Creamy Potato and Carrot Soup

So Justin and I had a long morning playing volleyball in a stake tournament, then hurried by the grocery store to pick up some food for the week (since I have essentially given up on grocery shopping by myself---just too hard and I'm just too busy.  Props to all of you who manage this alone and/or with 2+ kids).  When we came home and I unloaded the groceries and saw the potatoes next to the carrots, I thought, "I bet that would make a delicious soup."  So, at 2:30, starving for lunch, I stumbled upon THIS recipe from My Kitchen Addiction blog, and it looked worth a try!  We had almost all the ingredients, which probably has something to do with the fact that the original recipe comes from a cookbook that I now want, entitled "More With Less Cookbook."  I was happy that I could successfully curb my hunger for the one hour it took to make this. It was very easy, and tastes better with time. Justin gave it 4 out of 5 stars!

So, here's my modified version:

Creamy Carrot and Potato Soup
(Makes 6-8 servings, adapted from More With Less Cookbook)

• 1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced (about 1 cup)
• 4 russet potatoes
• 6 large carrots (about 1 pound)
  (I only had baby carrots so I used like 15 or 20 of those)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon dried dill (I might do without next time...not a dill lover)
• 6 cups chicken broth (used "Better than Bouillon")
• 1 1/2 cups milk
  (Okay, I fully intended to use milk, but I had some heavy cream leftover that I had to use up, so I put in 3/4 C heavy cream + 3/4 C water)
• 1 tablespoons Dijon mustard (I used regular but I should've used dijon)
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2-3/4 C sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• Kosher salt to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• Hot sauce (Cholula)

 

Step 1: Cook the onion on the stove in a skillet with the oil.
Step 2: Use a shredder to shred the potato and carrot. (Since I ended up blending this anyway, you could probably just dice or chop it really small and not shred them).
Step 3: After the onion has browned, add the shredded potato and carrots. Cook until softened, approximately 15 minutes.
Step 4: Add the thyme, dill, mustard, and a dash of pepper. 
Step 5: Move it all to a large pot and add the 6 cups of broth, let cook for 10 minutes.
Step 6: Add in milk and cheese, turn up the heat for 5 minutes, then turn down to simmer until you are ready to each!
Step 7: Add in salt, pepper, and cholula to taste.
Step 8: Enjoy!

While we were waiting for the soup, Justin prepared a delicious Caesar Salad, which we've been enjoying lately with the discovery of a dressing we like.
The Easy Caesar salad recipe is:

• 2 heads romaine lettuce
• handful spinach
• 2 tomatoes
• carrots
• 1/2 white onion
• shredded mozarella cheese
• crutons
• Ken's Steakhouse creamy Caesar lite

 

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I've been reading a ton of autobiographies lately, and the thing that impresses me the most is the detailed memory of the authors.  They describe in full detail meals from when they were five years old.  Granted, Justin reminded me that people generally have better memories of traumatic experiences, and the stories I've been reading have been filled with trauma.  So, the good news is, my childhood was never traumatic!  In fact, the most vivid memories I have of eating together growing up include: falling out of my chair while eating fishsticks and busting open my lip, thereby missing church and going to the Urgent Care, discovering blood in my chicken casserole either the night of or sometime around Jeff's graduation, and sitting for hours at the dinnertable because I refused to eat my dinner.

Ha, those 'traumatic' experiences aside, I have fond memories of eating together as a family.  I loved that we had that time together every night, and I was always sad for my friends when I went to their houses and they didn't have family dinner, with a prayer.  If fact, my friends were always more than happy to stay over for dinner.  I don't ever remember Mom saying no to any of my friends joining us at the dinnertable, and that happened frequently, whether it was Megan (who made the lemonade first, of course), Liz, Fran, Brett, or anyone else who was around. Good thing we were willing to adjust our "assigned seats" around to include a few more:)

Other pieces of memory in the kitchen include peeling and coring apples and learning how to dehydrate them, mixing cookies or brownies, doing dishes with Brad (who always mysteriously had to go to the bathroom every time we had to do dishes), making lots and lots of mashed potatoes, mixing Country Time lemonade, and making that delicious truffle with pudding and Angel Food Cake (what was that?!  Yum!).  More recently, I remember retaliating against Dad when he criticized Mom's cooking (he's less prone to do so now!), and I do recall a dinner when Brad and Erica were engaged and Dad told Brad he shouldn't go into the guest room with Erica with the door shut, and Brad tried to shift the blame to me, saying that I did worse things, and then Dad said, "Well I sleep with your Mom!"  End of story.

So, Mom, you made mealtimes fantastic.  I didn't know that chicken casserole with rice and a cream of something soup wasn't the very best of meals.  In fact, if you asked me now what my comfort food is, that's it...with yellow rice.  Yum, yum!  I specifically remember asking for that as a special birthday meal one time.  Speaking of birthdays, I had the very best ones ever!  I had a lion cake, a watch cake (can anyone remind me of WHY I would want a watch cake?), and a very amazing golf cake for my 8th birthday party at Putt-Putt golf.  I also remember making pinatas at my 10th birthday, inviting like half the school over for my 14th birthday party, where we had to rent a special building to have the dance party, and then having the most special surprise 16th party!  You made birthdays awesome, Mom!  I hope you have a great one today!  I love you!

Let's do this!

Welcome to the Holland Family Blog! Here, we hope to post our adventures in the kitchen and share with each other some of our favorites.  We are hoping to compile the best of our easy go-to recipes, fancy meals, quick dinners, fun lunches, gourmet recipes, tasty desserts, and festive creations.  Each Holland (and/or their wonderful spouses!) must post at least once a month to the blog.  Within one year, we'll have at least 60 wonderful recipes to enjoy!  And if we're good enough, we'll all retire early, open a restaurant, and maintain this blog together.  Hey, why not? :)