Creamy cheesey cheesey cream potato-y goodness!

Nikki and Brandon (my lovely former tea boy) I have finally posted my potato and cheese soup.I know you are dieing from total shock! Call 911 to resuscitate you then make this soup! Bruce I have made this soup with a vegetable stock made from:
3 carrots
4 stalks celery
3 cloves of garlic
2 onions quartered
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs of thyme
1 rosemary
and water of course

I also used vegan "cheddar cheese" and it tasted about the same. I know I probably don't have to tell you this since you have been meat free for years but this is what I used for a vegan friend (Holy cow Ronnie cooks Vegans!!! Run Veggie lovers! RUN!!!) and it tasted almost the same (OH MY GOSH!!! Ronnie thinks people taste like potatoes!!!).

So here is what you'll need:

2.5 lbs potatoes cut in 1x1 inch cubes you to measure or the soup will turn on you and run away
1 1/2 cup milk
8 oz cheese (I use 6 oz of medium cheddar and 2 oz of sharp. The leftover of medium I use to garnish)
2 tsp thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
1 cup onion, sliced
1 tbsp garlic, sliced
1/2 cup flour
4 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
48 oz chicken stock or vegetable stock

So what do we do?

1) Heat the EVOO in a pot over medium high heat. Once the oil is hot add onions and garlic and sweat them. Do not try to brown them it makes the soup taste burnt. Well let me rephrase that, every time I brown the onions and garlic it has a burnt taste to me. You can try if you like. Back to sweating. Sweating, as I understand it, is to cook the vegetables until they are transparent or limp and liquid is released. (Now that was an intelligent answer, considering)

Before sweating

After sauna sweating

2) Next add the 1/2 cup flour and mix.Yes, it will look like a lumpy, clumpy, sticky monster that wants to destroy the world. Trust me it will be okay.

3) Add the stock and mix very well; make sure to scrape the bottom.

See it will look like this. Yummy cloud soup. That's it you're done. Wait we are only on step 3? Oh onto step 4.

4) Now it is time to make it look like a pond. You know the type with little leaves and nefarious floating things? So add the potatoes, thyme and bay leaves. Mix the pond and bring to a boil, not the type that is going to explode all over your kitchen but the nice type that has little bubbles. Cover the pot and after 2 or 3 minutes then lower the heat to lowish. 

See it looks like a pond.

5) Simmer for 25 minutes. I usually check the potatoes at 15 minutes and then make a judgment call based on the doneness readyness softness of the potatoes.

6) My favorite part! Take the bay leaves out of the soup. Why? I really don't know. I just know we do. Google it. Take your device of soupyness and blend the lumps out!!!! BWHAHAHAHA! Sorry about that. Let me explain when I had a glass blender I would use my blender, when I had a food processor that didn't have this weird spout on the side I used it. Sadly both are in appliance heaven. So I now have a blend wand which is the technical term. So just blend away however you see fit. Oh and if silky, creamy soup if not something you enjoy you can use a potato masher for a clumpier heartier version. If you decide to go with the masher I suggest mincing the garlic and onions instead of slicing.

Blendy goodness

7) Add cheese (yes I have a photo) and the milk then mix until cheese is melted and milk is incorporated.

8) Spoon that sucker into some bowls and garnish with some cheese. DO IT! CHEESE IT!!!!

Honey cornbread of deliciousness. Yummers!

9) Enjoy!!! This is for my baby, Marikia! Don't be mean to Mommy and she'll feed you this. If not Auntie Ronnie with rescue you from the mean Mommy and feed you yum yums! Loves yous Nikkis!!!!

Not what I wanted but.....

Not really what I wanted to make but hey why not? While we were at Earth Fare Lily tried their chicken salad and said she enjoyed it. Well I am NOT paying $7 something for the little container they wanted to sell me. So instead I bought a whole rotisserie chicken and made my own using a sprinkle of lemon pepper, mayo, onions and celery. Sadly I forgot to pick up more bread and all I had was this white wheat kind. I now know this bread photos badly. It may look a little weird that is because I used this sandwich cutter to seal the sides and remove the crust. Cool, huh? I also packed her "favorite treat" carrots and hummus with radishes and green bell pepper. Normally I pack her different fruit but she insisted she wanted grapes, blueberries and mandarin oranges. I was not in the mood to argue with her. So there you have it simple and nutritious lunch. See you next time.

Reader 1: Wait no witty comment, no smart aleck, no sarcasm? That's it! I'm going to a different blog!

With this unusual cold front that has kicked in I decided to make potato and cheese soup. Nikki I know you love it so the recipe will be here soon. Good bye my adoring fans!

A thank you and a bento... well 3.

So I finally was able to get online to update this sucker! for you my dears. It has seriously been a long couple of weeks for me and for those who have given me emotional support as well as a listening ear. For all of those in my life thank you so much for understanding my situation and for giving me the support I needed in the past and am continuing to need now. Thank you, Daddy for being more then brutally honest and respecting me as an adult. I know there are times I want to give up but you hold me accountable and remind me that I can do what needs to be done. Thank you Momma, my Demow, you have shown me to improvise and over come obstacles that feel like there is no solution. I wish I had more of your outward grace and your ability to be alright when everything is so wrong.

Thank you Melissa for your children and the distraction they bring, thank you for listening, for letting me feel understood, and giving me your opinion. I truly treasure it and I really appreciate it. Thank you Tara for letting me confide in you and being there for my girls. I'm sorry that you happen to be their "best friend" because I know they can be very intense. Thank you for the laughs and new inside jokes and for introducing me to Downsy. Thank you Megan, Spoon, Linda, Jessica and all of my other friends who have given me the emotional support to hold my head up high for my girls over the last several years. Thank you, Rachel for teaching me what it means to love someone, more than myself, and want to protect them from things big and small. I still thank God for giving me the strongest, one of the funniest, and the sweetest little sister anyone could ever ask for and didn’t deserve. Lastly thank you Nikki for everything you do and everything you are. You know that you mean more to me then words could ever describe. You have been an amazing sister, a cherished friend and my foundation in more trials then I can count. You are my own personal cheerleader and my couch in so many challenges. I hope as you enter this journey into motherhood I can be there for you as you have been there for me.

Now onto less mushy and emotional matters:

Captain's log: It has been 18months since I arrived in "Charlotte" and I am assimilating rather well. I have experienced many customs since my arrival and I have grown fond of several including the "play date."

 The glorious play date. All mommies that partake of this ritual know that it is a wondrous thing when children entertain themselves long enough that all mommies involved can communicate with one another for brief periods of time without too many interruptions. For my first offspring, who is currently in the educational program with the local government, I made her a "lunchable" type lunch with thinly sliced rolled animal flesh, cheese, crackers, a couple of Late July cookies, grapes and the innards of Actinidia chinenesis, Citrullus lanatus, and Prunus persica. She consumed this lunch in its entirety. Which made me quite pleased.

While my older offspring was diligently being brainwashed learning my younger offspring and I enjoyed a sunny day at our local park equipped with water fountains available to the indigenous balls of copious energy. When it came time to replenish our energy source I refueled with a pastry known as a "ham sandwich," roughage, a root and a sugary substance known as "wat-er-mel-on."   

My younger offspring refueled with a baked good that contained some berry of straw and a thick sticky glue call peanut butter. She also had the same sugary substance, little balls known as blueberries and a mix from different trails. These foods were unusual to our normal consumptions but was interesting all the same. If you have a chance to visit the continent known as North America these are some of the various foods I suggest you try.