Julia Child's Potato Soup

I think I bought Julia Child's cookbook last year and have only made a few recipes out of it. One of the most easiest and tastiest recipes is for potato soup. This isn't your super creamy rich potato soup, but more simple, yet satisfyingly delicious potato soup.

Recipe adapted from Julia Child's cook book

Ingredients:
3 cups leeks thinly sliced
3-4 cups russet potatoes, chopped
3/4 tbsp salt
1 tbsp butter
2 quarts water
3 tbsp half and half

Directions:
1. Heat up water on the stove while you chop and slice the leeks and potatoes
2. Add leeks, potatoes, salt to water and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce to a simmer and simmer for 40-50 mins.
4. Once soup is done, use a hand mixer and mix the soup on low to break up the vegetables.
( if you have a hand blender, it's even better.)
6. Add butter and half and half and stir until incorporated.
7. Enjoy!

PS- try it with some left over holiday ham sliced up- it makes a great soup for cold winter days!

Homemade Chicken Soup

Well, this year has not been good for blogging for me. I am honestly going to try and pick this up again because I like it and really do enjoy cooking and learning new things in the kitchen. I don't think I've been too creative in the kitchen this year and I want to change that.

So let's start with something that is perfect for fall. Chicken soup. I've had a hard time making soups from scratch- they never come out as I intend them. This time, however, I think I finally nailed it. My recipe is based loosely from The Pioneer Woman's Chicken Soup recipe, however, I did tweak it be on my own and didn't do much in terms of measurements. I think what really made the soup work was that I browned the chicken first, before adding stock and the vegetables. I also used chicken w/ bones, which I really do think helps bring out the flavor. Here's my recipe (and again measurements aren't exact):

Ingredients:
1 bone in chicken breast
2 chicken legs
1 yellow onion, diced
4 stalks of celery, diced
6 carrots, diced
Parsley, roughly chopped (about 3 tbsp)
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp of thyme
1 quart of chicken stock (4 cups)
1 chicken bouillon cube
2 cups of water
Olive Oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Cheesecloth

Steps:
1. Heat pan & add olive oil. Once your pan is properly heated, add chicken breast and chicken legs. Brown on each side for about 5 mins each- just enough to brown the skin.
2. Remove chicken from pan and add chicken stock. Make sure to run your spoon under the chicken bits still stuck to the pan (they'll add flavor).
3. Add back chicken to the pan, plus the two cups water and chicken bouillon.
4. Add carrots, celery, onion to the pan and bring to a boil.
5. Once the soup is at a boil, reduce heat to simmer.
6. Add parsley and bay leaves to the cheesecloth & securely tighten w/ baker's twine and add to the soup. Shake in thyme.
7. Cook for about 1 1/2 hours, adding salt and pepper to your liking.
8. Remove chicken from the pan and shred & then add back to the soup.

I actually didn't eat the soup the night I made it. Instead, I let it cool and refrigerated it to the next day and then warmed up. The nice thing about this is you can remove the fat that hardens up at top and customize your soup if you're like me- sometimes I want chicken and rice soup, other times I enjoy chicken noodle soup. Just cook up some rice or boil some pasta and add to your soup. Enjoy!

Basil Walnut Pesto

I think every couple of months I remember about this blog. Oops! I'm going to try this again. Let's talk about Basil Walnut Pesto and how great it is. I actually never liked pesto (always too much of a bite from the one's I've had), but since I had all this Basil growing in my patio garden, thought I may try to make my own.

I'm a bad blogger. I've been getting used to leave work at decent hours and I have been enjoying that too much to type up fun recipes. But I'm back for now! This one is an easy one.

Homemade fried rice. It's easy, versatile and less bad for you that your local take out place (and way better than Panda Express).

Pasta with Garlic and Oil

Last weekend I was on a roll. I made a quick and easy dinner of Garlic Spaghetti for Jason and myself, plus some yummy brownie-esque cookies. I'll start with the pasta dish, made possible from an America's Test Kitchen cookbook that I picked up at the thrift store some time ago.

Pea Soup

Did you have ham leftovers from the holidays? Did you freeze any of it? Well, if you did, and you know, even if you didn't and just bought some, I found a pretty darn good pea soup recipe. I love pea soup, even though I rarely eat it. This is mostly due to me not understanding how to make good soup. Good soup takes time- lots of simmering time. And I'm not too patient

Perfect Vanilla Iced Latte

Happy New Year! I am going to tell you how to make the perfect iced latte. Now, this drink is based more on technique and does not rely on measurements. Why, you may ask?