Potato Soup

I've been trying to expand my dinner repertoire lately. 

In honor of the cold and snow that we are currently enjoying dealing with 

here is a new recipe we tried (and liked!) for potato soup.

Baked Potato Soup

6 large baked potatoes--diced (uncooked, peeled or unpeeled)

1/2 c. instant mashed potatoes

4 c. chicken broth

1 c. butter

1 c. flour

6 c. milk

2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. sugar

Combine boiling water with instant potatoes.

Make white sauce with butter, flour, milk, and salt.

Add sauce to broth with a whisk.

Bring to a simmer, add seasonings and diced potatoes.

Stir occasionally.

When potatoes are soft, serve with you choice of toppings:

chives

bacon

cheese

sour cream

Variations:  I like my soup thick and chunky, so I HALVED the butter, flour, milk, and salt mixture to get the consistency that you see above.  

My husband said the only thing that would have made it better would've been CLAMS. 

Squash {Part 2}

So in Squash {Part 1} we gave you some info on winter squashes and how to can them, along with a couple recipes for Squash soup. It seems that Tiffany and I are not the only squash obsessed people around based on some of the responses we received.

Here are a few more ways to use your squash once you've got it canned (or cooked and pureed).
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Mayan Hot Chocolate
1 sm. Butternut squash or (1 pint bottled squash, drained)
2 ½ C. milk divided
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
½ tsp.Cinnamon
Large pinch of Nutmeg
Large pinch of Cardamon

If using bottled squash, puree squash with ½ C. milk until smooth.
If using fresh, cook squash 'til soft.
In large sauce pan mix remaining 2 C. milk, chocolate & spices.
Stir 'til melted and creamy, add squash.

Heat through.
Serves 4
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Pumpkin Smoothie
from Better Homes & Gardens Nov. 2010

In a blender combine:
1/4 c. canned pumpkin
Low-fat vanilla yogurt
1 Banana
A spoonful of peanut butter
Handful of ice cubes
Milk to thin as desired
Top with a little whip cream and cinnamon.

**Update Nov. 11, 2010
Tried the above recipe and it tasted like a peanut butter smoothie---eh, so-so.
Therefore, if you are looking for a pumpkin pie smoothie this won't be it. To adjust it and get that flavor, don't add the peanut butter (but maybe add more pumpkin) and instead add either pumpkin pie spice to taste, or a combo of nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger to taste to get that pumpkin pie flavor.
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I also went to my local library and found a couple books that had some recipes that I would actually try. I am not a fancy cook. So recipes with things like goat cheese, or other things that I don't even know what they are or where to even look for them, I don't make. It's not that I wouldn't be game to try, because really I'll try anything. It's just that my family is not as daring as I am, AND I don't want to be stuck with ingredients I can't use again.

These books had some good basic recipes that you could make using almost any kind of winter squash. Some I've tried and others are on my list to try. But I feel these are realistic recipes for my family. Both books have summer and winter squash recipes, but I just listed some of the winter squash recipes.

Zucchini, Pumpkins & Squash by Kathleen Desmond Stang

• Pumpkin Ice Cream Sundaes pg. 59
• Spaghetti Squash Hashbrowns pg. 22 (My kids love spaghetti squash and normally just eat it cooked with Parmesan cheese over it--like noodles--but I think they would love this recipe)
• Creamy Winter Squash Soup with Spices pg. 28
• Golden Pumpkin-Orange Pancakes with Orange Butter pg. 23
• Two-Way Pumpkin Yeast Dough pg. 18

So I just have to make a comment about making pancakes and adding squash. I experimented on my family recently and added cooked Acorn squash to our waffle recipe (Krusteaz--you know the bag of mix you can pick up at Sam's club). I doubled the waffle recipe and added about 1/2 c. cooked, smashed butternut squash. Not one person noticed or said anything. I couldn't tell, and I knew. You don't necessarily need a recipe for this. Make up pancakes as you always do and add about 1/2 c. of squash puree.

James McNair's Squash Cookbook

• Golden Yeast Rolls pg. 79--these were delicious!! And once again nobody knew I had added anything.
• Creamy Winter Squash Soup pg. 63
• Fried Winter Squash Chips pg. 60
• Squash Pancakes pg. 81
• Winter Squash Ice Cream pg. 88
• Spiced Squash Cake with Caramel Icing pg. 91

I'm seriously thinking that Squash Ice Cream needs to be added to the Thanksgiving menu this year.

I have not yet tried a Squash soup recipe. My kids caught wind of that and declared it "disgusting" already. However, I made a crockpot Cheesy Potato Soup the other night and did about 1/3 of the potatoes as butternut squash. They didn't know otherwise. (insert evil laugh) My food science friend Kevin said that any recipe that calls for mashed potatoes in it can be substituted with smashed squash, i.e. potato rolls.

So go ahead and experiment and enjoy. If we come up with anything else fabulously squash we'll let you know.

Note: This site has good info about picking squash, squash equivalents, and pics of all varieties of squashes along with a list of squash recipes.

Canning Potatoes

Even though they need to be pressure canned, and not hot water bath canned, potatoes are one of the easiest things to can.  Recently I canned a couple batches to add to my pantry/storage items.  Below are the basic directions for canning potatoes, per the Ball Blue Book.

POTATOES
Peel the potatoes.
Cut them up into pieces (put them into cold water w/ a little salt to keep from turning brown).
Add to jars with 1/2 tsp. salt per pint or 1 tsp. per quart.
Add boiling hot water.
Remove air bubbles.
Wipe rim.
Adjust 2 piece caps.
Put in pressure canner.
Can for 40 minutes at 10# pressure for quarts or 35 minutes for pints. (adjust pressure for your altitude)

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So then you ask, "What do I do with these?"
Well here are a couple ideas.

• Add them to any soup including Emily's recipe for potato soup.  Since they are already cooked, it will reduce your cooking time.  Heat and serve.
• Mash them up for mashed potatoes and heat.  You may find that you like a certain variety of potatoes better than another as mashed.
• Our cousin Tiffany uses her canned potatoes in any recipe requiring hash browns.  She'll just cut them up a little smaller if need be.
• Also, you can drain the water and then fry them up in a pan with a couple Tbs. butter as country style hash brown potatoes, adding a little onion, green bell pepper, scrambled egg, bacon or whatever you like and have it for breakfast.
• Make a little poor man's dinner, as Tiffany calls it, with drained potatoes, cut up pieces of hotdog (or sausage), onion, bell pepper, etc. to make a little stir fry type meal.
• Tiffany also has a yummy breakfast quiche that she uses her potatoes for all the time too.  (She is anti-cold cereal at her house.  Which I wish I could accomplish at mine.)

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I know that some people are a bit hesitant about pressure canning.  I have to say that I almost exclusively use the pressure canner because #1: I have 2 of them, and #2: it is quicker than a hot water bath.  Anything that can be hot water bathed can be pressure canned. 

During my last batch of potatoes I had a jar break in the process.  I can't say that I've seen this happen while using a hot water bath, but this is what happens to a jar when it breaks.  And this is the worst thing that I've had happen to me while pressure canning.

The bottom of the jar just pops off.  It is designed this way per my engineer Hubby. 

The only way you find out a jar has broken is when you start to remove all your jars from the canner,

lift it out, and the contents plop out into your canner.

Bummer!

Don't be scared.  If you can read and tell time, you can pressure can.

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Notes:
The Ball Blue Book indicates that you need 2-3# of potatoes per quart.  I have no idea how this would even be possible unless you are dicing the potatoes into teeny tiny pieces.  I was trying to envision a 5# bag of potatoes fitting into 2 quart jars.  I can NOT see how it would work, so I am assuming that it is a misprint in the book.

I bought 20# of potatoes and ended up with 17 qts.   Last year our cousin Tiffany canned an entire 50# bag of potatoes and got 29 quarts worth.  So I would plan on about 1 1/2 pounds per quart depending the size of your cubed potatoes.

Cost Analysis:
I paid $1.49 per 5# bag.  (When it gets closer to Thanksgiving many times in this area you can get 5# bags for under $1)
20# for $5.98.
With 17 qts. that translates into 35 cents per quart! 
I checked on canned potatoes at my grocery store and a 15 oz. can (1 pint) was on sale for 89 cents. 
A quart would cost then $1.79....vs. 35 cents if you can them yourself...definitely much cheaper.

Step by step instructions on Pressure Canning from the Ball website.

One Pot Sweet Potato Chili

Tried this recipe for Sweet Potato Chili a couple weeks ago.  The recipe came in our little magazine from the health clinic.  Loved, loved, loved it!  We will definitely be making this again.



The lime juice and fresh cilantro make it AWESOME!

Case in point, one of my daughters tried my soup--all doctored up--then served herself some and told me that it wasn't as good.  Well, she hadn't added the yogurt or cilantro to it.

Recipe pdf. found HERE.

And just as good leftover as the day you make it.
Yummy served with corn or tortilla chips too.

Changes I made:

• Doubled the recipe for our family.
• Used 1 can each pinto and garbanzo beans, undrained, but they were my home canned jars and so they have less liquid than store bought cans.
• Used 1-15 oz. can corn, drained
• Did not double the red pepper (only because I forgot to buy 2 instead of 1)
• Used plain yogurt.