Best Ever Potato Soup

 Today I'm sharing another recipe from my favorites file. I found this in Taste of Home in 1999 and I've been making it ever since. I only make it once a year and it seems it's always the week before Christmas. This soup is quick to pull together during the busy holiday season. Served with a good, crusty bread, it always hits the spot and I love having it as a part of my soup collection. After spending the day bouncing over ranch roads, feeding cattle, trying to stay warm, it's comforting to come home to a hot bowl of homemade soup.

Best Ever Potato Soup

4 Tbsp butter

8 bacon strips, diced

1/2 C chopped onion

1 large carrot, grated

5 C cubed potatoes

16 oz chicken broth

1 Tbsp parsley flakes

1/2 tsp each celery seed, salt, and pepper

3 Tbsp tapioca flour (or all purpose flour)

3 C milk

8 oz Velveeta

1 C grated sharp cheddar cheese

green onions

red pepper flakes

*In a large soup pot, saute butter, bacon and onion for about 5 minutes. Stir in grated carrot. Add potatoes, broth, parsley, celery seed, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer until potatoes are tender - about 15 minutes. Make a slurry with tapioca flour and a little bit of milk. Add slurry, plus additional milk to soup. Simmer for a few minutes. Add cheese; stir until cheese is melted and soup is heated through. Garnish each bowl with chopped green onions, grated sharp cheddar cheese, red pepper flakes, and additional chopped bacon..

*I know Velveeta's not 'real' cheese, but it has it's place in my queso and this soup. I also grate my own cheddar cheese for the garnish. We love cheese and just think grating our own from a block, gives recipes a better taste than the pre-packaged grated cheeses.

So dish up a bowl and come join us at the table!

Mountain Lake Quilt

 I keep a lot of my fabrics sorted by color and last year my blue and green bins would no longer close so I came up with a plan that would hopefully make a dent and leave me with bins that would close. Since I was pulling and cutting a lot of fabrics, I decided to make a couple quilts and 2 quilts turned into 3. This is the first one. I didn't use a pattern, but this quilt, that I saw on Pinterest, was my inspiration - it doesn't have a link associated with it so I can't give credit to the source

 I settled on 6 1/2" blocks (unfinished). That translated to LOTS of HSTs, but I loved pulling fabrics and matching them up for each block. 

I like the versatility of HSTs. There are endless options and although I really don't enjoy piecing tops that are on point and that require a diagonal setting, it just adds a whole different dynamic to the quilt and this one was worth it. I love the end result.

I made the first 2 test blocks back in July

                                    

For some reason, I didn't take many progress photos - I guess I just got caught up in the process and sewed with reckless abandon. 😉 And I sewed a lot because the quilt is 88" x 88".

I love the scrappiness of this quilt - I really did throw anything and everything in there yet keeping the colors to blue and green kept everything from becoming too chaotic - I didn't really worry about placement - just sewed for the most part and tried not to have too many blues or greens all bunched up together. Other than that, I just let the blocks land where they landed.

Sandy used a lime green thread and quilted a design called Bora Bora. It's hard to see the quilting across the fabrics, but here's a shot in the sun that shows it a bit better.

And I backed it with this print.

I pulled a blue from my stash for the binding 

                                 

and worked on it during the National Finals Rodeo, putting it away during Christmas, and pulling it out again after the New Year.

The first finish of the New Year - 15° - waiting for the sun to climb up over the barn to warm things up a bit

Soaking up that Southwest Sunshine!

If you turn it the other way, it reminds me of mountains, thus, it has been coined Mountain Lake

Blast From the Past

 If you'll indulge me a little this morning, I have a little bit of a backstory to this post. My mom was from Vienna, Austria and she married a young Air Force GI in 1963. My Daddy was from Ulm, Germany but he joined the Air Force and they were sent to Aurora, Colorado in 1965. My mom couldn't speak English or drive a car and one of these days, I'll post about their story, but it's not pertinent to today's post.

The first week they were in Aurora, she packed me in a stroller and took me to a nearby park where she met another young German mom who had a toddler son and they became instant best friends for life. A few months later, my mom got very sick and ended up in the hospital with a collapsed lung. I stayed with Tante (Aunt in German) Frieda during the day, while my Daddy was at work, until my mom came home. On a side note - my mom's name was Elfriede too.

My mom passed away 3 years ago, but I am still in touch with Tante Frieda. We visited over the phone at Christmas and she said she was going to send me something that would make me laugh. This, along with some Christmas Stollen arrived

42 years ago today, I was on the front page of the San Antonio, Texas paper and Tante Frieda kept the page my mom sent her...for 42 YEARS! She also sent me the announcement I sent her when our son was born eight years later. I love that she still had these and sent them to me. 

My parents had that picture framed and on the wall in their home. I remember that day as if it were yesterday.

It was January 13, 1982. I was a senior in high school and such a tomboy. I was just huddled in a pen, waiting to weigh my lamb (JD) for the Stock Show. It was so cold and a guy walked by and just snapped a picture. He then told me he was a reporter for the paper and he asked my name. Never dreamed I'd be a covergirl. 😂😂 

Thanks for the walk down memory lane, Tante Frieda! I'm trying to reconcile the fact that that high school senior is turning 60 in 9 days! Don't blink!

Posole (Pozole)

Last winter, DH asked if I would make Posole. This is a traditional Mexican dish. I'd never made it before, but it's a staple here in New Mexico, often served on New Years. Surely, I could figure something out. I mentioned it to my hair dresser and she told me how she makes it so I started there. I wanted to document how I made it because DH loved it and if I don't write it down, I won't remember the next time he asks for it. And the next time is now. I forgot to post this last year so I'm sure glad I wrote it down. 

I did watch some videos, but I just wasn't willing to cook pig's feet and I couldn't find any dried, whole Hominy so I used canned. It's still a little involved, but it's hard to beat a warm bowl of Posole when you've been out feeding cattle in the brutal New Mexico winter. 

Posole

Bone in Pork Shoulder

5 cans Hominy

Dried Red Chili Pods

A few Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce

5 C Low Sodium Chicken Broth

5 C water

3 minced garlic cloves

Cumin

Mexican Oregano

Thyme

1/2 C finely diced onion

I started with a 3.5#  bone-in pork shoulder. My hair dresser makes hers in the oven, but I chose to smoke mine. I seasoned it simply, with salt and pepper and some Big Ron's Seasoning that we keep around.

I smoked it at 250° until it reached an internal temperature of 165°, which took  about 3 hours. I sprayed it a few times with water as it cooked. Then I wrapped it and cooked it another couple of hours until it hit 205°. Then I let it rest, still wrapped, for about an hour before shredding it. 

While it smoked, I made the red sauce. I bought a bag of mild dried red chile pods, cut off the stems and cleaned out the seeds. Then I cooked them in a big pot of water with garlic cloves. Once they were soft, I drained the water and threw it all into the blender. Then I ran them through a fine meshed strainer, adding the sauce to a large pot. I added a tablespoon or so of Cumin, about the same or maybe a little more of Mexican Oregano, a little bit of Thyme, some finely diced, onion and about 5 C of low sodium chicken broth, along with another 5 C of water. I also added a little Chipotle Pepper in Adobo Sauce from a can for a little heat.

I simmered that for about an hour and then added 5 cans of drained Hominy along with the smoked, shredded pork. Simmer another 30 minutes or so and let cool before placing in fridge. This soup really does benefit from sitting overnight and reheating the next day and it seems to get better with each day. The flavors intensify and deepen with time. This freezes beautifully and I like serving it with cheese quesadillas.