Ugly Looking Potato Soup

I realize this potato soup looks kind of gross, but trust me, it was good. I made the mistake of letting the soup come back to a high boil after I added the cheese, which in many instances will start to separate and turn out looking like my ugly soup. When making macaroni and cheese, you should always add the cheese at the end when the pot is off of the burner so nothing ends up boiling and separating...I guess I should have followed this same method with the soup.

The bacon I added made up for the lack of presentation with this soup though. Good and unhealthy!


Ingredients
1/4 - 1/3 of an onion, chopped
3 slices of thick bacon
3 - 4 russet potatoes (medium to large sized)
half and half
chicken broth
shredded cheddar cheese
salt
pepper

The ingredients list is not specific with the volumes of the liquids used since I rarely follow a specific recipe when making soups, so it is more of a rough estimate that I have written above of all of the ingredients.

Directions
Roughly chop the bacon, then using a large soup pot, saute the onions and the bacon until the onions start browning. Oil does not have to be added because of the bacon.
As the onions and bacon are browning, chop up the potatoes into about 1-2 inch chunks. Before chopping the potatoes, you can bake them first in the oven (or microwave like my lazy self) first until they are almost tender. I like to do this to speed up the cooking process of this soup. Also, you can peel the potatoes if you do not like the skin, but I rarely ever do this step.
Incorporate the potatoes into the pot with the onions and bacon and brown the potatoes a little bit before adding the half and half and chicken broth. I realize I do not have specific measurements above for these two liquid ingredients, but I usually prefer using more half and half then chicken stock depending on how salty the chicken stock is. Just make sure your liquid covers all of the potatoes in the pot. Then add salt and paper to taste, but keep in mind that the bacon is salty as well.
Bring the soup to a boil and then lower the temperature so that the soup is simmering, stirring every so often.
When the potatoes are tender, turn off the heat and add the shredded cheddar cheese. I recommend adding about a half cup of cheese and using extra cheese at the end as a topping.
Other toppings could be chopped green onions, crispy bacon, sour cream, etc! I even like to add steamed broccoli to it sometimes.

This soup keeps really well when frozen, so feel free to double or even triple the recipe and freeze away!

Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese

It has been really cold where I live lately and we've been getting quite a lot of snow, so I've been wanting comfort food. It was one of those days for tomato soup and grilled cheese. I've been keeping things pretty simple in the kitchen since I've been so busy though, so there's nothing is too fancy about this post.

I made Campbell's Tomato Soup, which I used to HATE. I know, I know...what's wrong with me? I always thought it tasted like metal. One of my friends recently told me that instead of adding only water to it, add either all milk or half milk and half water. This has made it taste soooo much better! No wonder people like Campbell's Tomato Soup, I've finally figured out their secret! I also made a grilled cheese, but instead of using normal sliced bread, I used french bread and a slice of American cheese and a slice of cheddar.

Comfort food at its best.

Soup with Pancakes...Weird Combination?

This post isn't as weird as the title makes it seem. I made my take on a spicy Korean kimchi veggie soup with green onion pancakes.

Spicy Korean Kimchi Veggie Soup

The soup consists of tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms, tofu, kimchi, all in a chicken stock mixed with a few tablespoons of the kimchi base and black pepper. Usually, this soup isn't vegetarian (besides it being in chicken stock) because I like to add in sausage the majority of the time.

The green onion pancakes ARE vegetarian, and surprisingly not as difficult to make as I thought. Peter from Taiwan Om Nom taught me how to make these. These "pancakes" are more similar to a tortilla then a typical pancake. I'm not sure why they're referred to as pancakes since the Chinese translation doesn't translate to pancake either...

Green Onion Pancake dough

The green onion pancake dough consists only of 2 parts all-purpose flour to 1 part of water. Mix the two thoroughly with your hands, feel free to flour your hands and use a bit of extra flour to prevent stickiness. Then let the dough sit for 30-45 minutes, covered with a towel. I got impatient and didn't do this...make sure and take the extra time to do this because the texture of your pancakes won't turn out as well if you don't! I learned this the hard way. Mine were definitely not as good as the ones Peter made in this post.

Green Onion Pancake spiral shell

Separate the dough into small palm sized portions and roll each of them out. A tip is to use wax paper on the kitchen counter with a generous amount of flour when rolling out the dough. I also didn't have a rolling pin, so I usually either use a cylindrical tall drinking glass or a tall shot glass depending on the size of the dough. Take about half a teaspoon of vegetable oil and spread it on the surface of the rolled out dough and add salt and chopped green onions. Roll the dough up like a fruit roll up; remember those sweet, "healthy" childhood snacks?. Then roll the "long rope" of dough into a snail shell shape. After it's in the snail shell shape, roll it out once again and then fry it in a shallow pan of vegetable oil.

See, it's not TOO weird. Okay, maybe it is a little bit. Definitely not as weird as the pancakes you were thinking of though, right?

Soup and Salad To Go

On days when I leave work really late, I like to stop by Market Street and help myself to their amazing salad bar and soups. My favorite soup from them is the loaded baked potato soup. It's soooo good!

Market Street's salad bar has a great selection of whatever you can think of to put on a salad with a variety of different types of lettuce, cold pasta salads, unique items like tabbouleh and hummus, and mixed fruit! One of my favorites is the mixed tortellini and chicken pasta salad (shown below).

Mixed fruit, tortellini and chicken pasta salad, and spring mix salad.

And if you're wondering why there's only one pickled okra all by it's lonesome, it's because I was curious about what it tasted like. I've never had okra in pickled form. The verdict: yum!