting butter. Allow popcorn to pop (shaking at this point is unnecessary). If the top starts to come up because of the popcorn, you can shake some of the overflow off into the bowl, put the lid back on and continue to pop until all kernels that are going to pop do so.
Turn heat off and pour popcorn into the bowl. Sprinkle with salt and toss to distribute salt evenly.
Enjoy.
Makes about 8-9 cups of popcorn

Soft Ginger Cookies

Soft Ginger Cookies

I don't eat ginger cookies much, but when I do I always wonder why I don't make them more often. I have this gingerbread cookie recipe that I just LOVE, but I also love chewy soft, less gingerbready ginger cookies. This is that cookie. I found the recipe at Allrecipes.com, and the reviewers/raters didn't disappoint me. These are very good cookies. I think I need to bake up the next batch slightly longer because they're ever-so-slightly under baked. Delightful, but under baked.
My writing is about as uninspired as my cookies are under baked today, so I will just leave you with this great little recipe. Just in time for fall baking.

Soft Ginger Cookies
    --adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2-4 tablespoons white sugar

Instructions:
In a medium bowl, stir flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt with a whisk. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and then beat in the water and molasses. Stir in the dry ingredients just until combined. Place in an airtight container and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop cookie dough in 1 1/2 tablespoon mounds 2 inches apart onto lined baking sheet. 
Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes, or until cookies are puffed and starting to brown around the edges.
Remove from oven and allow to cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes about 2 1/2 to 3 dozen cookies

Oatmeal Cookies with Blueberries and Walnuts

Oatmeal Cookies with Blueberries and Walnuts

This post is almost exactly the same as the previous post because I used the same batch of oatmeal cookie dough, but in this half, I put dried blueberries and walnuts. This is what happens at the beginning of the school year on Labor Day weekend when I start feeling the desperation that I know I just won't be able to bake and blog like I could during the summer
This might be a good time to tell you that I made a mistake while making the dough for these cookies. After mixing it all up, it looked a little dry. Then I noticed the eggs sitting on the counter. Dang it. So, I beat each egg separately and mixed one into each half of the dough. I thought it was ruined, but to my surprise, the cookies have turned out fine. So, two lessons learned: 1. Pay attention to your ingredients when baking and 2. You can still add the egg if you forgot it in the beginning. Yeah. This isn't going to be one of my best pieces of writing...
Note: The reason I add the raisin puree is to make these really soft. I discovered this trick when making a copycat Grandma's Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe. The cookies stay fresh and soft for days. If you want to skip that step, I recommend using 1/4 cup shortening to replace 1/4 cup of the butter. 

Oatmeal Cookies with Blueberries and Walnuts

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons raisins
• 2 tablespoons hot water
• 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 3 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups dried blueberries (got mine from Trader Joe's)
• 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Instructions:
In a blender (or a tall cup if you've got a hand blender) place the raisins and the hot water. Allow to sit while you mix the dry ingredients.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, oats, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
After the raisins have stewed in the hot water, blend until pretty smooth. They might not get completely smooth, but try to get close.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugars, and pureed raisins. Add eggs and beat thoroughly. Mix in the dry ingredients until the dough just comes together.
Stir in blueberries and walnuts. Refrigerate dough for at least two hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop batter onto baking sheet in 2-tablespoon sized balls about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 11-13 minutes, or until cookies are puffed and edges are browned. (You may have to experiment on how done you like these.)
Remove from oven and slide parchment onto a wire rack or countertop to stop the baking. Move to a wire rack to cool completely after about 5 minutes.
Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Dough ball

Oatmeal Cookies with Cranberries and White Chocolate

Oatmeal Cookies with Cranberries and White Chocolate

I've got some white chocolate chips burning a hole in my basement shelf and a blog that's been a bit neglected lately. So, I've decided to try my hand at some cookies with white chocolate. I'm not a huge white chocolate fan, so I've only made half a recipe of these. I actually made a whole batch of oatmeal cookie dough, and then I divided it and did this with one half, and added dried blueberries and walnuts to the other. Honestly, I'm not much of a fan of either. They are much too sweet, so if you're not a fan of super-sweet cookies, but would like to try these, cut back to 3/4 cup white and 3/4 cup brown sugar on these. I think I'll be doing that if I make these again.
The reason I add the raisin puree is to make these really soft. I discovered this trick when making a copycat Grandma's Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe. The cookies stay fresh and soft for days. If you want to skip that step, I recommend using 1/4 cup shortening to replace 1/4 cup of the butter. That will help with softness too, if you're into soft cookies.
So, here you go. Another oatmeal cookie recipe. Enjoy.

Oatmeal Cookies with Cranberries and White Chocolate

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons raisins
• 2 tablespoons hot water
• 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 3 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries (Craisins)
• 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Instructions:
In a blender (or a tall cup if you've got a hand blender) place the raisins and the hot water. Allow to sit while you mix the dry ingredients.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, oats, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
After the raisins have stewed in the hot water, blend until pretty smooth. They might not get completely smooth, but try to get close.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugars, and pureed raisins. Add eggs and beat thoroughly. Mix in the dry ingredients until the dough just comes together.
Stir in cranberries and white chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for at least two hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop batter onto baking sheet in 2-tablespoon sized balls about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 11-13 minutes, or until cookies are puffed and edges are browned. (You may have to experiment on how done you like these.)
Remove from oven and slide parchment onto a wire rack or countertop to stop the baking. Move to a wire rack to cool completely after about 5 minutes.
Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Dough ball