Baked Potato Soup

My friend asked me for this recipe the other day after I had mentioned it and I remembered that I had taken a picture of it the last time I made it...so here it is!  This is soooooooooo good and tastes pretty much identical to the Tony Roma's version! 

 

Tony Roma's Baked Potato Soup
- 2 medium russet potatoes
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 cup diced white onion
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 4 cups chicken broth (one of the big Campbell's cartons is the right size)
- 2 cups water
- 1 1/2 cups instant mashed potatoes, dry
- 1 tsp. salt
- 3/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp dried basil
- 1/8 tsp dried thyme
- 1 cup half-and-half cream (now...I find this soup thick to begin with, and to reduce the fat, I always sub in 2% milk...I don't find it tastes much different)

Garnish:
- 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
- 1/4 cup crumbled cooked bacon (Oscar Meyer Bacon Bits are much quicker :))
- 2 green onions, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bake the potatoes for 1 hour.

2. As potatoes cool, prepare soup by melting butter in a large saucepan, and saute the onion until light brown. Add the flour to make a roux.

3. Add broth, water, cornstarch, mashed potato flakes and spices and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

5. Add chopped baked potato and half-and-half (or milk) to the saucepan, bring soup back to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for another 15 minutes or until thick.

6. Spoon into bowls and top with a tablespoon of shredded cheddar cheese, half a tablespoon of crumbled bacon and a teaspoon of green onions.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Snickers Peanut Butter Cookies

I bought a 4-pack of Snickers bars quite some time ago with some intention to bake something (I'm sure at the time I had something in mind, but have no idea what it was now...oops!).  So I decided to use up these random chocolate bars I had laying around.  Google search result - Deb is making Snickers Peanut Butter Cookies! 

I found a recipe on this blog, but I modified it a little bit to fit what I had in the house (whipped peanut butter, margarine, full-sized snickers bars and of course, milk chocolate/peanut butter swirl chips).  

Snickers Peanut Butter Cookies

• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1 cup whipped peanut butter 
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teapoon vanilla
• 3 1/2 cups flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 snickers bars, cut into pieces 
• Milk chocolate chips or peanut butter/chocolate chips, melted for drizzling over cookies

1. Combine butter, peanut butter, and sugars using a mixer on medium to low speed until light and fluffy.

2. Slowly add the eggs and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Mix in flour, salt, and baking soda.

3. Cover and chill dough 2 to 3 hours up to a couple of days.

4. Remove dough from fridge. Divide dough into 1 to 2 tablespoon pieces and flatten.

5. Place a Snickers piece in center of each. Form a ball around the Snicker, taking care to cover it all.

6. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 325 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Adjust time as needed if using more than 1 tablespoon dough. Let cookies cool 1 to 2 minutes then remove to rack to cool completely.

7. Drizzle melted milk chocolate over each cookie.

Thank you to the boys who taste-tested last night while the cookies were still warm (before they received the chocolate drizzle!)

Cadbury Cream Egg Ice Cream

A few of my friends got me the ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchenaid stand mixer for my birthday and I was super excited! 

Ever since Mike found a recipe online for Cadbury Cream Egg ice cream, he's been asking me to make it, so yesterday was the day (it made him very happy!)

So far, I've made 5 different ice creams, sorbets and sherbets over the past few months and I'd say this one was #2 on my list so far (yes, #2 - I mean, who can compete with mint chocolate chip, right?). I'd highly recommend the ice cream maker attachment if you have a Kitchenaid mixer!  It works wonderfully!

Cadbury Cream Egg Ice Cream - Adapted from this blog

• 9 Cadbury Cream Eggs, frozen
  
• 1 1/2 cups homogenized milk
• 1 cup + 1/2 cup whipping cream (35%)
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp unsweetened dutch process cocoa powder
• Pinch salt
• 6 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Cadbury Egg Preparation:

Freeze your cream eggs for at least 4 hours to get them nice and solid (this makes it easier to chop once the inside "goo" is frozen...otherwise you're going to have a sticky mess all over the place!).  I took mine out of the freezer one by one and chopped them up and put them into a freezer bag, which I kept in the freezer during the process, as they seem to thaw quite quickly.  Keep these in the freezer until you need them. 

Ice Cream Preparation:

Step 1
Combine the egg yolks, sugar, cocoa, salt, and 1/2 cup of the cream in a bowl. Whisk until the mixture is smooth, with no clumps of cocoa powder of sugar granules remaining.

Step 2
Combine milk and the rest of the cream in a heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat until bubbles form around the edge, stirring frequently. (I accidentally let mine boil for a second because I wasn't paying attention...woops.)

Step 3
Remove milk/cream mixture from heat. Slowly whisk about 1/2 cup of the hot mixture into bowl with the egg mixture. Whisk constantly until smooth and then pour the entire egg mixture into the saucepan.

Step 4
Cook over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until it is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. This should take about five or six minutes.

Step 5
Put the chocolate pieces in a heatproof bowl (Pyrex, metal, etc.) and pour the hot custard on top. Stir until the chocolate has melted evenly. (I left this for a few minutes to let the chocolate melt and then stirred...it was sooo velvety smooth)

Step 6
Using a fine-mesh sieve, strain the custard into another bowl. (I only had a few little chunks and everything went through my sieve very easily).

Step 7
Add the vanilla and stir well.

Step 8
Place the bowl in a larger bowl partially filled with ice cubes and water. Stir occasionally until cool.  Mine took maybe 15-20 minutes until it became completely cool - not long at all, really.

Step 9
Press plastic wrap lightly onto the surface of the custard (this prevents "skin" from forming). Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (Can be made up to one day ahead.)

Step 10
Pour the custard into your ice-cream maker and freeze according to manufacturers directions.*  Freezing times vary by machine, but start adding the Creme Egg pieces about 3/4 of the way through the process.

*Mine only took about 20 minutes to get to the frozen stage...I think it was because the mixture was so thick, as most of my ice creams have taken about a half hour to get to frozen.  Just be sure you keep an eye on it so that your mixer or ice cream maker isn't straining.  I ended up stirring the cream eggs in by hand after taking it out of the machine because it had gotten thick & frozen very fast.

Step 11
Scoop the ice cream out of your ice-cream maker and into a freezer-safe container. Freeze for at least three hours.

Welcome!

As a 2011 New Year's Resolution (or more of just a general goal of sorts), I decided to buy myself a recipe journal and cook at least 8 new recipes per month in order to fill up the book by December.  I'm doing quite well so far and am ahead of my goals to date, so I thought hey, why not turn this into a blog and share the new recipes with others...so here it goes!  I'll attempt to take pictures from here on in.

Enjoy!