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!

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.