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Monday, January 18, 2016

Sprouting Potato Soup

Mom was in the hospital for a couple of days last week which creates a time vacuum for the rest of us.  There are very sweet patients and there are impatient patients who are a tad demanding and difficult to deal with.  Mom falls into the latter category, consequently someone has to be with her around the clock.  Because My Beloved sister works and is in the most demanding part of her business year and could not be there beyond the first afternoon, Son2 and I split the "being there" time.  As a result of the time crunch, nothing here was cooked and all eating was just catching something on the fly.  We got her home at 9 pm Friday night and got her settled in for the night. Beloved Sister spent the night with her and we determined she could stay by herself while Beloved Sister worked Saturday to catch up and I went with TheHub to his cousin's funeral about an hour from town.  Finally last night I could begin a small bit of food rescue.

I tend to pull several things out of the freezer at one time with a somewhat loose idea of what I will prepare for dinner with each item.  I had 4 things defrosting in the meat drawer of the fridge for several days and they needed to be addressed.  Add potatoes that had sprouted eyes and a few other odds and ends in various stages of less than stellar shape and I guessed, correctly, that I would be doing some power cooking today.

The only recipe I am sharing today is the potato soup recipe.

                                                                Desperation Potato Soup




8 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 medium onion, diced
5 celery ribs, diced
1 tablespoon oil
1 quart chicken broth
1 teaspoon tarragon
1teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
3/4 cups half and half (or 1 cup milk)
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup grated cheese





















Peel and dice the potatoes and set aside. Put the oil in a Dutch over or large pot and add the onions and the celery.  Cook until the vegetables are wilted, add the potatoes and stir them with the vegetables a couple of times before adding the chicken broth to the pot.  Add the tarragon, salt and pepper and cook until the potatoes are very soft.  Stir in the milk/half and half.  If the soup appears too thick add a little water.  In a small saute pan melt the butter and add the flour.  Cook, stirring constantly until it forms a soft paste.  Add it to the potatoes and stir util the broth thickens.  Stir in the grated cheese and stir to melt and thoroughly distribute the cheese.  Serve in a bowl and garnish with dill weed or chopped chives.  This makes a really tasty and very filling soup.  We each had a medium sized bowl  and are stuffed.  If you have some potatoes that need to be used quickly this is a great way to use them.

Now on to pot roast, chicken roll ups, sweet potato soup, peanut butter bread pudding, and chocolate pudding with strawberries. (Trying to use a gallon of milk that has about 2 days of "good" still in it)

26 comments:

  1. I wondered where you were! Sorry about your mother's crisis. I use my milk for a week beyond the good date. If it goes sour, use it in anything calling for buttermilk. I just add chocolate to sour milk and drink it.

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    1. We are not big milk drinkers and I mostly use it to make kefir. I have no idea why I bought a full gallon, but TheHub really did enjoy the parfait. I have used sour milk as buttermilk before, but the only things I really make with buttermilk are biscuits and cornbread.

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  2. God bless you for staying by your mother's side. I'm sure your presence made a huge difference. I worked in a nursing home. I didn't know that some of the patients had families until I read their obituaries. No one came to see them. We were their families.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. I love Mom dearly and would never think of not being around when she needs me.

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  3. I am sorry for the difficult week you had. I can relate all too well. In case you're ever in this position again, most hospitals have sitters--people employed by the hospitals to sit with a patient that needs to be watched/helped around the clock. We have used these before so we could get some sleep. And the staff is used to dealing with difficult elderly patients. The hospital setting can make an elderly patient be difficult. This can happen to anyone, but especially the elderly.

    I love potato soup and made some just last week to use old potatoes also.

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    1. I know you understand all too well! Mom had no physical needs that required us to stay with her, but we know all too well how pissy she would be if we weren't there. Sometimes you just have to choose the less painful battle.

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  4. Sorry you had a rough week :-(

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  5. Sorry for the trying family time last week but hope mom is on the mend.
    And when you get to the PB bread pudding you'll have to share that one as Hubs is a BPudding addict. ;-)

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  6. Sorry to hear about your mom, Anne. I hope she is feeling better now that she is home again. I am also sorry to hear about your husband's cousin.
    The potato soup looks and sounds wonderful! This is a timely post for me to read because this morning I noticed some of my potatoes were growing eyes and shriveling a tiny bit in spots. Thank you for sharing this recipe. All of the other goodies you are making sound delicious too.
    I hope this week is a little more relaxing for you.

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  7. I'm glad to hear that your mother is doing better.
    Your mashup meals are ten times better than when I try to actually use a recipe. Too bad I couldn't send DJ to you, the milk would be gone in 20 minutes.

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    1. I would gladly share. It looks like we will finish it off before it spoils, as long as I make bread pudding and a quiche tonight

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  8. love the look of your soup. I hope your mother keeps improving.

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  9. Hi Anne, thanks for sharing your recipe. It sounds good. My mom asked for potato soup and your would recipe would be enough to share.
    I'm sorry about your mom.

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  10. She is doing much better this evening, thanks Rhonda!

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  11. Sorry to read about your mom, Anne! I'm glad she's home and hope she's better real soon. It's soup weather! I'd love a big bowl of yours. I made French onion soup the other day and it was delicious. I was so surprised how easy it was to pull together. The hardest part was find beef soup bones!

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  12. Thank you so much and Mom is doing much better.
    Yes the bones are hard to find unless you have a butcher close by who will save them for you. I once looked all over town for veal bones to make demi glace and finally had to have them ordered. I think it will be my only experience making it since it was so difficult.

    I hope you made enough soup for more than 1 meal!

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  13. Glad your mom is improving - just think of her as "feisty" :) I LOVE potato soup but don't think to make it. How about throwing a bit of crispy bacon in there too?!

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  14. If I had any bacon cooked I would have loved to add it. I still have some leftover that might be screaming for a little pig!

    We don't have to think of Mom as feisty.Every.Single.Doctor has told us she is.

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  15. I hope your mom is doing better. My folks both died relatively early and were rarely ill. I never once spent any time in the hospital with them or anyone else except husband a few days after a surgery. How old is your mom if I may ask? Your soup looks so good- you know I have never had any tarragon in the house. I'm thinking I'll pick up some and try it out! Thanks! I'm actually making some broccoli soup as I type. I had fresh broccoli and should have used it last week LOL. I am not wasting any cheese until I taste the soup. Sometimes old vegetables taste a little 'off' to me. Have a great weeekend.

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  16. Thanks Nan! My mom is only in her mid 80's, but she has some issues she deals with on a recurring basis.

    I had decided we would not get any winter this year, but now it seems soup weather is finally here!

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  17. I hope your mom is doing much better. I'm going to try your soup. I love potato anything.

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    1. Thanks ND! Hope you enjoy it. It is even better the second day!

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