Potato Soup

Certain weather just calls for certain foods.  Today was cool and rainy, and I thought, "Aha!  Potato soup day."  It had been some time since I had made my potato soup, and I needed something warm, substantial, and comforting.  This fits that description nicely!  It's a pretty easy soup as well, and there's more than enough to share or freeze, making it a good company soup or make-ahead meal.  There are basics: potatoes (go figure), onion, a bit of butter, a bit of olive oil, some milk or cream, and cheese.  Other than that, you can play with it to your heart's content.

Have fun!

Potato Soup a la Anne Lane
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- about 6 Yukon Gold potatoes, each about the size of your fist (or my fist, since it's not that big), diced-- you can use them peeled or unpeeled, but I like them unpeeled
- 1 carton good chicken or veggie stock
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1- 8 oz. block good cheddar cheese, as sharp as you like it, chopped into small pieces (I use Cabot's Seriously Sharp White Cheddar-- yum)
- about 2 tbsp milk or cream
- bacon bits and extra cheese to top, if desired


In a Dutch oven or good sized pan (I used a 4 qt pan), heat the butter and olive oil over medium-low heat until the butter has melted and everything's bubbling.  Add the diced onion, sautéing until translucent.

Add a bit of your stock and deglaze the pan, scraping the pan with a nylon or silicone spatula or spoon to get the browned bits up into the stock.  Add the rest of the stock, then add your potatoes.

Season with some salt and pepper.  Don't go overboard as the flavors will concentrate.  Give the pot a good stir, then set your timer for 30 minutes and let the potatoes, onion, and stock cook so that the potatoes get tender.

When the potatoes are good and tender, use either a potato masher (for a chunkier texture) or an immersion blender (for a velvety texture) to get them to the consistency you prefer.  Swirl in your milk or cream and your cheese.  Stir and adjust seasonings.  Let this simmer for a couple of minutes to make sure the cheese melts, then give it a good stir to blend.

Serve in bowls with your preferred toppings.  I like some bacon and extra cheese personally.  This makes about 6 decent servings.

Enjoy!

Brunswick Stew

Growing up, Brunswick Stew was always a favorite. My godmother, Mary Virginia, always had a fantastic recipe. Recently, she shared it with my mom, who shared it with me. The best part? It's still as wonderful and comforting and yet, it's not a difficult recipe! I'm posting her original recipe, along with my tweaks, which someone said make it Brunswitt Stew. From the reviews I got at the church supper, I'll take it. And without further ado, Brunswick Stew!

Brunswick Stew a la Mary Virginia

- 1 package (4 halves) chicken breasts, with skin and bones-- add more water if you find a value pack with 5 halves!

- 1 can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes

- 4 medium potatoes, diced (I used red most recently, and they were lovely. Yukon Golds would be delicious as well.)

- 1 average sized onion, chopped

- 2 cans butterbeans (I used one bag of frozen butterbeans, aka baby limas, and it was perfect.)

- 2 cans whole-grain white corn (I used 2 of the cans of white shoepeg corn, which are small but have a lot of corn in them!)

- 1 stick margarine (I switched to butter, just the regular salted variety.)

- salt and pepper to taste

- small amount of sugar (which I didn't add because I didn't think it was needed, plus I like my stew more savory.)

ALW additions:

- chicken stock if you need a little extra liquid later in cooking (I used unsalted.)

- tomato paste (the kind in the tube, which you should always have on hand, unless you cannot eat tomatoes!)

Salt and pepper each chicken breast, then cover with water in a large pot. You only want water to cover, but add more liquid later if you feel you need it or want a more brothy soup.

Add some more salt and pepper to the water as the chicken cooks as this is making your chicken stock. You want it flavorful!

When cooked, remove the chicken breasts and set aside to cool. Skim the stock of surface fat (schmaltz!). Save the schmaltz if you'll make authentic matzo ball later; otherwise, let it cool and trash it.

Add the tomatoes, potatoes, butterbeans, and onions to the stock. Let simmer.

While this is cooking, take the cooled chicken and peel off the skin. You can either chop the chicken or simply pull it off of the bone into small pieces. You can guess which one I did.

Add the chicken back to the pot and bring to a boil. Let cook until the potatoes are tender.

Add the corn, being careful to stir the pot frequently as the corn will stick to the pan otherwise.

Check for seasonings (here's where you would add the chicken stock and/or tomato paste, should you feel you need it.) and then ladle into bowls to serve. It's delicious with ham biscuits or cornbread on the side.

This reheats very well, often tasting even better the next day, and also freezes beautifully.

Sugo alla Bolognese (Bolognese Sauce)

While I'm a huge fan of meals that can be quickly and easily prepared while still tasty, there are some culinary delights that cannot be rushed. A good Bolognese is one of them. I made this for the first time on a snowy Manhattan day and have been playing with the recipe ever since. It's comforting, warming, and delicious. Have this one in your repertoire, and you'll make a lot of friends.

This recipe requires some up front work as well as some babysitting along the way. You can multiply it very easily, freezing what you don't eat right away. As with all the recipes on this blog, play with it and make it yours. I changed the original recipe to use ground beef and ground pork, adding lots of flavor.

This is adapted from a recipe by Kyle Phillips, which I found on About.Com. Since I've moved from an area in which I had access to butchers, I recognize that the ground beef and pork will most likely have to be bought in one pound minimum packages. If you don't want to double the recipe, take half a pound of each and place them together into a freezer bag, leaving you with just the right amount of ground beef and pork for the next time you make the sugo!

And now, without further ado:

Sugo alla Bolognese

- 6 ounces (half a pound) ground beef-- not too lean!

- 6 ounces (half a pound) ground pork (if you can't find ground pork, then go for a full pound of ground beef)

- 6 ounces (half a pound) pancetta, minced-- look for the pancetta cubetti, which is already minced for you and is not too fatty; if you can't find pancetta at all, then increase the ground meat

- 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil (eyeball this as you might not need this much, depending on how fatty your pancetta is)

- half a medium onion, minced

- one carrot, minced

- one large (about 10 inch) stalk of celery, minced

- 1/2 cup dry red wine-- I use Chianti

- 3/4 cup crushed tomatoes

- 1 carton beef stock or broth (Kitchen Basics makes a really good one, which you can also get unsalted and have no loss of flavor)

- A pinch of kosher salt

- freshly ground black pepper

- A pound of pasta (penne rigate or farfalle work very well)

- Grated parmigiano

If your pancetta is not already minced, mince it and the veggies. Heat the olive oil on medium heat in a Dutch oven, then add the veggies and pancetta. Saute until the onion is translucent.

Add the ground meat and brown. Add the wine, scraping to deglaze the pan. Simmer everything until the wine has reduced.

Add the tomatoes and about a cup of the beef stock. Add the pinch of salt and some black pepper. Reduce the heat to low (as low a flame or setting as you can get and still be cooking) and cover.

I check it roughly every 30 minutes, stirring and adding more stock (or water if you use your full carton of stock) if the sugo starts looking as if it's drying out.

It needs to cook for at least 2 hours. It will have thickened significantly when it's done, and its color will have gone from bright red (from the tomatoes) to a brownish red. You can taste when it's done. Don't worry about letting it cook for more than 2 hours as it will get richer and tastier. I let my last batch cook for 4 1/2 hours.

As a main course, this will serve about 4; as a first course, it will serve about 6.

Enjoy!!

***This sauce is also perfect for making lasagna.***