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Category: Food & Recipes

  • Easy Potato Soup with Cheese and Bacon: Recipe

    Easy Potato Soup with Cheese and Bacon: Recipe

     

    potato soup recipe

    Good soup is one of the prime ingredients of good living.

    For soup can do more to lift the spirits
    and stimulate the appetite than any other one dish.

    Louis P. De Gouy, ‘The Soup Book’

     

    I judge a pub’s fare by their potato soup and their broccoli bites. Sue me.

    For years and years and years the clear winner in my mind was Bennigan’s, and I was pretty much heartbroken when the one near me closed (not sure if Bennigan’s is still serving up tasty soups and sides in other areas).

    I haven’t mastered the broccoli bite yet, or found an alternative that even comes close to the delicious ones Bennigan’s had. But I’ve come pretty close to perfecting potato soup.

    What makes a good potato soup? A thick, full body; lots of hunger-satisfying chunks; a bit of zing and bacon on top 🙂 Oh, and it MUST improve for leftovers next day.

    Like always, I play it fast and loose with quantities here; it depends on what I have in the fridge and the pantry. The ingredients listed are what I like to use and I think make for great flavor, but there’s a lot of wiggle room in soups. Which is just one more reason why they’re the best, best comfort food during these busy months hurtling us towards the end of the year.

     

    Simple Potato Soup
    (with Cheese and Bacon)

     

    You’ll need:

    • “once around the pan” or about a tablespoon olive oil (organic is nice)
    • 3 large green onions (leeks if you’re fancy), a small sweet onion, or 2 biggish shallots
    • salt & pepper to taste; freshly ground is always better
    • 3 large baking potatoes, or 4 large Yukon gold potatoes, or about 8 “new” potatoes— I basically just eyeball and think “how many of these = 3 Russets?” Farmer’s market fresh for best flavor & texture!
    • 4 cups free-range chicken broth (I like Pacific, it’s organic too; Trader Joe’s has a good one)
    • 2 cups milk (I go organic and full-fat)
    • Pinch of nutmeg
    • 1/2 cup of whatever cheese I’ve got; usually an organic sharp cheddar of some kind. Bonus for something with garlic or peppers in it for some bite
    • blue cheese and crumbled bacon for topping (optional)

    Now do this (seems like a lot of steps but I swear it’s easy):

    • peel and dice your potatoes; chop your green onions into circles or dice your onion/shallots; grate your cheese. Or do like I do and delegate this part to your teenager in exchange for driving him somewhere this weekend.
    • “once around the pan” your olive oil in a large skillet/saucepan on medium-high heat
    • cook your onion gently until soft; salt and pepper as you wish
    • pour in broth and add potatoes; bring to boil
    • turn down heat to low and simmer 10 minutes
    • pour in milk and add nutmeg
    • cook another 5 minutes or until hot
    • depending on how thick vs chunky you like your soup, carefully transfer half (more or less) to a blender and purée until you get a whirling vortex. Alternatively, remove some chunks to a different bowl and use an immersion blender, I don’t mind.
    • Return purée (or chunks) to pan and remove from heat. Stir in grated cheese.
    • Top with delicious happy (organic, free-range) bacon and crumbles of blue cheese.

    This makes about 4 generous comfort-food servings that improve with age. I find adding in fun amounts of blue cheese makes for bold flavor that your children will view with great suspicion, leaving you copious leftovers for lunch.

     

    What’s your favorite soup for the winter months?

     

     

  • Let’s #GetUnreal with Our Candy

    Let’s #GetUnreal with Our Candy

     

    Candy, Candy, Candy
    I can’t let you go
    All my life you’ve haunted me
    I love you soooooo…
    -Iggy Pop, “Candy”

    It’s October, and my favorite holiday is nigh.

    For me, what makes Halloween awesome is the costumes. I love dressing up, the freedom to be as ugly and ridiculous as I wanna be. I also love going door to door and talking to all the people who live in the neighborhood across the way.

    For the kids, those things factor in too, but let’s face it: for them it’s all about the candy.

    What’s in the candy can be super scary, though. Artificial flavors, artificial coloring, HFCS… all stuff you really don’t want your kids putting into their bodies.

    And the thing is… they don’t make the candy taste any better, they just make it cheaper to produce.

    Have I ever mentioned how much I loathe the idea of cheap? Yeah, I think I have once or twice 🙂

    Vote with your dollar. Buy things of value.

    UNREAL candy looks like those familiar standbys: Milky Ways, Snickers, M&Ms, peanut butter cups; only made with quality ingredients.

    • Without the corn syrup,
    • without the partially hydrogenated oils,
    • without the GMOs,
    • without the artificial flavors, colors and preservatives,
    • key ingredients needed to be responsibly sourced,
    • dairy needed to come from pasture raised cows with no antibiotics or added hormones
    • and with 40% less sugar per serving on average.

     


     

    I like this and I don’t even like Milky Ways.
    Wait, 100 less calories? Here, give me another one.

    —actual quote from one of the moms at our Unjunked movie night

     

    More UNREAL candy stats here.

    I already knew my friend Kristin liked UNREAL candy bars, as she’d been praising them on Facebook. I wanted to see if kids would like them, or if handing them out to trick-or-treaters would be the social equivalent of being that family that gives out apples or trail mix.

    So, we assembled a bunch of kids and parents for a multi-family Unjunked movie night: watching The Sandlot, eating air-popped popcorn and UNREAL candy. Everyone got a goody bag with one of each of UNREAL’s offerings.

    And… it was a hit.

     

    I especially love the colors of the not- M&Ms. Much like organic clothing, the shades are muted and pretty.

    I am not especially crazy about the colors in these photographs. Sorry guys, I should have brought my real camera.

    Look, I’m not going to ask you to be that family that hands out toothbrushes or pretzels at Halloween.

    I’m not going to say kids shouldn’t ever have candy. Or chocolate.

    I’m going to ask you to consider the little-to-no nutritional value of candy and chocolate. And wonder why we’re ok with straight up unhealthy stuff like artificial anything on top of it.

    UNREAL isn’t expensive, but it costs a bit more than junk candy. I think that’s OK. It serves to remind us that most candy is junk, and not really suitable for giving our kids.

    UNREAL is a treat that you don’t have to feel guilty about.

    It helps that it’s really tasty, to adults and kids.

     

    What do you usually give out to trick-or-treaters?

    Are you trying to unjunk your kids’ eating habits?

    Disclosure: this is a sponsored post through Global Influence. All opinions are my own.

     

     

     

  • We are the Children of the Corn: Infographic

    So that’s us:
    processed corn, walking.

    ―Michael Pollan,
    The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

     

    Here’s what I think about corn, in general.

    • At just the right time of year, it’s delicious.
    • Just like anything else, it’s fine in moderation; ideally should be organically grown and as unprocessed as possible.

    The problem is when you get into the fact that corn is in EVERYTHING, and in a form that I don’t think our body processes in an ideal manner.

    I’m not a doctor, nutritionist or biologist; this is just my own theory, but:

    We evolved over time to eat food, and that food works together in a synergy that allows us to maximize energy and nutrients. We also evolved over time to accomodate the change of seasons: feast and famine, busy active times and cold-weather hunkering-down times.

    When we start eating all this processed junk, fillers and simple sugars, our bodies hold on all those extra calories in anticipation of the famine times a’coming. In this refined form, it’s easier to take on the calories and the weight, and it tricks our system into believing it needs to hang onto those calories and the weight for the inevitable time of famine. So easier to gain weight + harder to burn calories.

    Again, I’m no expert but it seems like common sense to me.

    In any case, I was sent this infographic about Big Bad Corn, highlighting hazards that go beyond our waistlines. What do you think? Do we as a nation rely too heavily on corn? Have you tried to cut back on corn in your diet?