Potato, Bacon and Cheddar Soup

I like homemade cream soups but don't like the texture when they are put through the blender.  I still like to have something to chew.  I found this soup recipe here and thought I'd give it a try. 

Ingredients
6 large potatoes
1 liter chicken stock (I used store bought this time) 
2 green onions chopped (I omitted these since I didn't have any and just added more chives)
1 c milk
1 c shredded cheddar cheese
1 c mozzarella cheese
½ c chives
2 Tbsp sour cream
½ package bacon
seasonings to taste - salt, pepper, paprika, etc. 


Thinly slice bacon, fry until crisp and drain.  Set aside.

 

Peel and cube potatoes.  Cook potatoes in chicken stock and add water if needed to cover potatoes.  Cook until potatoes are well done.  Do not drain.

If you like smoother soup, run the potatoes and liquid through the blender.  I like mine rough mashed instead.  I leave them lumpy.

Mix in the chives, onions, bacon and cheeses. 

Stir to help melt the cheese.

Add sour cream.

Add milk and stir.  If it is too thick, add more milk.

Return to heat for a few minutes and season to taste.  I added a bit of pepper and paprika. 

The soup was thick, tasty and filling.  To reheat leftover soup, you need to add more milk.  Enjoy!  ;)

Baked Eggs With Potato, Bacon & Tomato

The original recipe was from Sobey's and it sounded interesting.  I made a few changes since I was using my own produce.

Ingredients
5 strips thick bacon, cut into 1" pieces
2 potatoes, baked
1 tsp paprika
1/2 to 1 cup chopped onion
1/2 quart of canned tomatoes
sprinkle of cayenne pepper
4 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Fry bacon slightly until some of the fat is released.

 



Cut up the potatoes into bite sized pieces.  I made baked potatoes the night before and just cooked a couple extra.  If you don't have any on hand, you can quickly partially bake a couple in the microwave.

Add the potatoes to the bacon and sprinkle on the paprika.  Cook until bacon is crisp and potatoes are browning.  Remove from pan and drain on paper towels.

Drain some of the bacon grease if it is too much.  My bacon wasn't too fatty so I didn't need to.  Fry onions in pan until translucent.

Add tomatoes and cayenne pepper and cook until most of the liquid is gone.

Put potatoes and bacon in a casserole dish.  Add tomato mixture.

Mix well. 

Make 4 hollows and break an egg in each.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Bake at 375°F for 22 to 25 minutes.  Enjoy!

It was very tasty and we could see ways to make it even more so.  Next time, I would either fry some mushrooms with the onions, or add some peppers and salsa.  You could also add some cheddar cheese chunks to the mixture or sprinkle on cheese during the last few minutes of cooking.  :)

Garden Gossip with Lulu

Here are a couple of Lulu garden stories that I didn't post last year but thought were cute.

Lulu liked picking her own grapes.  Some of the newer grapevines grew grapes closer to the ground so they were within her reach.  Whenever she felt like eating grapes she would wander over to one of these low growing vines and help herself.  She was quite independent and preferred picking her own grapes rather then being fed grapes by me.  It was quite cute to see her tail sticking out from among the grape leaves and to hear her chattering to herself as she ate grapes.

Lulu also starting eating potatoes last year.  When I was digging potatoes, she would come and watch for worms and bugs.  Sometimes she would start pecking at a potato and eating chunks out of it.  I would try to give her smaller ones to peck at but she always headed for the biggest ones.  I stored the extra potatoes in the shed until I needed them.  One day I went out to get some potatoes and guess what I found.

 

 

Lulu had been snacking on the potatoes when I wasn't looking!  What a stinker.

 



Lulu sometimes got lonely out in the yard alone and would keep me company when I worked.  We have a triple sink outside to wash the produce.  Lulu would sometimes stand around the sink and I was afraid I might accidentally step on her.  I would get her a chair and she would sit and contentedly watch me work.  After she had enough company, she would jump down and carry on with her chickeny duties in the yard and garden. 

 

Lulu is very independent but likes to have company as well.  She has a mind of her own.

 

 





Weird Produce

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween.  Lulu and I didn't dress up this year as we just returned home from visiting my sister-in-law in White Rock, BC.

Keeping with the Halloween idea, I decided to show some pics of some of the weird looking produce we grew this year.

First we have a peach with a nose.

 

 

Then we had potatoes that sat up.
 

 And three potatoes joined in a bunch.

Then we had this one that sat up and had another potato joined to its leg.

 This fall we had a number of carrot bunches in one.

 

 Small ones attached to a large one.

Fat, round ones attached to one side. 

 

And a bunch of small ones growing in a vertical row. 

 

I also had a couple of cucumbers that got misshapen when they grew through the chicken wire I placed around the cherry tomatoes to keep Lulu out. 

 

I was growing the cukes for seed for next year and had to cut the wire so it wouldn't hurt them when I harvested them before a frost. 

 

 

 

 



Potato Test

We used potatoes leftover from last year to plant for this year's crop.  The sprouts on the potatoes were quite long so we decided to do a test to see which grew the best.  I had always use a piece of potato with several eyes as a start.  Usually by the time you cut the potato into chunks to plant, the sprouts fell off.

This year we planted:
1.  one row using small potatoes with foot long sprouts.  They were planted about six inches down with half the sprout sticking out of the dirt.  As time went on the sprout that stuck out died down to the ground level.

2.  one row with the foot long sprouts attached to the potato laying down and completely covered with soil

3.  one row with the sprout cut back to 6 inches and buried completely (planted like the first row but without the sprout sticking out)

4.  one row with only 2 sprouts with no potatoes planted in each hill (we thought these wouldn't grow because I had been told you need part of the potato with eyes to grow)

5.  the rest we planted small whole potatoes instead of pieces as there were quite a number of small potatoes left - these did not have any sprouts attached

All potatoes were planted on the same day in April.

In May I snapped some pics of all the potatoes.  Here were the results.


First row -  After that sprout died down to the ground, the potatoes grew quickly.

Second row - The potatoes grew the fastest and largest of the bunch - probably because they had the whole twelve inch sprout to grow with.

Third row - grew very similar to first row but was slightly slower.

Here you can see the row with only sprouts on the right and the small plants on the left were the potatoes planted normally.  They were a lot slower than the rest with the sprouts.

Now here are the sprout-test potatoes in July.  It is hard to tell the rows apart as the potatoes are all large and sprawling.

Here are the regular potatoes on the same day.  The plants are slightly smaller and the potatoes are not so developed.

Lulu and I dug two hills.  The first was a sprouts only plant.  My mom was sure that I wouldn't get any potatoes from planting only sprouts.  I was sceptical too, and thought that they wouldn't produce much either.

Lulu likes to help dig potatoes because there are always worms and bugs for her to feast on while I do all the work.

Okay, digging is all done.  Now on to the weigh-in.

 

I weighed the potatoes from the sprouts only hill and got over 8 1/2 pounds of potatoes.  Not bad from only planting a couple of sprouts.

The largest potato in that hill was over 1 1/2 pounds in weight plus there were two others that were over one pound each.

 

This was the haul from the second hill I dug.  This time it was from row 2 where the whole sprout was buried with the potato.  That hill yielded 20 pounds of potatoes!

I'm glad we did the test because now I know the sprouts are more important than the potato.





Potato Frittata

I am not fond of quiche because I find it too rich with the eggs, the filling and crust.  I decided to try a frittata which seemed to me to be a crustless quiche.  I combined the two recipes below and made some of my own changes.

http://www.cheapcooking.com/Recipes/eggs/frittata.html   http://allrecipes.com/recipe/potato-and-cheese-frittata/

Ingredients
2 Tbsp oil
1 - 2 potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
1/2 onion, chopped
4 eggs
1/2 c grated cheddar cheese
1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese
paprika
chili powder
salt
pepper


Heat oven to 400°F.

If potatoes are large, half or quarter them and then sliced them into thin slices.  Chop onion.

Brown potatoes and onions in oil.  I used a cast iron pan so I could use it in the oven.

Turn occasionally until potatoes are nicely browned.

Beat eggs with salt, pepper and spices.  I used a pinch of chili powder and some paprika.

Add eggs to pan with potatoes and onions.

Place pan in oven and cook for about 10 minutes or until eggs are firm.

Sprinkle on cheese (I used both cheddar and Parmesan) and return to oven for about 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Remove from oven.

Cut into quarters and serve.  It was very tasty.  We tried it with salsa, ketchup and also sour cream.  All three condiments work well with the frittata.

I would make it again and try other additions to the potato and onion.  Bacon chopped and fried would a nice addition as would mushrooms or peppers.  It would also work at lunch with a salad or a side of refried beans.  Experiment and enjoy!  ;)

Palt

Palt is a Swedish potato dumpling stuffed with meat (usually pork).  I am not Swedish but my in laws are.  I learned to make palt when my ex's maternal grandmother came to visit us years ago.  I had seen my mother-in-law make it but Grandma Johnson had me help her so I know how to make it.  I don't have a recipe to follow as I make it by feel just like Grandma Johnson showed me. 

I am including the recipe from Treasured Recipes - 70th Anniversary of the Bethesda Lutheran Church - 1911 - 1981 so you have a starting point.

Palt
Ingredients
5 c grated potatoes or use a blender
4 c flour - approx.
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder

Mix grated potatoes, salt, flour and baking powder to form a dough, stiff enough to handle.

Put a large spoonful of dough in hand and pat out enough to make room for filling.  (Diced bacon, side pork or hamburger, or mix together as you wish)  Form dough around meat and pinch and roll to form ball shape.

Drop into boiling water (salted).  Cook 45 min. to 1 hr.  If you don't want a filling you can form into patties and cook as usual.  Flour may have to be varied (more or less).  Practice makes perfect.  Serve with butter, syrup or whatever.  Recipe can be doubled.

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So now here's my palt recipe.  I use lean hamburger for my filling.  I add salt and pepper and roll the hamburger into golf ball size meatballs.  My mother-in-law used side pork either alone chopped up or mixed with hamburger.  I found it too greasy for my liking but I guess it is a matter of taste and what you are used to.

Peel and grate potatoes.  I now use my food processor to grate them as it is much easier.  Squeeze out some of the liquid or your batter will turn a pinkish colour from the potato starch.

Mix together potatoes and flour until you have a sticky dough.  I used to do this by hand but now use my Cuisinart.  I also add some water so I can add more flour so it is more dough like instead of grated potato texture.

Have a bowl of water available because once you start making the palt, you won't want to be turning on the tap with your doughy hands.  Grab a handful of dough - about a tennis ball size and flatten it on our palm.

 Place a meatball in the centre of the flattened dough. 

Form the dough into a ball around the meatball.

Make sure the surface is smooth without any holes.  At this point you can dampen your hand with water to smooth out the surface better.

Drop into large pot of salted boiling water.  If you don't have a heavy pot, place a plate on the bottom of the pot so the palt don't stick. 

Stir the bottom of the pot to loosen any palt that stuck when you dropped them in.

Reduce heat until the palt is at a gentle boil.  They will float to the top.  Cover the pot and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour.  I usually cook them for 1 hour because I always have meat filling.  If you don't fill them, you could cook them for less time.

Remove from pot.  People like their palt in different ways.  Many people eat it with butter and salt.  When my kids were young they ate it with syrup.  Some people like it with sour cream.

When you cut the palt open, the centre has a reddish tinge to it.  Don't worry, it is cooked, it is just the colour from the hamburger.

Here is the palt cut up with butter and salt, all ready to eat.  It is not an attractive meal but it is tasty and sticks to your ribs.  I think palt to Sweden is like perogies to the Ukraine.

You always make extra palt so you can have leftovers.  You can cut it up and fry it in butter as I usually do.  Or you can cut it up and heat it slowly in cream. 

I hope you give it a try.  Enjoy.  :)