soup's on!

I've declared Saturdays to be,

Souper Saturdays!

And I might even implement, 

Souper Sundays!

In addition to,

Souper Thursdays!

Okay, never mind.  We'll stick with Saturdays.

My point is, I love a good bowl of soup.

But over the last couple years I have tried to get away from buying

pre-packaged foods, including soups.

So yesterday's homemade soup was,

Baked Potato...in a bread bowl!

(My use of exclamation points in this post is out of control, my apologies.)

It was super delicious and a hit with everyone!

Here's the soup recipe:

(source: allrecipes)

(adapted slightly by your's truly)

9 large baking potatoes

2/3 cup butter

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

6 cups whole milk (I used 2%)*

1/2 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

8 oz. container of sour cream

Top with:

bacon, fried crisp & broken into small pieces

scallions (I used dried chives)

shredded cheddar cheese

*I plan to use part milk and part chicken broth next time.

I think the broth will add a little more flavor.

But it's delicious with all milk, too.

Bake potatoes, wrapped in foil, in oven at 375 for one hour and 15 minutes.

Let cool.

Hollow out the insides and set aside.

Discard the potato skins...or bring them to me so I can give them to my chickens. :)

In large saucepan, melt butter.  Add flour, whisking for one minute or so.  

Add milk (and chicken broth, if you so desire), a little at a time.

Stir frequently until thickened.

Add those baked potatoes & mash up just a bit 

(we loved having some big chunks left in there!)

Stir in salt, pepper and sour cream.

Serve in a lovely bowl...or go all-out and make bread bowls!

Top with bacon, cheese & scallions (chives).

It really is easy to make your own soup from scratch.

It takes a little planning ahead,

but knowing that you're not filling your family with a gob of

unfamiliar ingredients is well worth it!

Enjoy!!

kansas crabby patties

Crab Cakes.

Or as I have affectionately renamed them,

Kansas Crabby Patties.

(It will all make sense to you in a little while, just hold on.)

This is one good recipe, folks.

Here's the lineup:

(I'm pretending to be PW)

(Recipe from Paula Dean.)
(Changed up a bit by your's truly.)

1 lb. crab meat* (I use the words crab and meat very loosely here.) 

1/3 cup Ritz crackers, crushed

3 green onions, finely chopped (missing)

1/2 cup green bell pepper, finely chopped

1/2 cup mayo

1 egg

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. spicy brown mustard

1/2 lemon, juiced (and zest)

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. Kosher salt

dash of cayenne

big dash of Cajun seasoning

Panko bread crumbs

Oil for frying

(All measurements are approximate!)

(I actually use a little extra of each ingredient.)

(And I sometimes add extra stuff, and omit stuff.)

(It's called, living life in the fast lane.)

Now.

Here's where Kansas comes into play:

The "crab meat".

For those of you who go down to the docks each morning to buy

your family fresh crab, don't read any further.

This will just upset you.

I suppose I could find fresh crab somewhere around here in the midwest,

but quite frankly,

I don't have the time, nor energy.

So here's what I get.

At Walmart, no less.

Blah!

 If you don't look directly at it,

it's not quite as scary.

Just kind of glance at it, briefly.

Then chop it up really fast without thinking about it.

It will be fine, I promise.

Get everything chopped, mixed, and into a bowl.

(See? That wasn't so bad!)

Then you gingerly form patties out of it,

then carefully cover your patties with the panko bread crumbs.

Then take a picture of your beautiful homemade hamburger buns

that you just pulled out of the oven.

(Sorry, I got distracted.)

Then once you have all your patties assembled & breaded up...

Put them in a frying pan of hot oil.

That terrifying crab meat doesn't look so bad now, does it?

Then you MUST make some dipping sauces.

First up,

Cocktail Sauce.

Positively NO reason to buy a bottle of this stuff, ya'll.

It's easy-peasy to make.

And way more delicious.

1/3 cup ketchup

2 tsp. prepared horseradish

2 tsp. lemon juice

Stir it all up.

Voila!  

Then,

Tartar Sauce.

Again, easy peasy.

1/2 cup mayo

1 Tbl. sweet pickle relish

2 Tbl. lemon juice

salt & pepper.

Ta-da!

I like them both so much!!

And this is where I show it all to you, plated up in a lovely way.

But, I didn't get that far with my picture-takin'.

I will tell you though that they were crispy, flavorful,

and so darn yummy!

My job here is done.

Enjoy!

salsa, my friends!

You know your family has a seriously raging salsa addiction when

it shares the sacred spot next to the milk in the door of the fridge.

And because I am very certain your family will enjoy it as well,

Here's the recipe:

(You can thank me later.)

Salsa!

Two large cans of crushed tomatoes

2 jalapenos, chopped

4 Tbs. lime juice

2 Tbs. cumin

1 onion, diced

3 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cayenne pepper

2/3 cup fresh cilantro

Throw all that in a big jar (I use my empty Sam's-size jalapeno jar),

use a hand-held blender thingy & blend it all up.

Or you can leave it chunky.

I won't judge you on your salsa textural preferences.

Live and let live, is what I always say.

It is soooooo yummy.

My entire family devours it in copious amounts at a time.

This big ol' jar will only last a week around these parts, at best.

You are welcome, in advance.

really yummy things.

Hey, you guys.

Just checking in with ya.

I'm not sure I ever mentioned this before,

but I bought a side of beef a while back.

I need to post about that

cause it made me feel like a real woman,

all Prov.31 & all.

But, for now I'll just tell you that there is NOTHING like fresh

beef from a reputable butcher.

I will never go back to normal grocery store beef shopping.

Never ever.

Real fresh local beef is beyond what your wildest imaginations could

ever...imagine.

Okay, so....I'm laying it on a bit thick but it's true.

It's yummier than anything you'll buy in the store.

Ever.

Can I get an amen?

Alrighty,

now that that commercial is out of the way,

here's what Lori made for dinner:

BBQ Brisket (hello, it was AMAZING) sandwiches.

Mixed vegetables (only because I'm a responsible mom)

AND

Bow-Tie Pizza Pasta.

Woooooie!

The pasta salad was SO DELICIOUS.

Sadly, I had to improvise a bit because I didn't have 

the prescribed tomatoes...or green onions.

I cried in the corner of my kitchen for a good 20 minutes over

the tomatoes because I had just return from the grocery

store when I decided to make this and it

sent me into a mourning like none other, knowing I'd be lacking them.

But I overcame my grief with some bell peppers and feta cheese.

And let me tell you,

this is one fabulous pasta salad.

And I am extremely picky about pasta salad.

I sure wouldn't dream of leading you astride, never in a million years.

So what you need to do to get this wonderful recipe

that came from my friend Christie,

a fellow-blog friend,

is go to my "Community Recipe Box" tab at the top of this

page and click on her link.

Or just click HERE.

You will really really be glad that you did!

So very yummy, ya'll!!!

And check out the other recipes too.

I hope to try them all soon!

If you have a great recipe you'd like me to link up,

send it to me!

community recipe box {YOUR recipes!}

Well, you all just made my day with all your comments!

It was so good to hear from you.

And WOW, most of you have a ton of stuff going on in your corners of the world.

Thank you for sharing with me!

*********

Unrelated to that, I have a little idea.

As I was adding a few recipes to my "Recipe" tab at the top

of this page,

it occurred to me that it would be super fun to 

add some of YOUR recipes!

We could make it just a little community recipe box.

Kind of like a quaint little church cookbook.

Which is where THE best recipes reside.

That's so fun, right?

The only stipulation is,

it needs to be a LINK to YOUR blog where you've shared the recipe.

Make sense?

In other words,

I can't take on writing a post about your recipe,

I'll simply post the name of it,

and link others to your blog where they can go get the actual recipe.

Yes, yes?

It will be fun.  So fun!!

And it's a good way to get new people to your blog

if you are wanting more traffic.

So here's what you need to do.

1.  Write up your recipe & post it to your blog.

Use pictures, the people love that!

If you got the recipe from somewhere else in cyberspace,

PLEASE share that link within your post.

It's just good manners.

2.  Send me the link to your post.

(NOT just the link for your blog...but the actual post link.)

Email it to me, loriatjoyunspeakable@yahoo.com

OR

Post the link in the comment section.

So far,

my recipe categories are:

Main Meals

Side Dishes

Baked Goods

I'll add other categories as needed.

(I'm also thinking that I'll add a "Handy Hints" tab...so if you have

any good blog posts that would fall into that category,

bring 'em on!)

Alrighty then,

this will be so fun, don't ya think?

And if you have an amazing recipe that you simply must share,

but don't have a blog,

go ahead and email it to me & I will TRY to

feature it by posting it on my blog in the future.

(No guarantees!)

I hope at lest a shred of what I just said makes one lick of sense.

AND that you catch my vision on this.

(Vision is a strong word...it's more like, my spur-of-the-moment idea.)

That's how I roll.

  

Bring on the recipes, friends!