Weekend update, Sept 23, 2012

Greetings everyone!
Lots and lots of kitchen adventures to report on: Tilapia, Black beans, Chili, fine tuning a custard recipe.....
but I think it'd be a little more interesting to give an account of this week's adventures with my favorite food group:
Carbs!
One would assume that shifting to a no (or low) gluten diet would mean a shift toward a low carb diet, wouldn't one? One would be so wrong. So very wrong. Carbs have fueled me well for many years. I love them for it and I will not desert them (I may however, dessert them). As evidence of my stubborn devotion, I remind you of rice, corn, oatmeal, and the star of tonight's show....
 potatoes!!!!!


a lone little spuddy, looking for a buddy.

On Thursday, I reached for a couple of potatoes that I'd planned to bake and top with chili and noticed that the whole bag had become a little... sprouty. So I baked all we had. Which left me with a delicious dilemma: what to do with all those potatoes?
Well, this morning, the white potatoes and I went looking in the pantry for a suitable sweetie, and there she was!

" love me or hate me, i just yam what i yam"

Breakfast? I diced onion and sweet potato and sauteed them in olive oil 'til they were tender, dropped in a cubed baked potato, some pepper and some smoked salt (I find it at central market or Kroger, and it's amazing!).
An egg and some not bad for you stuff pretending to be sausage later and...viola!.... 

and there was fresh coffee.
and it all smelled really, really good.
happy weekend to you, sweetie pie, here's
a very not horrible start to the day.

Next, I got the rest of the spuds rounded up for some soup.
I'm aware of  two main potato soup factions:
1. Those for whom potato soup is mostly a vegetable soup with a high percentage of potato chunks, and
2. Those for whom potato soup is mostly mashed potatoes with lots of cheese, thinned with cream til it qualifies as soup.
It may not come as a surprise that I prefer a happy medium; (hands up everyone who just had a flashback to a chapter title in Madeline L'Engle's  'A wrinkle in time') a potatoey mashup with recognizable pieces of veg in every creamy spoonful.
Here's how I got the soup I wanted:
First, I diced the veggies- celery, onions, carrots, sweet potatoes, and bell peppers.
Then I halved the potatoes and cut almost to the skin (the potato skin, not mine) one way, then another, and scooped the potato bits into the saucepan. Just as if I were cubing and spooning out an avocado. I was careful though, to leave some potato in the skin. Like this:

get a load of that falltastic new nail polish!

The potato bits simmered in some chicken broth, while the veggies (without the peppers) cooked in some olive oil. (that's a version of a mirepoix, by the way. Isn't that a lovely word? It's as pretty as a treeful of butterflies. Try whispering that word aloud the next time you release the smell of sauteing onions and celery and carrots into your kitchen-who knows what magic you may let loose?)
I poured a box of chicken broth into the mirepoix  (there's that word again!), simmered til tender, then added the bell pepper. I added about a cup of mashed potato flakes to the potato pot, waited til the flakes had re hydrated, then combined the contents of the two pots. Then the whole thing was thinned down with some evaporated milk and fat free half and half.
end result?

coolish weather+a candle+quiet +
a stack of nearly finished books+
a bowl of soup= Sunday night bliss.
I'm pretty sure my math is correct here.
 

I know that cooking the onions etc. separately means an extra step, and even worse, another pot to clean.But the alternatives (and I've tried 'em) leave you with one of the aforementioned standard potato soups or a soup that includes other veggies but turns a really unfortunate orange color when you blend it. It's just worth the extra pot, even to me. And I hate washing pots.

Tomorrow, I'm going to take those leftover leftover potato skins, spray them with olive oil  and pop them in a 350 degree oven for about 30 or 40 minutes, just 'til they've got a good tan. Then I'll fill them with the last of the black bean chili, sprinkle on a little cheese, and put them under the broiler til the cheese melts. They'll be like little potato boats of goodness, and they'll dock next to a nice salad.
And just in case you want more ideas for any leftover baked potatoes you may discover in your own fridge...
here's a nice looking potato salad-
http://www.food.com/recipe/so-yummy-baked-potato-salad-21304
and a wonderful side for grilled steak or salmon-
http://culinarycory.com/2008/10/20/twice-baked-potato-wedges/
or, if you want to indulge, a cheesy, creamy casserole:
http://www.food.com/recipe/twice-baked-potato-casserole-26043

Hope that the fall equinox landed at your house as soft and welcome as a brightly colored leaf, and that you're starting the week well fed and well rested.
Have a carbolicious week- I'll be back on Wednesday with new menus!