Mmmm...Potato Soup

This is the best potato soup I've ever had. This soup is a big reason that I look forward to cooler weather. It'd probably be good no matter what time of year it is, but I'm a little weird about soup in the summer. Just can't do it. I made this for lunch today and thought I should share the love. Noah has loved this soup since he was just a baby, but he never remembers it since I only make it in the fall and winter. This year, since he's talking more, he's dubbed it "New Soup." He ate it with a piece of butter bread in one hand to dip with, and a spoon in the other hand to eat with between dips. That's my boy. :D Without further adieu, the Cheesiest Potato Soup recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup diced onion
• 2 1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 3/4 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (I double)
• 1/4 teaspoon dried dill weed
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Directions

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Cook onion in butter until softened. Stir in potatoes and broth, bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat and simmer 15 to 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender.
2. Puree potato mixture in a blender or food processor or using an immersion blender; return to pot over medium heat. Stir in cream, cheese, dill, pepper, salt and cayenne. Bring to a low boil and cook, stirring, until thickened, 5 minutes.

Mmmm.....Pork

(photo credit)

This one I didn't change at all, except for to use olive oil instead of vegetable oil. Just something about vegetable oil that I don't trust.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 6 (4 ounce) boneless pork loin chops

Directions

1. In a large resealable bag, combine lemon juice, oil, garlic, salt, oregano, and pepper. Place chops in bag, seal, and refrigerate 2 hours or overnight. Turn bag frequently to distribute marinade.
2. Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat. Remove chops from bag, and transfer remaining marinade to a saucepan. Bring marinade to a boil, remove from heat, and set aside.
3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Grill pork chops for 5 to 7 minutes per side, basting frequently with boiled marinade, until done.

Favorite Grilled Chicken

(photo credit)

Next up in my little grilling series, is (so far) my favorite grilled chicken recipe. This is one of my favorites to grill, because it just smells SO good while it's grilling. If I wouldn't burn my face off, I'd just position my head over the grill so I could just smell it as strongly and for as long as possible. (Or, at least the 14 minutes that it's cooking.) Here is the original recipe, but as usual, I've made a couple changes to it. Here is my version-

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 3 tablespoons mustard
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1/2 orange juiced
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Directions

1. In a large glass bowl, mix the cider vinegar, mustard, garlic, lime juice, lemon juice, brown sugar, salt, and pepper. Whisk in the olive oil. Place chicken in the mixture. Cover, and marinate 8 hours, or overnight.
2. Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat.
3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Place chicken on the prepared grill, and cook 6 to 8 minutes per side, until juices run clear. Discard marinade.

Best. Steak. Ever.

(Photo Credit)

During the summer, we use our grill a lot. By a lot I mean, probably close to 6 days a week. It's miserably hot out, so the thought of heating up the house with the oven makes me want to melt. I thought that since I spend a lot of my time prepping dinners for the grill, I'd share a few of my favorites in my next few blog posts. First up, is the Best. Steak. Ever. Yes, the periods after every word is a must, I promise. I don't ask Noah (my two-year-old) what he wants for dinner unless I know I'm making steak, because it's what he always requests. You'll understand after tasting it.

These directions are for one steak, and only include the prepping part of it. Obviously it's easy to alter if you're doing more than one.

1 ribeye steak, close to 1lb

1 1/2 tsp Lawry's seasoning salt

1/4 tsp ground pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

4 tbls extra virgin olive oil (2 tbls for each side of the steak)

At least an hour before grilling....

-Pierce steak several times with fork or knife.

-Coat steak with 2 tbls olive oil.

-In a small bowl stir together seasoning salt, ground pepper, and cayenne.

-Coat steak with half of the seasoning mixture.

-Let sit at least 15 min

-Turn steak over and repeat all steps.

-If putting into fridge to marinate, remove from fridge an hour before grilling to bring steak temperature down to room temperature.

Happy grilling!

Pancakes for lunch!

Yesterday I had a bad experience with lunch meat, so I was looking for something relatively quick and easy to make for lunch for Noah and me, since lunch meat was out. Pancakes is what I decided on. It's been awhile since I've made them, but I thought I'd share my "go-to" pancake recipe. I've done these with so many different additives....blueberries, of course, chocolate chips, chocolate chips AND peanut butter chips, and last fall I added cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves for fall-like pancakes. I plan on adding pumpkin at some point too, but haven't done that one yet. They're thick and yummy. I don't even bother ordering pancakes in restaurants when I have the option, because these are better. Anyways, here's the recipe, with my changes in italics.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (whole wheat flour)
• 2 tablespoons white sugar (2 tbls brown sugar)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• cooking spray (I use butter. Lots of butter. I blame the southerner in me.)

Directions

1. Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour".
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg and butter into "soured" milk. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

I realize the whole vinegar and milk thing sounds disgusting...and looks and smells disgusting, but it all works out in the end. Enjoy!

The blender is my friend

Recently I discovered a cooking trick, that I thought I'd share. During the summer, we do a whole lotta cooking on the grill, which means a whole lot of marinating. My favorite way to marinate is to do it in a zip lock bag since that equals no cleanup for me after dinner. Since Zip Lock backs don't exactly have a bottom to them, dumping stuff into them is a little bit of a challenge- until I discovered this. Take the blades out of the bottom of your blender, and stick the bag in that. Tada! No more challenge. Just dump, zip, and stick in the fridge.

Yummy (really healthy) Muffins

Two posts in one day....Woo wee!

Anyways, I'm on a weight loss kick to lose the rest of my baby weight, which means I'm doing my very bestest to eat well. It's not the easiest thing to get a decent breakfast around here, so my solution is to make muffins, so that I can just grab one, and be done with the whole breakfast thing. Well, except for my coffee. Gotta have my coffee. These are the muffins I made for the next few days. I'll put my changes in italics...there's a lot of them. Enjoy!

Original recipe from Allrecipe.com

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (1 cup all-purpose flour)
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (1 cup whole wheat flour)
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar (1 1/4 cups brown sugar)
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups grated carrots
• 1 apple - peeled, cored, and chopped (1 1/2 apples)
• 1 cup raisins (golden raisins)
• 1 egg
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup apple butter (1 cup applesauce. Didn't have any apple butter, and didn't want to buy or make any.)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil (1/4 applesauce)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts (didn't use any.)
• 2 tablespoons toasted wheat germ (1/4 cup mixed into muffins instead of on top)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly oil 18 muffin cups, or coat with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, egg whites, apple butter, oil and vanilla.
3. In a large bowl, stir together flours, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in carrots, apples and raisins. Stir in apple butter mixture until just moistened. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling them about 3/4 full.
4. In a small bowl, combine walnuts and wheat germ; sprinkle over the muffin tops.
5. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and spring back when lightly pressed.

Sweet Tea Season

Here in Central California, Sweet Tea Season comes early. It was 90 degrees here last week....in APRIL! The BEGINNING of April, no less. Back in my neck of the woods (Georgia), it doesn't get hot like that until a little later in the year. Granted, there's a butt-load (we're talkin' bubble butt-load) of humidity that comes with it, but nevermind that. So anyways, back to the topic at hand.

Sweet Tea Season is here. (Did I mention it was only April?) Well, at least for me- no one else around here drinks sweet tea. I am utterly alone in my Southern-ness. Up until last year, I made it like my mom always made it, but then I found a new and improved recipe, if you can call something so simple a recipe. Anyways, I thought I'd share. I know I have some sweet-tea drinkers reading, and if you aren't one of us, maybe you'll decide to be brave and indulge your inner Southerner. So, here it is-

• 1 pinch baking soda
• 2 cups boiling water
• 6 tea bags
• 1/2-1/3 cup white sugar
• 6 cups cool water

Directions

1. Sprinkle a pinch of baking soda into a 64-ounce, heat-proof, glass pitcher. Pour in boiling water, and add tea bags. Cover, and allow to steep for 15 minutes.
2. Remove tea bags, and discard; stir in sugar until dissolved. Pour in cool water, then refrigerate until cold.

When I make it, I just boil some water in my tea kettle, and dump some into the pitcher. I don't bother measuring. Same thing with the cool water- I just fill my pitcher to just under half-way full. I say 1/2 to 1/3 sugar 'cause I like variety in my sweetness. The original recipe called for 3/4 cups, and that's just plain jelly-bean-like. Or should I say McDonalds-sweet-tea-like. Same thing, really. Last year I started trying to be just a tad bit healthier in my eating, and drinking, so I started using green tea. I still use regular black tea every once in awhile though, 'cause like I said, I like variety.

I think I may be the muffin man...okay, maybe not.

I recently found a recipe that's been hanging around in my recipe box for awhile, and today I got to try it out because I had a little free time, and some bananas that weren't going to be eaten. So, I got to try my hand at Mocha Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins. When I told Josh that I was going to make them his response was, "Yeah, that sounds like you." I was a little apprehensive about the whole coffee/banana combo, but I'll try just about anything, especially if coffee is involved. Chocolate doesn't hurt either....come to think of it, bananas don't either. So anyways, here's the recipe, courtesy of allrecipes.com-

Mocha Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 cup margarine
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 ripe bananas
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules, dissolved in
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Blend butter or margarine, sugar, egg, banana, dissolved coffee, and vanilla in food processor for 2 minutes. Add flour, salt, baking powder, and soda, and blend just until flour disappears. Add chocolate chips and mix in with wooden spoon. Spoon mixture into 15 to 18 paper-lined muffin cups.
3. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

I didn't have enough margarine, so I used half butter and half margarine, didn't have enough white sugar, so I used mostly brown sugar (which I prefer to bake with anyways), and I used a *heaping* tablespoon of coffee (and plan on adding more next time, but I'm somewhat of a coffee fiend and like my coffee excessively strong.) Oh, and I didn't measure the chocolate chips, 'cause I never measure the chocolate chips- I just dump them in until it looks right. I don't have a food processor either, so I just used a mixer. )I promise, I really did follow this recipe closer than I usually do.) And the you go. It's yummy in my tummy. (And Noah's tummy.)