Making Potato Leek Soup

The remainder of the the leeks and my potatoes ready to be sliced thin.

Leeks and onions ready to be sauted with a little butter.

Some russett potatoes, I used six for this batch of soup.

Slice your potatoes thin.

Saute leeks and onions with three tablespoons of butter for three minutes - I actually saute them for about six minutes.

Take a taste and see if it needs more salt and pepper, I added more because we like it peppery.

Onions and leeks have been sauting for about three minutes and I've added more salt and pepper.

Chicken broth left over from last nights chicken canning session, I didn't strain the stuff out but no one will know it's in the soup when all is said and done.

Add potatoes to the onions and leeks.

Add salt and pepper to the potato broth mixture.

Cover in chicken broth and cook until potatoes are fork tender, about 20 minutes.

When potatoes are fork tender blend everything using blender or food processor, I used my kitchenaid stick blender.

Add 2 cups cream or milk slowly to the potato stock.

The cream being blended with the blender stick, the heat is off so the cream doesn't curdle.

Blend cream/milk thoroughly and your ready to serve.

If you like bacon in your soup then see the previous post, this is my bowl without bacon. The recipe is from The Joy of Cooking cookbook. This made three quarts of soup, two of which I gave to the neighbor otherwise we'd be eating it for four days! The soup is very rich and is excellent on a freezing cold evening, currently the wind chill here is -28F so it's chilly here right now.

Potato Leek Soup

Add a few bacon crumbles to the soup for a bacon flavor - my husbands favorite part!

More Chicken

I canned up some more chicken last night - this makes the most excellent chicken salad sandwiches! I'm really getting into canning my own convience foods I haven't been able to really eat any for years now due to food allergies - apparently after dozens of allergy tests I'm allergic to the vitamins that most foods are fortified with, so here's to a tasty sandwich!!!

Maderine Oranges

Today's snack after lunch - better known as desert in this house.

Macaroni and Cheese with Tuna and Peas

Bring your macaroni noodles to a boil - as per directions on the box.

About two minutes before the noodles are fully cooked I added about a cups worth of frozen peas to the noodles. Yes I know this slows the cooking time down but I do it anyway - my bad. NOTE: If you are going to use canned peas add them to the noodles when you add the tuna otherwise they will be way mushy. ALSO if you are using canned peas you will want to drain them and rinse them well before adding to the noodles to reduce the salt content and that oh so special can flavor.

Drain noodles and peas, I use a collander to do this part so I don't burn myself.

Add drained tuna to the noodles and peas.

Add cheese and butter to the noodles, peas and tuna. Mix until butter is melted over low heat try not to scorch/burn you macaroni.

Add milk and stir well over low heat.

Add black pepper to taste and stir well.

All mixed up and cheese thoroughly blended with everything.

Ready to eat!

Lunch for two adults for less than a $1.50!!!

Bean Soup and Hot Corn Bread

Well I misread the directions and used only 1/3rd cup beans when in fact I was supposed to fill the jars 1/3rd full with beans.

So today we had bean soup and it was very juicey. To counter act the juiceyness John made corn bread with fresh ground wheat and fresh ground cornmeal - see Fannie Farmer cookbook for recipe. A canning buddy told me to add veggies to the bean soup and to use it as a soup base in the future - which is a totally brilliant idea - Thank you David!!!

Bean Soup

Dh and I made Bean Soup tonight, canned up 14 quarts to be exact. I'm anxious for it to be done as I hear something cracking inside of the canner and I'm worried one of the jars has broke, this could be interesting.
One third cup of beans in the bottom of the jars.

A mix of red beans and kidney beans - I mixed together one pound of each type in a large bowl.

I chopped up two larger onions, they were the size of a large orange.

Place a handful of chopped onion on top of the beans - about a half cups worth.

Looking good!

Cubed pork butt roast and juice.

One half cup of cubed pork plus a little bit extra to make a hearty soup.

Pork, onions, beans , now the jars are ready for the broth.

Plenty of pork juice/broth left over to top off the pork and beans - added flavor.

Jars topped off with broth water mixture the yellowis color is from the ham broth concentrate we added to the jars.

The jars are filled, cleaned, and the lids put in place and are ready to be pressured canned - 10 pounds of pressure for 90 minutes.

Studio Window

The white panels which are a reclaimed damask table cloth, were already there but apparently were not heavy enough.

Brrrrrrrrrrr

Big gap still the draft is now coming in under the new panel! I'm thinking a doubled over bit of fabric to make the panel hang properly.

I have a Maine Coon that is going to be VERY upset when he realizes I blocked his window off, every morning I'd come into my studio and find the curtians opened from said kitty. Reality bites!

Well it's REALLY cold here so to combat cranking the heat, which I currently have sitting at 67F (yeah I know very odd for me does that tell you just how cold it is here???) Sooooo I made another panel for my studio window, it needs some fabric on the bottom to make it longer. I might add I have a Maine Coon kitty cat that's going to be VERY upset as he figured out he could part the curtains and look outside - all the while letting my precious studio heat out through the window - well not anymore ;-)

I'm already noticing a huge difference the draft isn't there anymore and this window is caulked, mortited, etc... I can still feel a draft coming in under where the panel doesn't overlap the window sill, gotta fix that today! The fabric panel is some heavy Kona Cotton fabric that I painted with fabric paints and shiva paintstiks. This piece of art cloth is actually unfinished and quite frankly it won't be finished until next summer, it's too cold to care about what it looks like right now.

Clara's Depression Cooking

Peppers and Eggs part 1 & 2

Dining Room - Found

Well half of it anyway, I had to make a space for mom's china cabinet. It's going into the corner near the window, there's a heat duct about a third of the way in from the doorway. It smells of kerosene and cigarette smoke - yuck!!! It's still warming up tomorrow I'll clean it up and John will help me put the top up on the base.

I'll also clean the rest of the dining room out tomorrow and maybe even, maybe, maybe, wash the floor - Resounding applause!!!!!!!!! There's a glimpse of the rest of the mess. the colors of the room is a dark mustard, walnut trim, and a dark pumpkin base, the colors are muted compared to what you are seeing here.

Turkey Enchilada's

two cans each green enchillda sauce, green chile's, chopped tomatoes, and tomato sauce.

Lots of turkey

Corn tortillias

three cheeses

The sauce mixed up and coming to a boil.

The sauce at a boil.

The sauce boiled and then simmered for 15 minutes with one healthy dollop of sour cream added. Skins are dipped in the sauce to soften and then filled with turkey and cheese.

Assemble enchilada's

Layer in a baking pan, cover with more sauce and some cheese.

Once a month cooking at it's finest - what else would I do with so much left over turkey???