Potato Soup

Potato Soup. Nuff said.


Heat over medium-ish heat
1TBL unsalted butter


Stage One
Dice onion, celery, carrot, 2 green onions & add to the heating pot as you go.

Dice celery like so:

Add to the pot.

Dice carrot accordingly.




Separate the thick from the thin



Make 3 cuts into the thick

Giving you 4 parts

Slice then dice. Add to the pot.

Slice your skinny parts lengthwise in twos, then dice. Add to the pot.

Dice onion.

Take its top off

Topless

Peel back its first outer layer

Make horizontal incisions

Be sure to steady the onion with your other free hand

I paused mid slice to free my hand to take pictures

for you photo viewing pleasure.

Slice down the center

 

Slice some more



 

Treat & slice the other side the same

Then dice

Repeat process with other half. Add to the pot.

Slice green onions. Reserve its green parts for garnish.

Add to the pot.

Waste not, want not.



All in

Once stirred, the pot looked like it needed an extra 1/2 an onion

So that's what I chopped & added

Much better



Cover and cook for 10min.

Meanwhile:

Peel, rinse, and dry 1 Russet Potato

Cut off any visible dead parts

Perfectly or roughly dice. Doesn't matter. Just dice it.





Dead potato part

Front side

Back side

Slice

Dice. Save to add to the pot.

Make a slurry consisting of 3TBL flour & 5TBL (or so) of milk

Mix and whisk to combine

No lumps allowed.

1st of 3 Tablespoons of flour

Not the only broken heart in this world

3 Broken hearted tablespoons worth of flour. Tear.

Get over it & add some milk by the tablespoon. I used 5.

Do whatever it takes to make the slurry smooth

Stage Two

After 10 minutes of cooking:

Uncover

Add:

Diced Potato

1 dried bay leaf

1/2 teas salt

1/4 teas pepper




Stir
Cook for a couple of minutes

Stage Three
Add:
1TBL Better than Chicken Boullion
About 3c Water

Bring to a boil

Cover

Turn down to med-low for 13min.

Stage Four

Uncover

Ladle half of the soup into a blender

Remove the blender's top's insert and cover its exposure with a towel

Pulse to blend

Return mixture back to the pot

Pour into the ladle to prevent splashing/splattering. Or don't if you're feeling dangerous.

Stage Five

Pour a ladle full of the hot soup into your slurry

Stir to combine

Pour back into the pot to thicken the soup

Pour in 8oz of Evaporated milk

 

Stir in a figure-8 fashion (to prevent a burnt bottom) until boiling
**Something to remember: To reach its full potential, a thickening agent must once reach a boil.




It should only take a couple of minutes to bring to a boil. Once boiling, the soup is finished. Turn the heat off & ladle into a bowl or coffee mug. Garnish as you see fit. Or not. Plain is fine too.

I like shredded cheddar, plenty of green onion's green tops, & cayenne.
 That's a Kelsey bowl of potato soup right thurrr.

Soup's On!

Make it southwest: Add 1 de-seeded jalapeno & 1c frozen corn during stage two.

Make it chowder like: Add 1/4teas crushed red pepper & 1/2teas of dried thyme during stage two. Add a can of crab meat & 1/2teas of paprika during stage five.

Make it smokey: Use bacon fat instead of butter. Add 1/2teas Smoked paprika during stage two. Garnish with bacon.

Make it sweeter: Use a red onion in place of the white. Use a sweet potato in place of the russet. Add 1/2teas dried sage during stage two.

Caesar Salad Dressing

Warning: Do not make unless you order Caesar Salad on the regular in restaurants.

-Or else I can almost guarantee you'll end up wasting this recipe along w/half a cup of valuable Extra Virgin Olive Oil & precious Parmesean Cheese. I do not condone this, so don't even think about it.-

There's really no cooking involved in making Caesar Salad. I use a blender to make mine. It doesn't take rocket science to make this dressing. I do feel like I need to cover a few causes for concern with this one though.

Anchovies

Once blended, their flavor is undetectable. Take my word for it. I've served many seafood haters this salad dressing without so much as a peep from any one of them. If you have to leave them out, don't make this recipe. You don't like Caesar Salad.

Raw Egg Yolk

Using a raw egg yolk to emulsify the dressing is classic in Caesar salad. That's why I opt for it. If you've been affected by the health scare associated with the consumption of raw eggs, I understand. If you have to leave it out, then leave it out & replace with 1TBL of dijon mustard or 1TBL of mayo.

Parmesean Cheese 

For this recipe, I prefer to use the grated, green-lidded, bottled stuff. Though not authentic (and arguably fake/gross), the flavor of the dressing isn't compromised in my eyes. I do see the merit in using the real-deal, but I'm not made of money. I usually blend the cheap stuff in with the dressing, and then grate & stir through shreds of real Parm to the finished product. This is all a matter of personal preference, so use whichever Parmesean cheese you deem necessary. 

I bet it's killing my Mom that I'm spelling "Parmesan," Parmesean. She pointed the spelling error out to me after my Parmesean Chicken blog post. While I should maybe go back & edit for the sake of being an obedient daughter... I won't. Somehow that just wouldn't be very Kelsey of me.

Alright, now that all areas have been covered that needed covering, let's make some Caesar Salad Dressing.

Ingredients/Directions:

1 Raw egg yolk

1 Fat garlic clove

3-5 Anchovy fillets (or 3-5 teaspoons anchovy paste)

1/3c Grated Parmesean (all I had was shredded, but I normally use grated)

1teas Worcestershire sauce

1teas Tabasco (or other hot sauce)

Salt (easy on the salt. the anchovies are pretty salty)

Pepper (Be heavy handed. I counted 30 grinds of pepper & ended up adding about 10 more in the end)

Blend

Stream in 1/2c of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Add juice of half a lemon

Add some extra shreds of Parmesean

Stir through. Serve immediately. Or store and save for later. (Will keep in the refrridgerator for a week & some change)

How I separate and egg: I crack an egg, dump the yolk in my hand, and let the whites fall through my fingers.

Crush

Chop (Thanks Z & D for the handy dandy mini-knife set)

I "fished" out 4.
 ...Get it? I said "fished" because anchovy is a fish, but I used the word "fished" like I was digging out what I needed.
Puns are super cool.

Cheese In



Using the cap to measure. It's okay, professionals do this.



Tried the Extra Thick version. I recommend the orginal.

Pepper in

Pulse to chop. Scrape the sides to help out.

Stream in your Extra Virgin Olive Oil

It gets loud

That's basically it. I usually like to photo my own food for the blog, but I saved my dressing for later. I'll add my own photo when I use it & add a picture then. But to hold you over for now...



My Caesar Salad.
Mine breaks some rules.
But that's okay.

Caesar Salad lovers unite!



Chicken Spaghetti

This particular blog is for my homegirl Sara Gray. Or Gravy as she's known in my family. Let's get some inside jokes out of the way. Risky sisters. Coleman/Steven. Russell Youngblood. New Year's Resolution to meet the Hanson Brothers. Mary-Katherine Gallagher, Spartans, and most other SNL renditions we made our own. Spice Girls. I am a human being! ...Those are the first that come to mind. Anywho, hope this takes care of your Chicken Spaghetti craving as of late!

Okay people. Let's talk Chicken Spaghetti.

I have a feeling  that a good Chicken Spaghetti is whatever your Mom made. If you've "grown up" and matured enough to rise above casseroles & what Mom used to make, Congratulations. You're kind of an Asshole.

My Mom never made Chicken Spaghetti though. (No hard feelings Mo) So, this is unexplored territoy for Prospector Kelsey. Go easy on me with this one.

Being a novice to chicken spaghetti, I had to do some investigation. Names of some of the recipes I found were: Baked Chicken Spaghetti, Best Chicken Spaghetti, Chicken Spaghetti, Chicken Spaghetti II - all the way to Chicken Spaghetti XIV, Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti Bake, Chicken Casserole, Slow Cooker Spaghetti Chicken... and the list goes on and on.

The lasting tie between all of the recipes, as far as ingredients go, were: Chicken (duh), Spaghetti (duh), Cheese, Cream of Whatever, Green Pepper, & Onion.

The chicken to spaghetti to cheese ratio was fairly consistent as well. 4c chicken breasts:1lb of cooked spaghetti:1lb of cheese.

A few ingredients were also left out here and there, depending on the recipe. This included garlic, green/black olives, Rotel, pimentoes, and herbs like parsley or bay leaf.

And then there came the "this or that" category. This included: Velveeta vs. Cheddar. To bake or not to bake. Choice of shredding or cubing the chicken. The competition between cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, cream of celery, or a combo of one or the other.

As you can imagine, things started to get a little hairy. So as I was caught in the middle of this mess, soon to tailspin out of control... I got it together and began a plan of attack.

I began to think of the ingredients. Rotel, Velveeta, Onion, & Green pepper. Remind you of anything? Microwave Queso dip! Derrr.  So now, I was faced with how to incorporate the rest of the ingredients & take it to the stove top. Problem solved. I decided to treat the concoction like a stove-top cheese sauce (I'm a genius - I know), mix in cooked spaghetti, and then bake/broil some cheese on top.

So Here's How Goes it.

Add 1Tbl butter (or Extra Virgin Olive Oil if you're going for healthy. But who are we kidding? It's chicken spaghetti fool!)
Over medium heat


Melt til it becomes this




Add

2 chopped onions

1 chopped stalk of celery

1/2 chopped green bell pepper

Cook for 12 min. Giving a stir every now and again.

Cover cook 3 min. more.

Gather round these ingredients:



Thanks Z for the stackable, polka-dotted cups
Thanks Aunt Mar for my stackable, recycled-looking bowls



Add

3c shredded chicken (I use a rotisserie)

Season w 1/2teas seasoning salt & 1/2teas paprika & 1/4 teas black pepper

1/2teas Paprika

1/2teas Seasoning salt

I forgot to photo me adding the black pepper. I promise it's in there though.

Add
1 undrained can of mild rotel
2 undilluted cans of cream of mushroom (or one large one like I did)

1c water

Turn heat to low

Add 1lb cubed Velveeta

Say Cheese

Take a whisk to it

Stir away the lumps

Yayyysh

Turn off heat

Cooking Spaghetti 101:

Bring a covered pot to a boil

When steam is shooting out of the lid, the pot is readay for the spaghett-ay

Add a hefty pinch of salt

Drop in spaghetti. Give a stir to get it going. Cover with a spatula or spoon to prevent over-flowage.

Set a timer & boil for 9min. - 10min.

Drain.

(Italians cover your ears & close your eyes) Rinse until cool.

Add back to the large pot. Then pour the sauce on top of the spaghetti to coat. 

Do not add the spaghetti to the pot you cooked your sauce in (like I did). Or else there will be no room to combine everything. Then, it will all start to slosh out everywhere. And then you'll get really mad. And then you'll feel like a big idiot for not thinking that all the way through.

Bottom line. Mix in a bowl or pot big enough to fit the spaghetti & sauce comfortably.

Butter a baking dish. I use the butter wrapper I took a tablespoon of butter from.

I didn't use 4Tbl. This was leftover butter from ealier recipes.

Squish in.

Coat evenly

Or another option is to use Pam.

Not that Pam

This Pam

Add all of the combined ingredients into your prepped dish(es)

This is when I realized I'd forgotten to add the chicken. Whoops.



I'm such an idiot.



I just added on top & mixed through.

Okay. Continuing like I forgot nothing.

I prepared in 2 batches. One for now, one for later.

When ready to bake, cover the top with shredded cheddar (about a cup)

Guess which I'm saving for later.

Bake @ 350 degrees Fahrenheit until the cheese melts & broil if you like it extra cuh-dis-ppppeee. (crispy)

This should take a total of about 25min.

Spaghetti of the Chicken The world could do w/o another name for:

CHICKEN SPAGHETTI

For all of you fellow nerds out there that like to delve a little deeper, let's discuss the topic of Chicken Spaghetti a little further.

We'll go about this with a little Q & A.

Why did I choose cream of mushroom?

Cream of Chicken was a given to be first out the door. Canned and shelved chicken parts? No thanks.

Cream of Celery ...Creamy celery. Sounds gross. Ewww. Okay, not buying it. (I still wanted the flavor though, hence the addition of the stalk of celery.)

Cream of Mushroom I guess I can see the merit. This was the least sounding-dumb of the 3.

Why did I choose to shred 3 cups of chicken's worth?

I chose 3 cups because 4 cups seemed a little much.

Shredding the chicken took rank over cubing because the shreds become twirlable along w/the spaghetti. Plus, cubed chicken is too reminiscent of chicken salad.

Why Rotel?

I wanted some tomato in the recipe. Rotel combined w/the paprika served as triple duty. Each contributed tomatoes, replaced the pimentos, and acted as a supporting to the "Holy Trinity(Bell pepper, celery, and onion.)

Why was the addition of tomatoes so important?

I did NOT want this recipe to be confused with chicken tetrazzini. Chicken Tetrazzini, to me, is the snobby/hoity-toity cousin of Chicken Spaghetti. Tetrazzini is more about mushrooms, petite peas, fancier cheeses, and finicky techniques. Pfft. Tomatoes give Chicken Spaghetti a middle finger to express how it feels about all of that nonsense.

Don't believe me? Reference Giada De Laurentiis's recipe for Chicken Tertrazzini.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/chicken-tetrazzini-recipe/index.html

She's out of her mind if she thinks I'm gonna buy her Santa-Sized list of ingriedents. And to all the hundreds of people who made & loved her recipe. SNAP OUT OF IT!

Why the Velveeta?

I used velveeta because it's extra creamy & easily melts. I didn't want to go through the hassle of making a bechamel & also worrying about if my cheddar would separate by boiling too aggresively. I think you've sort of lost the point of Chicken Spaghetti if you go through all those pains.