Baked Potato Soup (YUM)

I love potatoes. I love potato soup. And THIS is a sort of spliced together recipe that I make when I want some serious comfort food.

Baked Potato Soup a la Me

Potatoes (1 large per person or just a BUNCH if you want leftovers)
Half and Half (or whole milk)
butter
salt
onion (half diced OR you can flavor soup with onion salt/powder)
celery (2-4 stalks diced thin optional–just adds flavor)
grated cheese
crumbled bacon
green onions (diced)

Peel and dice your potatoes like you’re going to mash them. Slice and dice your onion and celery and add to potatoes. JUST cover with water, then boil and bring to a simmer to cook with lid on the pot. After potatoes have softened, blend with hand mixer or mash with masher. DO NOT DRAIN WATER–leave it in there. You will have some very thin mashed potatoes or very thick soup when you’re done. The onions will be all mixed in with the potatoes and add flavor–the celery may remain a little chunky, so you can delete that if you like, but it adds flavor as well. Add butter (1/4 to 1/2 cup), half and half/milk (1 cup to 1 pint depending), and salt to taste (it will take a lot) until it is still thick but more of a soup-like consistency. It should be hot enough that you don’t have to reheat it. Top with grated cheese, green onions, and bacon.

DELISH. Hearty. Warm. EASY. Great for this time of year.

Teenager

Well, she did it. . .with my grudging permission I might add.

I’m not real crazy about this whole growing up thing, but I can no more stop it than I can the gray in my hair–which is more easily managed than growing up I hear.

Basket for her awesome pink bike from last year's birthday.

She's already 5'1, and I fear she will keep growing into those arms.

This is not our first rainbow themed birthday, but it IS our first rainbow birthday cake. A surprise for the girl that I managed to keep until it was baking.

For the how to, go HERE. There is some commentary and language that is as colorful as the cake, so you might just want to look at the photos and skip the post. I followed the directions (which are very clear and easy to follow) for pouring but didn’t use her Weight Watchers cake and frosting recipes.

What I did:
Used TWO cake mixes to make sure the cake was tall and full–followed box directions.
1 white cake mix (to keep the cake as white as possible)
1 French vanilla cake mix (to give it some extra flavor)

Tweaked the eggs to keep it from being too yellow
2 whole eggs
4 egg whites

Used Wilton gel food coloring that I have normally used to tint frosting. I used the no-taste red and added some hot pink to the red to keep it from being too orange.

I used seven colors rather than six, because PINK is ALWAYS part of Victoria’s rainbow.

The cake was moist and tasted JUST LIKE regular cake–no chemical flavor at all because the gel is so concentrated it didn’t take a lot.

And, now, we are off again. We have kept the roads busy this summer, and we’re not done yet. This might be the first time I need school to start so I can rest!!!

Kitchen Fun

Want a little wacky fun in the kitchen? Here’s the recipe for you. . .SO TOTALLY WORKS and tastes devine. I saw it on Pioneer Woman, and as Victoria has made an odd cake before, I thought she might like to try this one too.

You, basically, start out making brownies, then you put MORE sugar, brown sugar, and cocoa on top of them, THEN you pour 1 1/2 cups water on that–DON’T STIR–and put it in the oven.

It’s easy to do–you should have all the ingredients in your kitchen already–they’re basic stuff. Just grab some vanilla icecream, and you’re set.

My Granny’s Chocolate Cobbler

And here’s the recipe for the “odd” cake. It’s called Wacky Cake and is butter/milk/and egg free (Jennifer). It’s really, really good too. It tastes more like cake brownies and is great plain with just a dusting of powdered sugar. Also a GREAT science lesson.