Baked Potato Soup

Today, I am going to share with you my recipe for Potato Soup. The original recipe is from an acquaintance, but I made some changes.

This is how my husband feels about this soup, and it is actually making me very hungry, just looking at these pictures.


Baked Potato Soup

4 med/large baking potatoes, baked and cubed
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
7-8 cups milk
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup sour cream
12 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped

Melt butter over medium heat and then add flour. Once it is well mixed add onion and saute until the onions are clear. Add milk and stir constantly, until thickened. Add potatoes, bacon, sour cream and cheddar cheese. Simmer for 20 minutes. Garnish bowls with green onions, bacon, cheese, and sour cream; optional!

To be honest, I do a lot of dumping and play with the portions a little bit. As long as you don't scald the milk this recipe is pretty forgiving. Enjoy!

A New Thanksgiving Tradition

This is a pumpkin pound cake that has become a tradition with my husband's side of the family. The kids love it even without whipped cream!

Pumpkin Pound Cake

2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin
1 cup chopped pecans

In a mixing bowl, blend sugar and oil. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and pumpkin, mix well. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt; add to pumpkin mixture. Stir in pecans. Pour into a greased 12-cup flted tube pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack. Remove pan; cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar.


I found this recipe in a Taste of Home's Holiday Recipe collection and I tweaked a little bit to fit our tastes. Please check out other Thanksgiving traditions at Bake at 350's blog. She always has great ideas!

Fall Party Cupcakes

Aaron needed cupcakes for his class's fall party. So I thought I would decorate them with some homemade monsters. He is always drawing monsters, sharks, and dinosaurs so I thought he would enjoy them. Although I made mine happy and his are usually scary.

When I picked him up after school his first words were, I thought you were making pumpkins! So much for my creativity.

My limited how-to is in the post below!

How to: Melted Candy Monsters

When I make candy creatures for cupcakes and cakes, I begin with a drawing. For these particular monsters, I couldn't find anything cute and fun, so I drew them myself. Sorry the picture is blurry, my camera has been acting up.

Next, I use a piece of wax paper and place my drawings behind it, so that I can see them clearly. Then I trace the drawings with melted semi-sweet chocolate. I found that a ziploc freezer bag works just great for this, just cut a small hole in one of the bottom corners. As you could see in the previous picture I only drew two monsters, so you need to carefully slide it under the wax paper to clean spot, to begin again. When I was finished, I slid my wax paper onto a cookie sheet or cutting board and put them in the freezer while I went on to the next step.

The next step is to melt candy wafers. Since I am only able to get to a place that carries these once in a blue moon, living in the middle of nowhere has an occasional drawback, the last time I purchased them I just got a big bag of white, thinking I would be able to mix what I needed later. I probably won't do that again until I find some better food coloring, the colors just weren't as bright as I had hoped.

It is best to follow the directions on the package of the candy wafers for melting, be careful not to over heat them. I also used freezer bags for this step. You need to fill a freezer bag with the melted wafers and carefully fill in your characters. Be sure to cover the entire area and then use a knife to smooth out your lines, being careful to not use too much pressure. You do not want your colored layer to be too thin, or they will break when you try to move them, but you do not want it too thick either. When I have finished filling the monsters in I place the chocolates back into the freezer or fridge to set up. I was in a hurry this day, so I placed them in the freezer. This is only the second time I have done this particular cake decoration, so I apologize if the directions are a little lacking. I must give credit to The Whimsical Bakehouse, I found the idea for these in their cookbook. They go into great detail, so the book is a great thing.

I love the look of these, it is have they came out of a child's coloring book! Have fun and be creative.

Just for fun!!

I picked up "Hello, Cupcake!" in memory of my grandma. She loved to bake and she passed away last week. Aaron and I made the owl cupcakes today. I used a devil's food cake mix and canned frosting. We used oreos, junior mints and flavored tootsie rolls. Gracie also made an owl before she went to dance class.

I plan to post more baking this week and I have a post on a spicy chicken dish that I have been making since I was a junior in high school! Thanks for being patient with me!

Interesting . . .

I just realized that most of this blog has been cooking related and not baked perfection. That will be what I post next. Be looking for cupcakes and zucchini bread in the coming days. What kind of baking blog shares more recipes for meals than for desserts??? I will have to change that!

Haystacks

Thank you for being patient with me. My new kitchen is almost done, I will post pictures of that soon. But today I am going to share with you a recipe that has many memories for me. We call it 'Haystacks.' Once a year my grandma would make this meal, usually in the fall, and whatever family that was around would be there for this meal. My family insists on this meal at least several times a year. Of course, they call it 'Hay Bales!' I promise you that you will enjoy it, it is one that we make often for company. We layer it on our plates in no particular order, but the order I am sharing is the one I was raised with. I will begin the recipe with the order and then follow with the recipes for the meat sauce and cheese sauce. The great thing about this recipe is you can adapt it to your taste and you do not have to include everything on your 'stack.' Enjoy!!

HAYSTACKS

1. crushed saltine crackers
2. rice
3. meat sauce
4. chopped/shredded lettuce
5. tomatoes
6. chopped onion
7. sliced olives
8. chopped pecans
9. cheese sauce
10. Fritos corn chips

Meat Sauce

1.5 lbs hamburger
spaghetti sauce (I use Prego)
1/2 tsp Worcestershire
1/2 green pepper, chopped
2 ribs of celery, chopped

Cook hamburger, add gr. pepper and celery. Add spaghetti sauce and Worcestershire. Simmer for half an hour. Salt and pepper to taste.

Cheese Sauce

1 stick of butter
1/2 cup of flour
3 - 4 cups milk
16oz cheddar cheese, shredded
mustard
salt and pepper

melt butter in a medium saucepan, over medium heat. add flour and whisk constantly. Once flour and butter are combined add 3 cups of milk. Stir often until milk starts to thicken. Add shredded cheese a cup or so at a time. Stir until cheese is melted, if too thick add more milk. Add mustard to taste, start with 2 tsp. Add salt and pepper.