Roasted Garlic and Potato Soup ~ Crock-Pot

If you read my recipe post for Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic, then you know I added some potatoes and onions under the chicken to cook at the same time. 

When the Chicken with 40 Garlic Cloves was finished cooking, I removed the chicken to one bowl and the potatoes, onions and some of the garlic to another bowl.  I reserved those potatoes for this recipe: 

Roasted Garlic and Potato Soup

Ingredients: 

• Roasted Potatoes, Onions, Garlic*
• 1 quart homemade chicken broth**
• 2 additional cups potatoes, peeled & diced
• 1 cup carrots, chopped
• 1/2 cup celery, diced
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 Tbsp. Kosher salt
• 1 tsp. ground black pepper

Directions:

• Place previously roasted potatoes, onions and garlic in crock-pot with chicken broth, cover and cook on high for one hour.
• Using a stick blender,*** puree the potatoes and onions to your desired consistency and texture. 
• Stir in the additional potatoes along with the carrots, celery, water, salt and pepper.
• Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours, or until vegetables are tender. 

Potatoes and onions in chicken broth.

Pureed potatoes and onions in chicken broth.

Finished product! 

Mmmmm! 

  *I really love how easy it was to make this soup using the previously roasted vegetables.  I added extra veggies since I planned on pureeing the roasted veggies, but still wanted a chunkier soup. 

 **I made homemade broth using the bones and the cooking juices from the Chicken with 40 Garlic Cloves.  Store bought broth or stock can also be used. 

***If you don't have a stick blender, a food processor or standard kitchen blender will work.

I really enjoyed this soup.  It was very hearty and had lots of flavor.  We each had two bowls along with sliced French Bread for dipping! 

Even after our hearty portions, there was still about a quart of soup leftover.  I put that in the fridge for leftover night (probably Saturday)!

I'll be sharing this recipe with the following blog carnivals: 

• Food on Friday
• Ultimate Recipe Swap 

Ultimate Recipe Swap: Breakfast: Potato-Asparagus Omelet

It's Thursday! It's time for another Ultimate Recipe Swap hosted by Life As Mom. This week's theme is Breakfast!

I'm terrible at making breakfast. I think the reason I am terrible, is because growing up, I never saw it being prepared. Now, I don't mean that my parents never cooked breakfast. Oh, they did. But I HATED breakfast food (even cereal) as a kid/teen and I usually hid in my room until everything was cooked, eaten and cleaned up before making my way downstairs on the weekends! If I was lucky, Dad forgot to save me a plate of eggs! (Sometimes, I wasn't so lucky...blech!)

So, while I watched other meals being prepared, I never watched to learn how to fry an egg or cook bacon or make a pancake.

My tastes have changed a lot since then. I like most breakfast foods now and can even cook some. To this day, I've never made a single pancake! French toast or scrambled eggs are more my speed!

A couple of years ago, I wanted to make my husband a nice Easter Sunday breakfast before traveling to visit my parents. I wanted something a little fancier than just scrambled eggs. I don't have exact measurements, because really, anything goes with this one!

Potato-Asparagus Omelet

Ingredients:

• O'brien potatoes (frozen)
• oil
• eggs
• milk
• leftover asparagus (chopped)
• Canadian Bacon (diced)

Directions:

• Cook Canadian Bacon until slightly browned, remove from pan, set aside.
• Cook O'brien potatoes in hot oil according to directions on package.
• Add Canadian bacon and asparagus to potatoes and heat until asparagus is warmed.
• Scramble eggs and milk and pour over potato mixture.
• Cook until eggs are done.

Notes:

• Cheese would be a good addition to the recipe.
• This can be "chopped up" as the eggs are cooking or left solid more like and omelet.
• Leftover asparagus works best, since it's already cooked. If you don't have leftover asparagus, be sure to steam the asparagus before adding to the potato mixture. Otherwise, they'll take too long to cook with the other ingredients.

I've made this a few times since that first time and have switched it up according to the ingredients on hand. Sometimes with the meat, sometimes without. Sometimes without the potatoes. Whatever. Just throw in what you have, throw in what you like!

Ultimate Recipe Swap: Jen's Easy Gooey Butter Cake

I'm not sure how it is in other parts of the country, but sadly, around here (Philadelphia, Jersey shore) little bakeries are few and far between. I remember being a little girl and visiting my Gram at her house down the shore, eating Butter Cake for breakfast. MMmmm!

Many, many years later I found a small bakery near the flower shop where I worked at the time. Occasionally, on Saturday mornings, I would stop at the bakery on my way to work (thanks, Mom!) and pick up a Butter Cake to share with the other poor souls at the shop that were stuck working on a Saturday!

After a while, it became less and less convenient to get to this bakery. So, it became a very rare treat. And now, since we've moved from Philly, we don't get there at all and haven't found a small bakery in or near our new town.

A few years ago, we had a lovely picnic hosted by my parents. It was a chance for us to get together with another family that my parents have known all MY life. (They met shortly before I was born.) We've all seen each other through the years, but not all together at the same time. So it was a really great day!

We all brought something to contribute to the day's meal. I took a salad and a couple of pudding pies. But the best thing of all of the food served that day was the Butter Cake that my sister-in-law, Jen baked!

She gave me the recipe at the time, telling me that it was one of the recipes in her grandmother's recipe box. I never got around to making it and I lost the recipe card in the move (still in boxes in the basement I'm sure) Now that I have the recipe again, I'll be sure to make it soon! I'm drooling right now as I type about it!

Now, I'm sure there are other variations of this recipe to be found on the internet. But since I've only ever eaten this when she made it, I'm calling it Jen's Easy Gooey Butter Cake.

Here' the recipe:

Jen's Easy Gooey Butter Cake

Ingredients for Cake:

• 1 pkg. yellow cake mix
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 egg

Ingredients for topping:

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 lb. confectioners sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Add 1 of the eggs and the butter to the powdered cake mix. Stir (or use hand mixer) until well blended.
• Spread mixture onto an UNgreased 9x13 pan or baking dish.
• In a bowl, combine all ingredients for the topping, mixing well.
• Pour over the cake mixture, spreading to the edges.
• Bake for 35 minutes.

Got a sweet tooth? If so, head over to Life As Mom's weekly Ultimate Recipe Swap. This week's theme is Baked Goods! Mmmmm!