Potato days! Funeral Potatoes and Potato leek soup.

Ever since Easter came and went without a visit to Ma and Pop's I've been craving some of the traditional Jensen Easter dinner side dish of "funeral potatoes"! I assume we kids dubbed them this because they are not only a great accompaniment to that Easter ham, but also often brought as a moral supporting, carb-loaded, comfort food, to neighborhood funerals. So, last time I had my mom on the phone I got the quick and dirty throw together recipe for these creamy, cheesy, yummy-tastic, potatoes.


Funeral Potatoes

20 oz. bag frozen grated hash brown potatoes
16 oz. carton sour cream
10 3/4 oz. can cream of celery soup
1/2 Cup milk or 1/2&1/2
2 Cups grated cheddar cheese
-Optional: 1/4 of a small onion diced and stirred in at beginning or 1 Cup of french fried onions tossed on top instead of second cup of cheese. 

Stir together all ingredients reserving 1 Cup cheese.
Spread in a 4qt (15"X10") glass baking dish.
Bake at 350° F. for 1hour.
Sprinkle with remaining cheese and 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper 15 min. before cooking time ends.


My second potato recipe is also a leek recipe!
This is so simple and so delicious. Danny and I were in the garden clearing some space so we can plant some summer squash and so we pulled a bunch of turnips, beets, greens, and a whole lot of leeks.

Potato Leek soup

4 Tbs. salted butter
2 medium or 4-5 small leeks -chop white and tender green parts
4 medium potatoes diced in 1" cubes
1 tsp. fresh tyme
3 Cups chicken or veggi. stock
1 Cup 1/2&1/2
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Saute leeks in butter in pressure cooker or medium soup pot for 2 min. Add the potatoes, thyme, and chicken stock. Lock lid in place and cook on high pressure for 8 min or put soup pot on medium heat or a low boil for 20 min, until potatoes are cooked through. Remove from heat and stir in the 1/2 & 1/2. Add pepper. The butter and stock should have plenty of salt but add more if needed. 

Hot and Sour Soup: Pressure cooker style!

So I was craving something different.
Hmmm.... something brothy... something light... something filled with good veggies.... something with and asian flair? Aha! Hot and Sour soup! This was my first try at this but it turned out soo... well and is so easy. Just throw it in the cooker and let it do it's thing. Nice! I'm getting spoiled and lazy with this machine that does all the work for me.

Fill the pan with all the goodies!

Add a little squeeze of lime and dash more of pepper and yum!

 Hot and Sour Soup

4 C. chicken or vegetable broth
1 small package rice noodles divided in half
1 8oz. can bamboo shoots -drained
1 8oz. can water chestnuts - drained (mmm crunchy!)
4Tbs. rice wine vinegar
1Tbs. soy sauce
1 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1C. diced veggies - carrots, green beans, corn whatever you have on hand
8 oz frozen shrimp
8 oz firm tofu cubed
optional:
Stir in 1 beaten egg slowly pouring in while stirring after soup is done cooking.
Add some chopped dried Shitaki mushrooms.

Combine all in pressure cooker with half of the noodles (These noodles will become very mushy and mostly fall apart. But they give the broth a nice creamy consistency). Pressure cook on high for 10 min. or slow cook on high for 3-4 hours. When time is up add the remaining noodles and let stand for 10 min. Squeeze in a quarter of a lime and a dash of black pepper to each bowl as served. Fresh and spicy!

Quiche!!

Ahhh.... the quiche! How do I love thee...? A lot!

So the best part of the quiche is the crust as we all well know. So see below for my super simple, be brave and you'll be fine, pie crust recipe and "mothership" recipe for the quiche filling.

Lovely! Now what to do with those crust trimmings?

Cookie sheet to catch boil over

Crust trimmings + cinnamon & sugar. Bake 350°F. 10min = heaven.

Nom, nom!!

"Be brave" 2 pie crust recipe

2 C. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4C. shortening - chilled
4-8 Tbs. ice water
- Begin in a cold room! Pie crust needs two things to come out flakey and perfect. Be cold and be quick!
-Mix salt and flour. Drop in small chunks of shortening. Cut into flour until chunks are small frosted flake size flakes. I like to use the narrow edge of a rubber scraper. It doesn't stick and doesn't mash the shortening into flat globs.
-Then... the water. Every time I add the water it is different depending on the humidity. So I start with 4 tbs. mash it around with the flat side of the aforementioned spatula. It should start to join together in nice flakey looking layers. Keep it as dry as you can but still get the mixture to combine into a ball. -This is where your WARM hands come into play. Once you think the water level is just about right put your hands in and try balling it up. If it's still to dry at this point add a bit more water. Keep this step short. The more kneeding and touching the less flakey.
-Halve the mixture and put one ball on a plastic wrap sheet placed on the table. Smoosh the ball down flatish then add top covering of another sheet of plastic wrap. Roll out into pie pan sized + 1/2" circle. Quick now! Keep it cold and fast!
- Remove top covering of plastic wrap, place your pie tin upside down onto dough, flip and gently remove bottom layer of plastic wrap. Help crust slide into lay flat on the bottom of pie tin. Trim and crimp edges.
Add quiche filling!

Get the filling prepped before starting the crust so it's still cool and dry!

"Mothership" quiche filling
These instructions are the amount to put in each pie crust. So double if doing two.
1/4C. layer of shredded cheese... swiss, motz, cheddar etc.
1/4C. layer of aromatics... diced sauteed onion or leeks
1/4 C. layer of sauteed veggi.... diced peppers, broccoli, whatever sounds good
1/4 C. layer of shredded cheese
Sprinkle with 1/8 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper and 1/8 tsp herbs. I like the basic Italian herb mix.
 THEN:
3 eggs to 1C 1/2 & 1/2 - I base this mixture on how deep the pie tin is and how much veg etc. I want in. Mix more as you need more. ( 1 egg to 1/3C. cream ratio)

 Bake at 350°F for 45-60 min. Until center bounces back when touched. 

Italian night!

So you don't think that everything I cook comes out of the pressure cooker...

 

Bruschetta with some amazing olive oil an Italian friend gave us!

Fresh Basil, tomato, fresh mozzarella, with a few drips of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I prefer it on little slices of toasted baguette. Pictured here on some plain water crackers.  Not too shabby.

Oven roasted brussels! My new favorite veg!

 I steamed these in the microwave with a little water or four minutes then tossed them in olive oil, salt, pepper... and yes my favorite herb, thyme. Then roasted in the oven on 400°F for 15-20 min till they got a little brown and crispy on the outside than grated a handful of parmesan over the top of the hot little babies!

Before the oven!

Super fast and easy I just alternated layers of polenta rounds sliced from a log with shredded motz, and turkey burger bolognese sauce. In the hot box at 350°F for 30min. Danny loooved it! Yay!

Freezer food! Butternut & Barley Risotto

From frozen...

..to fab in less than 20 min!

Trying to use up some "freezer food" (Danny's always nagging about the freezer food) and some soon to be sad occupants of the crisper drawer. I pulled out a pressure cooking cook book I found at the library last weekend and "DING!" I came across a butternut squash and barley risotto recipe. So I took a few of the ingredient ideas and the cook timing suggestion and used what I had to make it my own! It was delish and super creamy, just like regular risotto only maybe a little better for you using the protein and fiber filled barley.

 Barley and Butternut squash risotto
1 C. pearl barley (rinse and check for little rocks)
12 oz. frozen or fresh cubed butternut squash
1/4 C. diced onion
4 salks celery diced
3 C. chicken broth
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
Pressure cook on high for 18min
 Add after cooking is through:
1.5 C. grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. thyme leaves
Stir well to melt parmesan and smash  up squash to make nice and thick.

Nothin in the fridge for dinner? Make Dhal!

Dried split peas? Check!
A few basic spices? Check!
A few sad veggies in the fridge drawer? Check!

Before: Just toss it all in and add the water.

After: Mmm smells good... looks meh.  Just squish and stir and....

Mmmm. Now that's some tasty mess!

The original recipe that inspired this one came from two very cool Couchsurfers Tim and Kat who stayed with us last fall. They were loads of fun and full of lots of great travel stories. But the best part was that they were kind enough to sit down with us one night to share music, stories, a great new card game and to cook us a great meal to thank us for putting them up for a few days. The best part of couchies is the shared cultures and new friends that you make.

Quick weeknight Indian style Dhal

1C. Dried split peas
1/2 small onion
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp. crushed garlic ( or 1/4 tsp. garlic powder because, obviously,  I was low on pantry items. )
1tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp curry powder
2C. cubed potatoes
2C. water or stock
Optional 1 more cup diced random veggies lurking in your crisper, carrots, peppers, cauliflower, etc.

Place everything in slow cooker. Cook on High for 9 minutes. When finished you'll have to smash up the potatoes with your spoon a bit to break them up. This will make the Dahl nice and thick too. 
Serve with rice or a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of a few toasted cumin seeds.  

Super fast pot pie

First off.... Sorry about the sad picture. But you can tell it was loved!

Super fast pot pie!
1lb. stew meat
1/4 C. onion diced
2 celery sticks diced
2 carrots diced
1 8oz container (baby bella) crimini mushrooms
1C beef stock
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1tsp. dried tyme
1 Tbs. flour
Place all above in pressure cooker and cook for 20-30 min on high.
Meanwhile set out frozen puff pastry to let thaw.
When filling is done stir in 1 C. shredded cheddar cheese. Then scoop into pie pan and cover with
thawed puff pastry dough. I just fold up the extra and pile on top like Jamie would.
Bake in 350˚ for 45-60min.
( If stew seems too watery add 1Tbs cornstarch mixed with 2Tbs cool water to finished
stew before putting in pie pan.)

Winter dinner from the slow cooker!

For my birthday this year Danold and I bought this awesome 3 in 1 slow cooker, pressure cooker, and rice cooker combo. So far it has been the best kitchen contraption I have ever owned.
Okay... second only to the best invention ever... the Ikea, grate into the container w/ lid, cheese grater!!! Which I have sent to everyone for Christmas at least once... maybe twice. It's that well... great!
 Anyway back to the 3 in 1. I luuurve it! I just toss things in and ten minutes or eight hours later, depending on the immediacy of the hunger, out comes an awesome meal that I just pushed a button and ignored for a while. So today's project began last night with Danold sharing the feeling that we need to use up the many squidgy looking carrots that have been taking up valuable real estate in the garden. So hmmm....carrot cake anyone? Sounds... awesome but.. nope just checked and I'm pretty sure I didn't get a fancy food processor to grate up those 3 cups of carrots. I got an awesome slow cooker combo thingy. So, soup it is!

In the pot ready to be delicious .. in 3-4 hrs.

Danny's cheese and cinnamon rolls will go great with BBSoup!

Widgy, wodgy, squidgy garden carrots

Tah dah! BB soup under cheese with cheese bread and... hey how'd that cheese grater get in there? Silly grater always makin' new friends.

 Slow cooked black bean soup baby!
1/4 C. onion diced
2 carrots sliced into coins
2 celery stalks diced
2 cloves garlic crushed
1/2 tsp. salt
1Tbs. chili powder
1Tsp. cumin ( I like half seeds and half powder so you get that zing of cumin when you bite into one)
1 can (14.5oz) crushed tomatoes
1& 1/2 C. Water and chicken bullion
1C dried black beans (or if you want to stove top it.. 2 (16oz) cans)
Put all in slow cooker on high for 4 hours.
Top with shredded cheese, sour cream, cilantro.. etc. 
I let you know the pressure cooker time when I try that method. Probably soon because this soup is tasty and we still have more carrots lurking I'm sure.