Potato Soup and Cornbread

Wes's mom, Vill, used to make potato soup and cornbread on a regular basis. His family would eat it on a plate...crumble up the cornbread, pour potato soup over, devour. I coluld never get into the idea of eating it as a plate of mush (don't worry, Wes knows I call it this), but I did like both the potato soup and the cornbread. I've tried to make cornbread a million times, but it never turns out quite right...I think I've finally figured it out though! I also looked at a few recipes for potato soup, and think I've come close to Vill's recipe. Wes was in the den when he took his first bite (all mushed up on a plate!), and I heard him from the kitchen say, "Wow! This is it! It's good!" Yay for making one of his favorite meals his mom used to make him!

Cornbread (and next time, I think I'll try it in a preheated cast-iron pan, but I didn't this time)
1 1/4 c. self-rising cornmeal
3/4 c. self-rising flour
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 c. milk
6 tablespoons butter, melted

Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl, and the wet ingredients in another. Add the egg/milk/butter mixture to the dry ingredients, stirring only until just moistened. Pour into a greased 9" pan, and bake for 25 minutes at 425*.


Potato Soup
*if you'd like to top with bacon (I do!), cook some until crispy, crumble, and set aside
*you may also cut up some scallions and grate some cheddar cheese on top
About 3 lbs. Idaho potatoes (I think I used 5 med. to large potatoes?)
1 c. sour cream
1 stick butter
2 2/3 c. milk
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 tsp. salt

Rinse, peel, and cut the potatoes into 1" chunks. Put into a large pot, and add just enough cool water to cover. Heat to a boil, reduce and simmer until the potatoes are fork-tender, approximately 35-45 minutes.
Drain the potatoes, and return to the pot and mash (Vill didn't really mash the potatoes in her soup, so I didn't mash it a ton...left some chunks). Stir in the sour cream, butter, milk, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer to heat through, and serve however you'd like--mushed up on a plate with cornbread (yuck!), or in a bowl, topped with shredded cheese, scallions, and bacon (yum!) with a side of cornbread.

**And leftovers are great--Wes ate most of them, so I stirred about 1/2 c. of the leftover soup with about 1 c. of frozen broccoli and heated through for Wesley and my dinner. YUMMY!


Disclaimer: I didn't say either of these recipes was healthy ;)

Taco Soup

I did the in the crockpot, and it was the easiest thing ever!!

1 lb of chicken (either cut boneless skinless breasts into small chunks, or I got a package of "stir fry chicken pieces" or something to that effect)
1 can of kidney beans
1 can of corn (I used a small can of shoepeg)
1 can of black beans
1 can of mild Ro*Tel tomatoes
1 small can of tomato paste
1 packet of taco powder
1 packet of ranch powder
Approx. 1 c. of water (I added some awesome Glory chicken base to it--I use this stuff all the time!!)

And it can't get any easier than this: throw everything into the crockpot (don't drain any of the cans), cook on high for 4 hours, then eat! I actually cooked some cheese tortilini and threw that in the bowls when I served this to make it a little more hardy. It really didn't need it though. It can be served with Fritos, cheese and sour cream.

2 notes:
1) If you like spicy, you could use regular Ro*Tel tomatoes, but honestly, it was plenty spicy for Wes and I with the mild ones.
2) This is a similar recipe to the Sante Fe Stew, but it's thinner (and a little bit easier b/c you don't have to cook the chicken first).

Santa Fe Stew

Santa Fe Stew

2 lbs. ground chicken, venison, or beef (or combination)
1 onion, diced
2 packages Ranch Dressing mix
2 packages Taco Seasoning
1 16-oz. can of each of the following (do not drain):
black beans
kidney beans
pinto beans
diced tomatoes with chilies (you can use 2 cans)
1 large can of diced tomatoes
2 cans of white corn
2 cups of water (can be discarded if you’d like less broth)

Brown meat with onions, drain. Stir in the 4 seasoning packets. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for at least 2 hours.

Serve with sour cream, shredded cheese, green onion, and tortilla chips

3 Months Later...

...I have finally cooked!! And boy did I...
Saturday was Wes's company Christmas party at our house. No biggie...hotdogs, hamburgers, salespeople bringing appetizers. Well, that's too simple for me, of course. So I decide I want to make chili. Not too hard, right? HA! Of course I can't just do the chili seasoning mix + ground beef + tomatoes = chili. Nooo way. So here's what I made. It turned out GREAT...but I think we'll be eating it for the next month and a half. I definitely had to send Wes out to Wally World to buy a TURKEY FRYER to cook it all in because it made so much. Oops.

6 lbs. ground beef (shoulda realized it was going to make a ton at this point...)
8 cans diced tomatoes
6 cans RoTel tomatoes
4 cans tomato paste
2 cans pinto beans
2 cans dark red kidney beans
2 cans light red kidney beans
2 cans cannelini beans
2 cans chili beans
2 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (I stuck them in the food processor with a couple of spoonfuls of the diced tomatoes to chop them up well. Feel free to add more chipotles, this chili wasn't very spicy)
2 large red onions, diced
1 head of garlic, diced
2 green peppers, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 orange bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2 to 1 beer--I used a Fosters because it was in the fridge :)
2 packets of chili seasoning mix
about 2 T. Worcestershire sauce
ground cumin
chili powder
salt
Tabasco
water

I first sauteed the bell peppers, onions, and garlic (in batches) in a little bit of olive oil. I then added that into a pot with 6 cans of diced tomatoes, the RoTel tomatoes, the 2 cans of chili beans, the cans of all the other beans (drained and rinsed well), the beer, the chipotle peppers and some seasonings (salt, cumin, chili powder, Tabasco, Worcestershire). I let this mixture simmer for a bit. At this point, it was near midnight, so I went to bed :). Assuming you're doing this all in one fell swoop, just let the veggie mixture simmer while you brown the beef in batches. Drain well each time. Also, I added a bit of the last 2 cans of diced tomatoes and the seasoning mixtures each time (once the beef was cooked) and let it simmer for just a few minutes before adding it to the veggie mixture. I also was mixing the tomato paste and water and adding it to the pot to get the amount of liquid in the pot that looked good. Writing this all down, it doesn't seem nearly as complicated--and time consuming--as it was. Anyway, I let it all simmer (in the turkey fryer pot on the side burner of the grill) for about 3 to 4 hours. I continued tasting it and adding whatever it seemed like it needed during that time. I served it with fritos, grated cheese, and sour cream. YUM! In fact, I'm going to go eat a bowl right now :)

Tortelini Soup--From Joanna

Joanna gave me this recipe today, and I made it for dinner tonight! Its very yummy...and very easy!
2 small packages of cheese tortelini
Hot Italian sausage
2 cans chicken broth
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can RoTel tomatoes
Seasoning (basil, oregano, salt, pepper)
Boil the tortelini, brown the sausage, combine with the broth, tomatoes and seasoning.

Of course, I can't follow directions very well, so here's what I did: I boiled 1 'family size' pack of cheese tortelini; browned the sausage (removed from the casing...blech), removed the sausage from the pan and drained off the fat, then put it back on the heat and deglazed the pan with a little bit of the chicken broth (I used 1 box of broth instead of 2 cans) and the can of diced tomatoes. I let that mixture simmer for a few minutes, then put it in a large pot with the rest of the chicken broth, the tortelini, the sausage, and a can of diced tomatoes with basil and oregano. The sausage was already spicy enough for my taste, so I didn't want to add the RoTel! I let the soup simmer for a few minutes, then served with crusty bread. YUM!