Irish Potato Soup...

Last Saturday my mom and I ended up sharing a beautiful afternoon of Irish tea!

I called this a God given treat... we got to sit down to a lunch together without the distractions of life... we chatted and shared an ordinary day that felt extraordinary to me.

I am blessed!

We visited one of our favorite Irish shops for a gift for my Aunt and ended up sitting down to a cup of soup ~ a delicious sandwich... and a pot of tea!

The owner of the shop, Jane Clarke,  shared this recipe for her potato soup!

This soup was so delicious!

Actually... it is now THE BEST potato soup I ever had!

There are no real instructions however... so you kind of have to a a pretty decent cook in order to make this.

I think what I liked the best about the soup is the diced potato... when I make my soup I don't dice... I usually just chunk so the diced texture reminded me of something my grandma used to make!

Jane Clarke's Potato Soup

What you’ll need:

• Butter (to taste)

• 1 medium carrot, diced

• 1/2 medium onion, diced

• 1 stalk celery, diced

• Flour (use judgment)

• Water

• Four to five russet or red potatoes, peeled and diced

• Heavy cream (to taste)

• Salt and pepper

Dice vegetables. Melt butter in medium saucepan, add vegetables and saute. Add flour to make a roux and stir for several minutes. Add water to cover and stir again. Stir in peeled, diced potatoes and season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until vegetables are tender. Stir in heavy cream to taste. Total cooking time is at least 20 minutes.

Let me know if you try it!

Oh and if you are wondering... we did get a gift for my Aunt and we are taking her for her very own birthday tea party next weekend!

Snow day...

It is projected to be a huge snow day today (a foot of the white stuff)
 ... when it snows, I cook!

Today I am off from work and I  making easy chicken noodle soup and bread.

Meanwhile
I decided to share with you two recent recipes that I found in blog land and tried...


 I have been saving some recipes at my tester blog and decided to start trying them... 

This past weekend I made 2 definate repeatable recipes... according to my hubby!

The first recipe was from Laurel at Ducks in a Row

I tweeked this recipe just a bit by using less butter (so does Laurel)  ~ kosher HVR mix (not sure the difference) ~  and instead of making a braid I made a roll, like a stromboli.

The hubby LOVED it bigtime!

In fact I made two of these ~ cooked them both and now he has leftovers for the whole week of lunches!

The next recipe comes from Misty at Creative Itch

This recipe was for Easy Potato Soup

We are Irish here by lineage and know our potato recipes... 

If there is ever a potato soup on a menu... either one of us always orders it. 

When I saw this recipe I thought it looked good and easy... and being that it did not call for a roux I was excited!

Not that I am opposed to a roux, I just wanted something easy peasy!

I did modify this recipe too just a little

Instead of peeling the potato I just washed ~ cut them ~ I added the remaining ingredients after boiling and the used my hand masher and mashed the potatoes up a bit

I added some bacon, chives and cheddar to garnish

This made enough for 1 bowl each at dinner plus three more Rubbermaid containers for two other meals and one lunch!

I liked this recipe a lot because not only was it easy... it tasted like potato... not flour and not cheese!

Yummers!!!
Let me know if you try either of these recipes... and
if anyone wants my Easy Chicken Soup Recipe let me know in the comments!

Brunch...

My friend Meghan over here at Unintended Housewife inspired me to have a brunch!

Since moving into our new home, I really enjoy having people over.

This time the invitees were my mom and dad.

I served brunch!

I did not worry if the house was clean enough...

for once!

I just called and told them to come over for 11am

I served scones with cream and jam

A breakfast casserole

A lime fruit salad

Coffee ~ Tea ~ Juice

Easy peasy!!

Really... it was

I had the scones in the freezer and warmed them up in the oven

Whipped some fresh cream

Made a egg, sausage and hash brown casserole and left it overnight in the fridge

Cut up some fruit and added some fresh lime juice, honey and poppy seed

That is it ... oh and I woke up at 10am, turned on the oven and set the table!

My dad voted that we do this weekly... no one seconded him!

But I may just call and tell them to show up again soon!

Spinach and Shrimp Salad!

I made this for my hubby's coming home lunch

(he was at a convention this weekend) 

This is really easy but I don't have a real recipe because I made it up and it can be tweaked as needed!

I made it for 2 ~ and it was a very generous lunch
I just took4 tbsp  good season prepared dressings and added fresh squeezed orange juice and whipped it in my blender.
I cooked 20 shrimp, peeled it and let it cool then marinated it with the dressing for 2 hours in the fridge.
Livestrong.com  says this is only 327 calories!

I then made a salad of 4 cups fresh spinach, mushroom, 1/4 red onion and 2tbsp feta cheese and topped it with the shrimp mixture. It was so yummyyy!!!
Perfect for summer... or when you want to feel like summer!...

Chicken Wing Dip

I have been making and tweaking this recipe for a few years now

and

each time it is devoured within minutes wherever I take it

The basic ingredients are

cream cheese

red hot sauce

blue cheese dressing

cheddar cheese

chicken

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Depending on how this recipe is prepared will vary the flavor

I wanted to double this recipe for 2 small parties we were going to this week

I did not want it too hot because there were going to be kids at the party who really enjoy it

I also used canned chicken breast because I was in a hurry to make it

This time I used all items purchased from Aldi

2 ~ 8oz cream cheese blocks

1 cup of cheddar cheese shredded

1 bottle of blue cheese dressing

3/4 bottle of red hot sauce

2 large cans of chicken breast

I mixed all together in my mixer and placed it in a baking dish

I baked it at 350degrees for 20 minutes

I am serving it with celery sticks and torn italian bread