Caramel Pecan Cheesecake

My daughter-in-law, Yulia, is pregnant and has some serious cravings. She didn’t ask for any expensive presents for her birthday. All she wanted was a birthday cheesecake—not just any cheesecake, but a caramel pecan cheesecake. Well, it sounded good, but none of my favorite recipe books had that recipe.

I never let a little thing like a recipe get in my way. I looked on the cream cheese carton and found a basic recipe for cheese cake, but it didn’t have a crust. Next I checked the cover of the graham cracker box. There it was.

I headed for the refrigerator hoping my final two ingredients would be there. The pecans, already chopped, were waiting in the crisper. Now if I could just find some caramel syrup. I looked up and down the door where the sauces and dressings were stored but no caramel syrup. Since I didn’t want to go shopping, I would just have to make my own. Why not? I’ve made plenty of sauces in my time. I found the perfect caramel sauce recipe in an old Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. If you can imagine it, you can make it. Let’s get started.

Graham cracker crust:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Place 8 whole graham crackers in a large zip lock bag and crush them with a rolling pin.Pour crumbs into a medium bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and half a stick of melted butter. Stir until combined. Press onto the sides and bottom of a 9 inch ungreased pie plate. Place in preheated oven and bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven, but leave the oven heat on.

Cream cheese filling:

In a large bowl combine 2- 8oz. packages soft cream cheese until smooth. Add ½ cup sour cream, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 2 slightly beaten eggs,  Then combine ingredients until creamy. Pour into graham cracker crust and return the cheesecake to the oven. Bake 25-30 minutes, until set. Remove from oven and allow cake to cool completely.

Caramel sauce:

In a heavy saucepan, combine1/2 cup brown sugar and 1 tablespoon cornstarch. Add ¼ cup of water, 1/3 cup milk, and 2 tablespoons corn syrup. Cook at medium temperature and stir until it comes to a boil. Lower temperature to simmer and continue to stir for 2 minutes until it begins to thicken. Remove from stove, and add 1 tablespoon butter and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.

Toast ½ cup chopped pecans, sprinkle on top of cooled cheese cake and drizzle with plenty of caramel sauce. Refrigerate leftovers—if there are any.

This scrumptious cake calmed the cravings of a pregnant woman and was half eaten before we could take a picture.

Pumpkin Cookies

Recently, my six-year-old granddaughter called me with a special request:

“Grandma, could you give me your recipe for pumpkin cookies? I want to make them for Thanksgiving.”

“I’d love to, Sweetheart.” And so the search for pumpkin cookies began.

Then I looked in the memoir cookbook that I’m writing. In the chapter about Halloween—there it was—pumpkin cookies. Pumpkin is a popular vegetable October through December so you have time to bake with pumpkin before the year is over.  

I emailed the recipe to my daughter and granddaughter so they could make pumpkin cookies and decided to make some myself. I smiled all the way through the process thinking they were making pumpkin cookies just like me.  If you are lucky enough to have grandchildren or children to bake with, thank your lucky stars and have fun with these yummy cookies. We did.

                                                   Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup of oil

2 cups sugar

2 cups cooked pumpkin

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon each:

ground ginger, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, and salt

1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoon baking soda

4 cups flour

½ cup chopped pecans (optional)

Directions:

1. Combine first four ingredients and mix in a large bowl.

2. Then sift together and add: ground ginger, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, salt, cinnamon, soda, flour.

3. Add pecans if you choose.

3. Drop by heaping teaspoons onto greased baking sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes until light brown. Remove when done and allow to cool 10 minutes before removing to towel covered with wax paper. Cool completely then frost with cream cheese icing. This recipe makes about 31/2 dozen cookies. Let the children decorate with colored sugar—in December try red and green. Top with orange sprinkles in October and November. Enjoy!

How to Make Potato Latkes

Hanukkah really caught me by surprise this year.  Never in my lifetime has the holiday come so early. In fact, the last time Hanukkah came this early in the year was during the late 1800’s.

I certainly don’t want to make potato latkes (potato pancake) for Thanksgiving dinner. We always make the same potato dishes every year, at that time, and they have become a tradition.

So I’ve decided since Hanukkah comes at sundown this evening, this will be our latke day—tradition demands it. We will light the 1^st Menorah candle, say our blessing, and have our latkes with applesauce, or sour cream. Perhaps some barbecue chicken, steamed broccoli, and a salad would work well.  It won’t interfere with the preparation of cranberry relish or Waldorf salad which need to be chilled for Thanksgiving dinner.

Tomorrow’s dinner should be finished when it’s time to light the second Hanukkah candle. We will celebrate with a dessert—Pumpkin-Pie Cake (posted on this blog last year).

Then time to spin the dreidel!

     

Potato Latkes

 Ingredients:

      5 medium potatoes

      1 medium onion

      2 medium eggs

      3 tablespoons flour or matzo meal

      Salt and pepper to taste

      Vegetable oil for frying

Directions:

1. Peel potatoes and place in bowl of cold water until ready to prepare latkes.
2. Grate onion and potatoes alternately using large holes in grater.  Press out as much liquid as possible.
3. Blend potato mixture with eggs, flour, salt, and pepper.

4. Heat skillet with 1 inch of oil to medium high. Drop mixture one tablespoon at a time into skillet. Brown on both sides and drain on paper towel. Serve with applesauce or sour cream.

5. If there are leftovers place on a cookie sheet and freeze. Store in zip lock bag and keep frozen until ready to use.

6. To prepare later, heat oven to 450 degrees, place latkes on cookie sheet and heat until crisp. Do not store in frig or they will become soggy.

                                                 HAPPY HANUKKAH!

Bananas Foster

 October is still a good month to have a cookout in Virginia. Recently we had a nephew from out of town come to visit. He is single and eats out all the time, so he jumped at the chance to have a homemade meal.

When he arrived, at our home, the steaks were marinating in the refrigerator. The pasta salad—one of our favorites—was soaking in a succulent sauce of homegrown herbs, homemade purple basil vinegar, and olive oil. The green bean casserole was sizzling in the oven sending off the aroma of mushroom onion gravy.

All day long I had procrastinated the making of an apple crisp. That new bag of crisp apples would just have to wait for another date. Too late to bake anything and so I opted for a quick but delicious dessert I hadn’t made in years—“Bananas Foster”. While the guys tossed the steaks on the grill I set up the ingredients for my opulent dessert. This easy surprise is prepared start to finish in 10 minutes!

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons of butter

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup of your favorite rum

3-4 golden ripe bananas

Good quality vanilla ice cream

Whipping cream

In a medium size saucepan melt butter and add brown sugar. Stir until bubbly and pour in the rum.  Slice bananas the long way and add to the saucepan. Saute the bananas until soft and slightly browned then remove from heat. Place two scoops of ice cream in each of 4-5 stemmed dessert cups and top with your decadent Bananas Foster sauce. Add some whipped cream if you wish, and serve.

This mouth-watering dessert will hit the spot and everyone will want seconds or the recipe, so they can try it at home. You know, I bet it would be good made with peaches instead of bananas. What do you think? If you try it with peaches let me know how it turns out.

Borsh from Yulia's Kitchen

When September is here the chilly mornings give me a yearning for warm soup. Last weekend our daughter-in-law, Yulia, cooked up a batch of Borsh, (sometimes spelled Borsht). This is the recipe her Russian mother and grandmother prepared when she was a girl. The aroma of the beet red broth, fragrant with chicken or beef, often fills our house throughout the fall and winter. Hearty root vegetables of the north are used to prepare this never to be forgotten delight with: beets, potatoes, and carrots. Onions, garlic, and herbs intensify the flavor. Try it with a dollop of sour cream and serve with hardy peasant bread or croutons. But watch out, you could become addicted!

 Thank you, Yulia, for introducing me to your Russian delight, Borsh.

Ingredients:

Meat (chicken--skinned and deboned or beef stew-meat) 1 ½ pounds.

Place meat in medium pot and cover with water until 2/3 filled. Bring to a medium boil and reduce to a simmer. (Cook chicken for 10-15 minutes or slowly simmer beef for 60 minutes) Remove from heat and cover.

Prepare vegetables while the meat cooks:

1 large or 2 medium beets peeled and shredded  

1 tablespoon cooking oil

1/3 cup shredded carrots

½ cup chopped sweet onion

1 small can tomato paste

½ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon Creole seasoning

1 tablespoon salt

2 cups shredded cabbage

1 cup peeled cubed potatoes

1 bay leaf

Ground black pepper to taste

Ground oregano to taste

1. In large skillet add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil. Heat, add beets and simmer for 3 minutes.

2. Stir then add carrots. Continue to stir for another 3 minutes.

3. Add onions and stir for a minute.

4. Add tomato paste, turn heat to low and mix in cumin and Creole seasoning. Stir well and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Cover with a well fitting lid and remove from heat.

5. Take boiled chicken or beef from pot and cut into cubes. Skim foam from broth.

6. Add salt and cabbage to broth. Bring to a simmer and let cook for another 3-5 minutes.

7. Then add cubed potatoes and carrot-beet mixture from skillet. If water has evaporated from broth add more until pot is 2/3 full or 2 to 3 inches below top of pot. Mix well and bring soup to a boil.

     8. Finally add cubed chicken breast or beef to pot and return to boiling soup.

     9. Lower temperature to slow simmer and add 1 bay leaf, pepper, and oregano to taste.                         

     Cover partially allowing steam to escape. Cook for another 10-12 minutes.

      Remove soup from heat and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.

   10. Serve with fresh chopped parsley and top with a tablespoon of sour cream. Amazing!

This is labor intensive but well worth it. I promise it is a soup you will never forget.

Guacamole, Texas Style

I lived in the Midwest for years and never tasted an avocado until I was an adult.  I bought it at the grocery, took it home, and called a friend for advice on how to eat it. She said just cut it open, sprinkle it with salt, and add a little Italian dressing. Well, it was hard, I cut it open, and one bite convinced me I didn’t like avocados.

A few years later I moved to Texas and had my first guacamole. A new friend, Diana, invited me to her house. I watched as she made a big bowl of that tangy spicy dip. She squeezed the avocado and her thumb made a slight indentation. She explained that it was just ripe enough. She cut the avocados open, removed the seeds with a twist of the knife and scraped the soft insides out with a spoon. Then she squeezed the fresh tart lime over the soft concoction, sprinkled it with salt and used a fork to mash it—not too much. Next she chopped the sweet East Texas onion, ripe tomato, and diced the jalapeno and garlic. At last she sprinkled in some seasoning. When she was all finished she dropped one of the avocado seeds into the dip and covered it—a little secret that keeps the dip from turning brown. Since then every time I go to a Mexican restaurant or serve Mexican food at home, guacamole is on the menu, and I never forget the seed. Follow this advice and you are guaranteed great guacamole from a true Texan. Thanks Diana!

                                          Diana’s Guacamole

Ingredients:

4 avocados (ripe)

Juice from 1 lime

½ diced sweet onion

1diced medium ripe tomato

½ seeded, diced Jalapeno (or small can of green chilies if you can’t take the heat)

2 cloves minced garlic

¼ cup fresh chopped cilantro

½ teaspoon ground cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Serve with your favorite fresh tortilla chips. Don’t forget your seed and it will keep your dip fresh and green until you’ve devoured the last bite.

If you wash and plant the seed you can have your own avocado tree. I’m not kidding. We planted two seeds in February and now one of the trees comes almost to my neck!

Dilled Humus Spread

During the heat of the summer I like to make lunches that require little to no cooking.

I’m particularly fond of vegetables fresh from the garden—cucumbers, ripe juicy tomatoes, radishes, peppers, carrot strips, and sugar snap peas. I used to buy hummus quite often for dipping these delectable edibles, but have decided to make my own hummus since I found the missing recipe in a card file recently. I’ve made it twice in the last two weeks and it doesn’t last long. It is high in protein, low in calories, easy to make, delicious, and fits into the no-cooking category. Even my grandchildren love it. Find the blog entry for “A Beautiful Pea Green Boat” for another way to feed it to your children.

This recipe for Dilled Hummus came from a friend that I met in Texas. She was originally from Iran and invited me to her home for dinner quite often. This hospitable lady shared many recipes with me and this was one of my favorites.

  

Ingredients:

1-15 ounce can of garbanzo beans rinsed and drained, (or save money and buy them dried and cook them yourself.)

¼ cup tahini (or substitute 3 tbsp. peanut butter, and 2 tablespoons sesame oil)

3 tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 tbsp. olive oil

2 minced garlic cloves

2 teaspoons fresh chopped dill or 1 teaspoon dried dill weed (not dill seed)

¼ teaspoon salt

dash of pepper

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.
2. Place in small serving bowl and sprinkle with more dill.
3. Serve with toasted pita bread cut into wedges, or tortilla chips and crudités of your choosing.

 

4. Or why not try this? Place hummus along with your favorite veggies in a pita pocket and top with sour cream or a Greek style cucumber yogurt dip.
5. Take this in your lunch and you’ll be the envy of the peanut butter and jelly crowd.

Cracker Caramel Cookies

A couple of weeks ago we went to my family reunion. As always, I kept an eye out for new tasty recipes to post on my blog. Since most of my family lives hours away, we spent a lot of time on the road. We stayed two enjoyable nights at my sister Lucy’s place. The first night we sat around the kitchen table, talking about old times and snacking on a bag of “Cracker Caramel Cookies”. Dylan, one of my grandsons, brought them along with chocolate chip cookies for the reunion. My daughter, Becky, (Dylan’s mom) made them. The “Cracker Caramel Cookies” didn’t stand a chance. They never made it through the night. When we arrived at the reunion, we arranged the other bag of cookies on a plate and placed them along with the other desserts and no one even knew about the cookies we devoured the night before. Thanks Becky!

Now I must say there were many tasty dishes: Johnnie’s barbecue beef and pulled pork, Lucy’s deviled eggs (I sprinkled them with dill weed), Wilma’s cowboy beans, Elaine’s giant chocolate chip cookies, and Lois’ famous Chinese salad. All the guests just out-did themselves.

There were great stand bys: potato salad, macaroni salad, coleslaw, and desserts aplenty. Who made that fabulous dessert? I think it was called “Better than Robert Redford” back in the day. It had whipping cream, butterscotch pudding and a crust on the bottom. But this one had fruit and nuts—I think. What was it and who made it? Let me know and I will post it. Meanwhile I will give you “Becky’s Cracker Caramel Cookies” recipe.

                                             Cracker Caramel Cookies

Line a large cookie sheet with foil. Set the oven to 425 degrees.

Ingredients:

1 1/3-1 ½ packets of saltine crackers

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter

1-12 ounce bag dark chocolate chunks or chips (or your favorite chips)

1. Place crackers evenly on foil covered cookie sheet.
2. Measure and combine sugar and butter in small pot and place on medium heat and cook until bubbly. Drizzle over crackers.
3. Place in hot oven (425 degrees) for about 2 minutes until sugar mixture is bubbly. Remove from oven.
4. Pour chocolate chips over hot caramel and place back in oven for a few seconds.
5. Remove from oven and spread chips evenly.
6. Place in freezer until cool. Remove from freezer, break into chunks, and store in zip lock bags.

I know you’re going to love these, but control yourself or they will never make it to your reunion, or picnic, or party….

Picnic and Reunion Fare—Brown Rice, Tomato and Basil Salad

The 4^th of July reminds me of picnics and family reunions with cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews galore—the perfect time to catch up on the latest family news and savor the recipes you remember from your childhood. I will be attending these celebrations this summer and will be looking out for some new recipes to add to my repertoire. May you also have the joy of family and friends to share your picnics and reunions.

This year I’ll bring some healthy salads to have with that pulled pork barbecue. Try this Brown Rice, Tomato, and Basil Salad with your vegetables straight from the garden.

Ingredients:

2 ¼ cups water

1 cup long-grain brown rice

2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 tablespoon white wine vinegar

2 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound ripe tomatoes chopped into ½ inch cubes

1 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat water, salt, and rice in medium sized pot and bring to a boil. Stir once, reduce temperature to a simmer and cover. Cook for 40 minutes until water has evaporated. Turn heat off, cool and transfer to a large serving bowl and fluff with a fork.
2. In a small bowl whisk: vinegar, sugar, and olive oil. Poor over cooled rice.
3. Add chopped basil and tomatoes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Make at least six hours ahead. Cover and chill or place in refrigerator over night. Bring to room temperature to serve with your favorite picnic fare.

Shirley's Chicken Soup with Matzo Balls

Over the years I have had the honor of eating many wonderful meals at my mother-in-law’s home. Shirley makes the best Challah bread and shared the recipe with me many years ago. It is on this blog, and if you haven’t tried it you are missing out on something special.

My husband says his mom’s apple pie recipe is even better than mine—I’m jealous.

Here is another of her great recipes that I have made for years and it is one of our favorites. It’s Shirley’s chicken soup with matzo balls. It can be made using roasted chicken from your local supermarket or you can roast it yourself in the oven or crock pot.

Since today has been a rainy day, I thought it was the perfect day for chicken soup.

Ingredients:

4 cups of cooked cubed chicken

2 quarts (8 cups) chicken broth

4 celery ribs chopped including leaves

1 medium chopped onion

4 cloves crushed garlic

4 chopped carrots

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

2 packages Matzo Ball mix (May be purchased at your local grocery store in the kosher food section. You will need eggs and oil for this recipe.)

Directions:

Skin chicken and pick 4 cups of meat from the bones. Set aside. Clean and chop vegetables and place in crock pot or stew pot along with broth and cook until vegetables are tender. Add chicken and correct seasoning.

Follow recipe for Matzo balls on the package and place mixture in refrigerator for about fifteen minutes. Wet hands and shape batter into balls by tablespoons full and drop into simmering broth. The matzo balls will float to the top. Simmer about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with more fresh chopped parsley. Serve while hot. You’re going to love it.

Michael's Peanut Butter Coconut Cookies

When Michael was a boy he used to make snacks after school for himself. When I got home he would tell me he had invented a new recipe he wanted me to try. Yesterday he made me think of that child when he said he wanted cookies with Peanut Butter, Coconut and White Chocolate. We found a basic recipe and altered it to include those ingredients. Good idea, Michael!

Ingredients:

1 stick soft butter

½ cup peanut butter

¾ cup sugar

¾ cup brown sugar

2 whipped eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 ¼ cups flour

1 tsp. soda

½ tsp. salt

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup flaked coconut

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with baking spray.

2. In a medium mixing bowl cream butter and peanut butter.

3. Add both sugars and beat until combined.

4. Then add eggs and beat until smooth.

5. In another bowl combine dry ingredients: flour, soda, and salt.

6. Next add dry ingredients to first mixture.

7. Finally add coconut and white chocolate chips.

8. Drop cookies by teaspoon full onto cookie sheet and bake 375 degrees for 9-11 minutes, or spread dough onto 9x12 baking pan and bake for 20 minutes or until light brown and set. Remove from oven and cool on rack for about 10 minutes before removing to wax paper to cool completely. If making bar cookies cut into rectangles and cool completely. Store cookies in airtight container until ready to serve.

Layered Lemon Bars

When I first moved to Connecticut I joined CAPA (Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association), a writers group that gave me the opportunity to prepare homemade food for about 50 people once a month at the meetings. I loved preparing our family's favorite recipes. They were a hit. Within a few months I had my own column, Baking with Barb in their monthly magazine, The Authority. This recipe was published there and can be found in their archived copies along with many other of the groups favorite recipes. You can find many helpful articles for writers, publishers, and foodies if you go to their website at www.aboutcapa.com.

Recently I baked this sweet-tart lemony cookie for my family and they were so impressed that I baked it again two days later -- but I doubled the recipe. If you like lemon you’ve got to try it.

Layered Lemon Bars

First layer:

1/2 cup butter

¼ cup sugar

1 cup flour

Second layer:

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

Sprinkle of salt

Juice from 1 large lemon (about ¼ cup)

Peel from the lemon (about 2 tablespoons)

½ teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons flour

Powdered sugar

Directions:
Mix the butter, sugar, and flour with a fork until crumbly. Press onto the bottom of an 8” square pan. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Meanwhile, prepare the second layer in a small bowl. Whip the eggs and add sugar and salt. Wash and dry the lemon. Use a rasp to shred the lemon peel, making sure to use only the yellow skin. Next, juice the lemon and remove the seeds. Add the juice and peel to the egg mixture. Then add the flour and baking powder. Pour the mixture over the first layer while still hot and return it to the oven. Bake for 30 minutes or until slightly brown around the edges and the center is set. Remove and allow it to cool. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar and cut into squares.

Hint: If you don’t have a rasp, use a fine grater, but be sure to only use the yellow part of the peel. You may use a combination of lemon and lime peel and juice for a lively zest.

Happy Face Omelet

I love making food that the kids will enjoy. So today a Happy Face Omelet is on the menu. Since most omelets are shaped like half a skillet, it lends itself to the bottom of a face. Once I made this cute omelet, I got requests even from Grandpa.

I've tried many different fillings--onions, peppers, sausage, bacon, avocado, but Grandpa's favorite is
ham and  cheese. Today the happy face had a little surprise. Grandma still likes to play with her food even
when she can't cook with the kids. What do you think?












Ingredients:
   
2 eggs
1 tablespoon water
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated cheddar cheese
Sliced ham or turkey meat

Directions:

Whip eggs with salt and pepper in a small bowl, using a wire whip or fork. Heat a medium skillet coated with cooking spray. When it is warm enough for a drop of water to dance on the surface, add the egg mixture. Spread the egg until it covers the surface.Sprinkle cheese on top. Lay the meat at the edge of one side (like a tongue sticking out of a mouth).

When the egg is nearly done, flip the other side of the omelet over, not quite half way, so that the tongue is
exposed. When the egg is done lay the omelet on the bottom half of a plate--the tongue sticking out.      Toast a small bagel, butter it, or cover with cream cheese for the eyes!  Now you have a happy face omelet!
  

Wheels: Peanut Butter Banana Honey Roll-ups

My youngest grandson's first word was "car." He loves wheels--cars, trains, planes.

He's not quite as particular about his food looking like a work of art, as his sister is, but this is one lunch that he loves, "Peanut Butter Banana Honey Roll-ups".

Use a large whole wheat tortilla and spread it with peanut butter. Peel a banana and place it on the tortilla then drizzle it with honey. Roll it up and slice it into wheels.

This makes enough wheels for two children or you might want to share the wheels or do a counting game with them. How much are two wheels plus three wheels?

Then, use a second tortilla to cut out train cars, add wheels, and load it with carrot sticks (logs), raisins (coal), or apple slices (grain). Use celery strips for the track.

If you deal with peanut allergies, try hummus, grape tomatoes, or cucumber sticks on your tortilla. Serve with either a cup of milk or yogurt and you have a healthy lunch.

Do you have any kid-friendly lunch ideas? Can you turn it into a work of art? Tell me about it!

Russian Potato Chicken Soup

Hardy soups are for Winter. Maybe that's why Russia is famous for their soups--they have long winters.
My daughter-in-law is Russian and makes the best borsch imaginable.

My mother-in-law, Shirley's family came from Russia around a hundred years ago and her family recipe for chicken soup with matzo balls is great. It is just what the doctor ordered when you have a case of the sniffles.Today is cold and dreary and the forcast calls for snow--soup time!

This Russian Potato Chicken Soup recipe came from Ladies Home Journal about 20 or 30 years ago. My daughter-in-law says she had never eaten it in Russia before, but she thought it was delicious all the same. I'll just put my southern twist on it and say, "Ya'll stay for supper now. Ya' hear?"

Ingredients:

1) 1 1/2 pound chicken breast meat-chopped and sauteed with 2 tablespoons butter, or leftover meat from a broasted chicken

5 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped   
4 cups chicken broth or 2 bullion cubes and 4 cups water

Prepare above ingredients and put in crock pot on high.

2) 1 medium chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery with leaves
2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
Chopped green onions, fresh parsley, shredded cheddar (optional) as garnish

Saute onion, celery, parsley, and butter. Add to chicken mixture in crock pot. Let cook for three or four hours.

3) Just before time is up make rue in skillet by combining the following:
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup cooking oil

Allow to brown lightly. Dip one cup of broth from crock pot and add to skillet. Stir until smooth then dump the contents of the skillet in.the crock pot and stir.

4) Add 1 can of evaporated milk and correct seasoning with salt and pepper. If not thick enough you may add paste of flour and water and stir until soup is of the right consistency. Chop 2 green onions or 2 tablespoons parsley for topping. May serve with shredded cheddar.

This might turn in to one of your comfort foods. I hope you like it as much as we do. Have you got a soup recipe you would like to share? Send it to us or make a comment. I would love to hear from you.