Snow days and Homemade Comfort Soup...

After lots of wonderful holidays and traveling to my family's places I have finally settled back home and back to my blog. I will admit to missing the blog a lot. I did from time to time sign in and read and leave comments on a few but couldn’t get to mine till now. Seems like it has been forever and I hope all my follows are still hanging with me. What do your think of the terrible cold weather we are having? We have already had three bad snows for this area and it’s just the beginning of winter; come on spring you are needed soon.

One of the good parts of winter are the wonderful, good homemade soups we enjoy whenever I feel the need for comfort food. When it comes to comfort food this is a favorite in my house, so for my Mom who is crazy about this one here is the Loaded Baked Potato soup. Whatever you love to dump on your baked potato just pile it on the bowl of soup. All items are welcome. Mom and I both love bacon crumbles, shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream just like we can pile on our baked potato. Mmm good, give this a try, you’ll love it.

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Start by baking till just done enough potatoes to get 3 cups. 3 or 4 is usually enough.

In a large soup pot add 4 tablespoons of sweet butter

To the melted butter add 1 ½ cups chopped sweet onion and cook till translucent

Add 2 cans of (15 ½ oz) all natural chicken broth

To the chicken broth or stock add the 3 cups cubed cooked potatoes

Simmer the soup for 15 minuets till they are tender and have picked up the flavor of the broth.

Add 1 cup cream or half and half. You can use low fat milk if you don’t mind a thinner soup.
Add 1/2 cup sour cream
Salt, or to taste
Black Pepper to taste (I love lots)
Don’t let the soup come to a boil or you will curdle the milk and sour cream. Keep it at a simmer.
Simmer for about 10 minutes and serve. This is a great but quick to make soup and the leftovers are wonderful the next day. Serve in a big mug or your favorite bowl.

To Load it up add crumbled crispy bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, dollops of sour cream and chopped green onions. Whatever you enjoy, this is your comfort food so do it your way.

What is your favorite cold weather soup, I’d love to here from you all?

Turning leaves and cold rain calls for soup...

Looking out my window at the beautiful turning leaves, dripping from the rain, makes me feel cozy and contented.  I love fall, my favorite season, and watching the leaves out front turn red gives me such a nesting feeling.  With me, besides staying warm and cozy, means cooking something from the comfort food family, soup.  My family thinks I am little weird, well actually I am but you never heard that from me, because I can eat soup everyday from now to springtime and not get bored.

After searching through my vast collection of recipes in books, magazines and lots of little cards I have decided this weekend would be perfect for the warm and creamy, and one of my most favorites, Cream of Cauliflower Cheese Soup.  This recipe I found once in the Taste of Home Magazine (it's their photo also) and it quickly became a family favorite.  There are so many Cream of Cauliflower recipes out there and many are fabulous and I love them too, but today I want the cheesey one.  I love this with some green salad, crusty bread and a couple glasses of merlot and I am very content.  Try it, it is good for warming your soul.

Cauliflower Cheese Soup

1 medium head cauliflower, broken in florets

1 medium onion, chopped,1 can  14 1/2 oz chicken broth   

1 chicken boulillon cube

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

3 cups milk

2 cups (8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese

1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon each cayenne pepper, curry powder and white pepper

Directions

In large saucepan, combine cauliflower, onion broth and bouilion. Cover and cook over medium heat until the vegetables are tender.  Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, melt butter, stir in flour until smooth.  Gradually add milk.  Cook and stir until bubbly, and thickened, about 5 minutes.  Reduce heat, add cheese and seasonings. Pour into the cauliflower mixture. Simmer slowly for 30 minutes. Do Not Boil.  Makes 6-8 servings.  Taste of Home says a 1 cup serving has 220 calories but I make it with 1% Milk and it is still great and the calories and fat are lowered.  I have also left out the curry powder before and I liked it just as well.  I would rate this a 10 when it comes to comfort food and I love having left overs the next day for lunch.

Try it, I know you'll love it too. 

Corn Chowder, pure comfort food...

Over the weekend we had the best dinner of Bar-B-Que Shrimp, a great tossed green salad and some wonderful sweet corn I found at the farmers market. Everything was so good and there wasn't a single shrimp left over but there were 6 ears of corn not touched. Now I don't blame anyone, who wants veggies when you have all you can eat shrimp. Actually I am kind of glad it's still here because, today being a cool day with thoughts of fall coming in the air, I am going to cook a pot of my favorite soup, Corn Chowder! This is a wonderful soup for days like today or even in the dead of winter when I use bagged frozen corn. Serve it with your favorite crackers or crusty bread and it becomes the perfect comfort food, it sure is for my family.

Jeanne's Corn Chowder (careful even reading the recipe goes to your hips)

Clean and shuck 6 or 8 ears of fresh corn and cut off all the kernels with a sharp knife. Scrap down the cobs, after removing the corn, into the bowl so you don't miss any of the creamy goodness left on the cob.
Cook up 6 slices of bacon until crispy and remove from the pan saving the bacon drippings.
Into the bacon drippings add 2 tablespoons of butter for flavor,
Add a medium onion chopped small to the pan and cook ten minutes to soften the onion.
Peel and chop to bite size pieces three potatoes. Add to the cooking onions.
Add one can of chicken broth/stock or vegetable if you prefer to the pan.
Add one cup of milk to the pan. Stir well and add salt and pepper to your taste. I like a lot of pepper in mine.
Stir in all of the corn and corn scrapings to the mixture in the pan and taste again to see if it needs more salt and pepper.
Lower the temp to low and let it cook thoroughly into potatoes and all the corn is tender. Don't cover because you don't want boil overs and you want the liquid to reduce just a little.
At the end stir in one cup of heavy cream, a tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley and the crumbled crispy bacon.
Serve hot with your favorite sides and enjoy.
P.S. A long walk around the block after dinner always helps with the zillion yet wonderful calories.