Cream of Potato Soup

I remember as a kid, after Saturday morning chores were done, our dad would take us over to the Cottonwood Complex to go sledding. As a parent I can now appreciate this. When my kids ask to go sledding, my reaction is a little whimpy. ("But it's going to be so cold. Do I even have snow boots?, etc.) It's one of those requests that makes me feel old, because I shouldn't be afraid go and brave the elements. I mean, I've whipped down the mountainside at Mountain Dell on a rickety sleigh and nearly killed someone. I've cross-country skied up Big Cottonwood and down Millcreek. I've hiked up random mountainsides and slid down on garbage sacks. I was pulled on an inner tube from the back of a truck down Lambs Canyon. I even took ski program! And now I don't even know if I have snow boots? Sheesh.

Anyway, Saturdays and sledding always remind me of my mom's potato soup. Made with onion, bacon, milk, shredded potatoes, and lots of black pepper, it was the soup de jour on a snowy Saturday. Because I'm turning into my mom (that's a good thing), I made my version of this soup. I love this soup for it's flexibility and simplicity, and it's so much better than any of the greasy, overly-thickened slime you'd get if you ordered this in a restaurant. Even if your pantry is nearly empty, you should be able to make this.

Cream of Potato Soup

2 T. olive oil

2 yellow onions (or 1 lg.), small dice

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 celery stalks, small dice

diced ham or bacon, to taste (optional) (I used leftover ham from the weekend party)

1 can (or equivalent water and bullion) chicken broth

4 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed

water, enough to cover potatoes

milk, to taste

cream, to taste (or use evaporated milk or half & half)

roux for thickening, if desired (2 T. butter, 3 T. flour, cook in saucepan 1-2 minutes. Add 1-2 c. warm milk, whisk until thickened, add to soup)

salt and pepper to taste

If using bacon, cook bacon until crispy. Remove and set aside, reserving 1 T. bacon fat for cooking the vegetables. Cook onions, garlic, celery, and ham in oil until softened. Add broth, potatoes and enough water to cover potatoes. Bring to boil and cook potatoes until tender. If you want a thicker soup (see picture) make the roux with the 2 c. of milk and add to soup. Bring to boil to thicken. Reduce heat to low and add as much cream as you want. (I added about 1/2 c. Add more or less to taste.) Check seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with bacon, if using.

There's No Crying in Baking

Sunday we had all of the family over for Emma's birthday. I thought I was prepared. Saturday I made up three pans of funeral potatoes to cook for Sunday. I bough a ham and had it sliced. I made a Jell-O with raspberries. I should have made the birthday cake too, but it was the ward party Saturday night and I ran out of time. (Guess what we had? Funeral potatoes, ham, and Jell-O.)
So I had most of Sunday afternoon to make rolls, a birthday cake, some backup brownies (yeah , we have a big family), put together a green salad and maybe a veggie platter.
Oh how I wish I had pictures to describe the chaos that ensued. I think a timeline will work best:

12:15-- We get home from church, everyone is cold and starving and demanding lunch. Ed has a meeting in 30 minutes so I'd better get chopping. Swiping some ham from the dinner, I threw together a brunch (or lunchfast as Emma called it) of ham, scrambled eggs, toast, leftover cinnamon rolls, and orange juice. Uh, you're welcome guys.
12:45-- Ed's gone. Ed usually does the dishes. I do dishes fast while trying to decide what cake I'm going to make.
1:00-- I make the roll dough. I scald the milk and nearly burn it (because, you know, I'm doing the darn dishes). The milk is taking forever to cool. Put milk mixture in garage to cool and nearly spill it on the dog food.
1:30-- Decide on a lovely yellow butter cake that uses the reverse creaming method. How intriguing! Prepare my mise en place.
1:45--Milk is cool. Finish preparing the roll dough, knead, and dump in an oiled container to rise.
2:00-- I'm running late! Wash bowl dough was kneaded in and start preparing cake batter. Forget to preheat oven. Realize that reverse creaming takes a long time.
2:15-- While reverse creaming, visiting teachers come over unannounced. Bring me a nice poinsettia and we chit chat. I'm wearing paint splattered sweats and covered in flour. Sensing my anxiety, visiting teachers leave.
2:30-- Finish cake batter. Hmmm, it calls for 8" rounds. I have a lot of batter. Will it fit? Yes it will! Barely. Oh, crap. Preheat oven. Should I use 9" rounds? Nah. I like tall cakes!
2:40-- Oven is preheated. Cake batter is divided evenly, smoothed, and comes dangerously close to the top of the pan. The picture in the cookbook shows a fine crumb and tight texture, like a pound cake. Perhaps it won't rise much. Put in the cake.
2:50-- Batter is rising and flowing over to the edge of the pan. Will the surface tension hold it together? Please?
2:52-- Cake batter is dripping over the edges. Dangit! What should I do? Wait. Maybe it will stop. It won't. Burn finger while spooning some of the batter out of the pans onto a plate.
2:54-- Cake batter is still dripping. Put a pan underneath to catch the drippings. Taste the batter on the plate. Not bad!
2:55-- Oven is taking on a nice smoky smell. I wonder if the cookbook says something about using tall cake pans! No, but clearly they do. Wish you would have bought those 8"x3" cake pans at Gygi's.
3:00-- Cake batter is steadily flowing out of the pans, but only out of one side, creating a divet around the rising cake, a beautiful volcanic valley of golden batter. Start thinking about making some brownies. You're definitely going to need a backup.
3:10-- Wash mixer bowl and start making texas sheet cake brownies. A crowd pleaser! Put flour and sugar in mixing bowl.
3:15-- Cakes are finally finished and boy are they ugly. In a brief flash of maturity, Emma pats me on the back and says "It's okay mom."
3:20-- What's that burning smell? Is it still the oven? Ah! the cocoa/water/butter mixture on the stove is bubbling away at a dangerous pace. Remove from heat and dump in flour sugar mixture. Mix in everything else. While pouring batter in pan, give it a taste. Hmm, it doesn't taste very sweet. Did I put in both cups of sugar? I can't remember!
3:25-- Pace around kitchen and finally decide to add another cup of sugar to the brownie batter. Scrape batter from pan into bowl, add sugar, scrape back into pan, and place into still smoky oven.
3:30-- Wash saucepan. Start making icing for brownies. Melt butter, cocoa, and milk in pan. Get distracted trying to get birthday cakes out of the pan. Frosting mixture scorches on the bottom but I'm mad and add the powdered sugar anyway. I think it tastes a little burned. Ed things it tastes fine, albiet with a pleasant smoky finish.
3:40-- Still with the burning smell? What's wrong? Look in oven and see brownie batter bubbling over the edge of the pan. Crap!
3:45-- While looking for a pan large enough to catch the falling batter, note that the brownie batter is now overflowing the pan in thin, beautiful sheets of chocolate. Double crap! Kitchen is dangerously smoking. Everyone in family opening windows. I try not to cry. There's no crying in baking!
3:47-- Flames erupt on the bottom of the oven in the shape of a sheet pan rectangle. Pull brownies from oven, covering my oven mitts in batter. Throw on baking soda to stop the fire. Take a deep breath and remind yourself you still have 3 potato casseroles, a ham, and 4 pans of rolls to bake.
3:50-- The rolls! Turn and see the dough overflowing the container. Punch down dough with more force than necessary, turn it, and tell it gently to wait a few minutes.
3:50 - 4:30-- Turn off oven, let it cool down, pull out racks, wash and dry them, scrape off burned batter from the bottom of oven. Call mom and ask her to make brownies. Give silent prayer thanking God for moms.
4:30-- Shape rolls and try to clean up the disastrous kitchen.
4:30-- Crank oven up and cram it with ham and funeral potatoes. Turn on the convection fan, baby!
4:40-- Make dip for vegetable tray. Decide not to make homemade salad dressing. Ask Ed to whip the cream for the Jell-O.
4:45-- Make chocolate buttercream frosting for cake.
4:50-- Try and make something from the cake-tastrophe. Slice tops of cake to make even with divet. Save tops. Patch together cake so it's roughly even. Even use some of the pieces that had falling into the other pan. Frost cake. Hey, this isn't too bad!
5:00-- Decorate cake with Junior mints and little peppermint patties that have white frosting snowflakes on them. Be glad you didn't cry over the cake - it turned out okay.
5:15-- Check on potatoes and ham. Almost there. Thank you convection! Swap everything out for a pan of rolls.
5:20-- Realize you're still in your sweats and the doorbell just rang. Ah! Change clothes, dash downstairs and get out salad stuff.
5:30-- Get nice sister-in-law to help you finish salad. Put in more rolls.
5:40-- Almost everyone's here. I made it!

Remember: any tears in the kitchen should be tears of joy. I will make that dang yellow butter cake again, with different pans, and I know it'll be great.

Date Filled Cookies, ZCMI Style

This is not the official recipe, but I've put together a pretty close duplicate to the date-filled cookies we used to buy after shopping at ZCMI (somehow that third cookie we'd buy for dad would never make it home). Eating these took me right back to my teenage days in the 80's where I'd stalk my then-boyfriend who had a job in the giftwrap dept.

I remember that the date-filled cookies were a little darker from the brown sugar and ground pecans in the dough, as opposed to the raisin-filled, which I think were made from a white sugar cookie dough. The dough is flavorful on its own, and would make a nice sugar cookie, especially with the addition of the ground pecans. The date filling is just right - just remember to use fresh dates and not the dry, sugared, chopped ones.

Date Filled Cookies

Dough

2 c. light brown sugar

1/2 c. shortening

1/2 c. butter, room temp

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1 t. vanilla
2 lg. eggs, room temp

1/4 c. buttermilk (or reg. milk, or sour cream I suppose would work), room temp

1/2 c. or so ground pecans (to taste)

3 3/4 to 4 1/2 c. flour
(Note: start with the lesser amount and add more until the dough reaches a "sugar cookie dough" consistency: not exceedingly soft but not too stiff either. Better to err on the softer side, as the dough will firm up in the fridge and result in a softer cookie.)

Filling

1 1/2 c. (8 oz.) dates, chopped into small pieces

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. water

1/8 t. salt

2 t. lemon juice

For the dough: cream together sugar, shortening, butter, baking soda, salt, and vanilla until smooth and light. Beat in the eggs, add buttermilk, then stir in the flour and pecans by hand. Cover bowl and chill at least one hour.

For the filling: in a small saucepan over medium heat, cook the dates, sugar, water, salt, and lemon juie gently for about 7 minutes, stirring frequently until thick. If necessary, add a little more water.

Preheat the oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

On a floured surface, roll out the half the dough and cut into rounds. I used a 2 3/4" round, but for more "bakery sized" cookies, use a 3 or 4-inch round. Place heaping teaspoon of date filling in the center of the rounds, and top the cookies with another round of dough, pressing lightly around the edges. (Note: if you used alot of flour to roll out the dough, or if your dough is very stiff, you may need to moisten the edges of the round with water before topping the dough.)

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until they're a light golden brown. Remove them from the oven and transfer them to a rack to cool.

Two Old Fashioned Breads: Date Nut Loaf and Whole Wheat Raisin Bread

Much of eating is about nostalgia--just watch Ratatouilli--and this is why I made these two breads. Visits to my Grandma Clark were quiet but special. Even while playing on her special back exerciser, things didn't get too out of hand. During the visit, grandma would disappear into the kitchen and reappear with little plates of spice cake, raisin cake, or any such mystery cake containing raisins, nuts, molasses, or whole grains. Her cakes were like her personality: unassuming and down to earth.
The Date-Nut Loaf is a little more refined than grandma would have made. It's light in color and enriched with a little cream cheese in the batter. Also, grandma would have never used this much butter in a lowly loaf cake. It turned out nice, but be careful not to overbake or it will be very dry. This recipe is from Dori Greenspan's Baking.

Date-Nut Loaf
2 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
3 oz cream cheese, room temp
3/4 c. light brown sugar
4 lg. eggs
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. almond extract
1 c soft pitted dates, each cut into 8 pieces
1 c. walnuts, chopped

Grease and flour a 9x5-inch loaf pan and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Put the pan on an insulated baking sheet or two regular sheets stacked one on top of the other.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Working with a stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium speed untl very smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, another 3 minutes or so. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the extracts. The batter may look curdled - that's okay. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Fold in the dates and nuts with a spatula.
Turn batter into pan and bake for 40 minutes, then cover the top of the cake loosely with a foil tent and bake for another 40 minutes or so (total baking time 1 hour 20 minutes). (Note: I only baked this about one hour and it seemed very done - even with the knife test.)

Whole Wheat Currant Bread
(adapted from Nick Malgieri's The Modern Baker)
I was really happy with this bread. It was substantial without being heavy, had a nice flavor, and made an excellent breakfast bread toasted with butter. This bread is more Grandma Clark's speed: dark, healthy, and you don't need a KitchenAid to make it.

2 c. whole wheat flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
2 lg. eggs
1/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. dark brown sugar
1/3 c. oil
3/4 c. buttermilk or milk
2 c. dried currants (or chopped raisins)
1/2 c. chopeed nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch pan. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in bowl and stir to mix.
In large bowl whisk eggs, add sugars. Whisk in oil and milk, one at a time, whisking until smooth after each. Scrape batter into pan and smooth the top. Bake until well-risen and toothpick emerges clean, about 45 to 50 minutes. Cool bread in pan 5 minutes, then unmold and cool completely before slicing.
Fold in flour to egg mixture. Quickly fold in currants. Scrape batter

Broccoli Hash

What do you do with a tiny bag of leftover pine nuts that have been sitting in your fridge since August? You could make this broccoli hash, which is possibly my new favorite way to eat broccoli. Sunflower Farmer's Market had a good price on Asiago, so that clinched it. I may make this as more of an everyday side dish by just omitting the pine nuts and using whatever cheese you have on hand.

The only things I would have changed is 1) chopped the broccoli pieces a little smaller and more "hashy"; 2) browned the broccoli a little longer in the pan (the garlic was beginning to get toasty so I panicked); and 3) not thrown in a head of broccoli so recklessly into a pan of hot butter. I now have a nice scabbed over blister from the burn on my arm.

This recipe is adapted from memory from the Food Network Cookbook. I hope I get it right.

Broccoli Hash

1 head broccoli

2-3 t. unsalted butter

2 t. olive oil

2 T pine nuts

2 shallots, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

Salt & pepper

shaved asiago to taste

Break up broccoli by hand and cook for 2-3 minutes in salted boiling water. Remove broccoli, drain, and press with paper towels to get the broccoli very dry. (Note: this takes a little effort and more than a few paper towels.) Roughly chop broccoli and set aside.

Melt butter in large nonstick saucepan. Add pine nuts and cook 2 minutes until brown. Remove pine nuts with slotted spoon.

Add oil to pan with the butter, heat, and add shallot. Cook for a couple minutes, add garlic, cook for 1 more minute (medium heat - don't burn that garlic!). Add dried broccoli and cook until edges are crispy, working in batches if neccessary. Return pine nuts to pan and toss to combine. Season generously with salt and pepper (remember the asiago will add some saltiness). Place in warm serving dish and top with shaved asiago.

Asiago Cheddar Hash Browns

It's hard to get excited about making dinner the days before and after Thanksgiving. After spending a couple of days in a cooking frenzy, I have been in no mood to spend time shoppping, plan, or execute meals. Tonight was a "breakfast dinner", a perfect opportunity to clean out the fridge and exercise the "Iron Homemaker" moniker.

I had a ton of potatoes, some cheddar and asiago leftover from the Thanksgiving Broccoli Hash (recipe coming soon), a few shriveled mushrooms, a green pepper, eggs, onions, and garlic. You can't go wrong with fried potatoes with cheese, and I made some western omelettes to go along. Ed says it was in the top ten dinners I've ever made, so if you think I'm a dork for posting a recipe for hash browns, you can just take that up with him.

2 T each butter and olive oil

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

yellow potatoes, roughly chopped (I don't know the amount - just enough to fill a large non-stick pan)

chopped fresh parsley

asiago and cheddar cheese, shredded

Melt oil and butter in large nonstick pan. Add onion and garlic. Cook for a few minutes while chopping potatoes. Add potatoes and season generously with salt, pepper, and garlic salt or powder. Cook potatoes until crisp and brown, adding a little more oil or butter as necessary. Toss in cheese and parsley and place under broiler to brown. You don't have to do this, but I like getting a crispy top.