Creamy potato, bacon, (leek, celery, chicken) soup.

Tonight I decided to make potato soup for supper. We'd had a really good potato soup in Virginia a year or so ago, and I kinda remembered the recipe...well, not really, but I remembered some of the ingredients. Anyway, the soup I made turned out really well, even if it wasn't quite what I started trying to make.

Here's the recipe for what I did make, so hopefully I can someday make it again.

4 medium russet potatoes, peeled and sliced
3 small to medium red potatoes, sliced
1/2 cup of chopped leek (from the white part)
1/2 cup chopped leek greens
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/4 cup celery, chopped
1/2 pound good, thick-cut bacon, cut into bits

1/2 package chive and onion cream cheese
bit of milk

garlic
paprika
salt
pepper


Put the russet potatoes in a stockpot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover. Cook until the potatoes are mush. Add garlic, leek greens, and cream of chicken soup. Remove from heat and leave covered.

Cook bacon bits until crispy, reserving the bacon grease. Set bacon aside. Saute the white part of the leeks and the celery in the bacon grease and add to cooked potatoes.

Toss the red potatoes in a bit of bacon grease and roast in the oven until slightly crispy.

While the potatoes are roasting, add a bit of milk to the stockpot (to thin the soup a bit) and turn the heat on low. Add salt, pepper, and paprika (to taste), along with the bacon. Just before serving, add the cream cheese, stirring until melted, and the roasted potatoes.


VERY filling...and very tasty.

Making scones part 2 - basic variations

In the previous note, I explained how to make basic British scones. Basic scones are great, and are a wonderful carrier to get clotted cream and jam to your mouth. After making the basics, though, I started playing with some variations. An advantage I've found to variations is that some of the are great stand-alone flavors, and don't need the extra condiments.

I'll start with the easiest variations, then work my way up to some of the more complex ones that I've done. Hopefully you'll be able to see the progression and figure out some new and different flavors of your own.

More scone variations - Chocolate!

 The last two notes I explained how to make scones, and gave some easy variations. Making scones with a chocolate base is a bit trickier, and can take a bit more fiddling to get them right. I'm still working on perfecting them, so can't give anything resembling measurements yet. They're something I'm still making by look and feel.

How to make Clotted Cream

While living in England, I learned the joys of Clotted Cream (also called Devonshire Cream) on scones. If I mention clotted cream, a lot of people say "that just doesn't sound good". Really, it's heavenly. The best way I can describe it is that it's something between butter and whipped cream, but that doesn't really describe it adequately. It's something you just have to try for yourself.

British Scones - recipe

This is a post I previously posted on another site, but it belongs here, as well.

When I was growing up, I thought scones were basically biscuits, but maybe a bit sweeter. When I was a bit older, scones were a heavy pastry to grab from Starbucks with my coffee. After moving to the UK, I learned that scones are actually a heavenly, sinful delight that rarely resembles the heavy, though tasty, lumps you can buy in coffee shops in the states.

Realizations about priorities

There is a lot going on right now. This week in particular, we have our household goods arriving just a couple days before our Holiday/Housewarming party, and we will have friends staying with us in waves, from a couple days before the party through Christmas...and my mom is coming to visit.

The house isn't done. Two of the kids' rooms still need a second coat of paint. One needs primer and paint in a whole section, and all three need the white boards painted on their walls that we left a space for. The bathrooms haven't been painted, and the laundry room hasn't been redone after Phil fixed plumbing issues (which required poking holes  in the newly painted walls.)

Being right, or being happy.

I've heard in the past that often, in an argument, you have to chose whether it's more important to be "right" or to be "happy". Even if you're "right", you can choose to just let it go, end the argument, and be happy instead. Or, you can choose to sacrifice your happiness and continue to insist that you are "right".

Home at last

Last night we slept in the new house for the first time. We're sleeping on camp beds, air mattresses, and, in Liz's case, the floor...but we're home. (Phil's picking up Liz's air mattress today from someone at work.)

For the first time, all the girls slept in their own rooms. For Liz and Kelly, it's the first time they've had their own rooms, instead of sharing with a sister. I wondered how that would go, but neither of them crept into the other's room last night, so apparently they were fine.

Coming out of the dark

This is a post that's been floating around in my head for a couple months. I realized I haven't written anything here for a bit, and while I'm feeling worn down and worn out, writing may help me relax and recharge.

One of my greatest fears, for as long as I can remember, has been losing my sanity. It's something I will joke about, like everyone does, but underneath it is always a thread of actual concern. Mental instability runs in the female side of my family. I understand that it is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, but that doesn't make it any less scary.

This is something that I've talked to my husband about several times over the years. We agreed early in our marriage that if he tells me I need to go to the doc for something involving mental stability, I will go and get it checked, whether I want to or not. It's the one place where I can't be sure if I'm seeing clearly or not.