Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Ingredients:

1/2 pound bacon, roughly chopped
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 large carrots, peeled and diced
3/4 cup diced celery
10 large russet potatoes, peeled and diced
1/4 cup flour
4 cups chicken broth
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
4 cups half and half or milk, I used fat free

Directions:

In a 6 – 8 quart stockpot over medium heat, fry bacon until crisp.

Remove bacon and drain on paper towels. In the bacon fat, saute onions, carrots, and celery until the onions are translucent. Add the potatoes and cook for another 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Sprinkle in flour and stir constantly over low heat about 5 to 7 minutes until well distributed over vegetables. Add broth and half of the bacon, reserve the other half for garnish.  Season with salt and pepper, to taste

Bring the soup to a simmer and cook over medium-high heat for 25 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft. Mash some of the potatoes for thicker, creamier texture. Add half and half and.or milk and simmer for 5 more minutes. If the soup is too thick you can add more broth or water.  The soup should be creamy. Season to taste, and garnish with chopped green onions, bacon bits, sour cream, and Colby Jack cheese, if desired

Delicious Clam Chowder

Ingredients:

• 3 (6.5 ounce) cans minced clams
• 1 cup minced onion
• 1 cup diced celery
• 2 cups cubed potatoes
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 3/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 quart half-and-half cream
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Fry 2-6 Slices of Bacon in a Large Skillet. Remove Bacon to drain off fat. Add onions, celery, potatoes and carrots to the skillet and coat with bacon grease. Then add clam juice(from cans). Add water to cover the vegies, and cook over medium heat until tender.
2. Meanwhile, in a large, heavy saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour until smooth. Whisk in cream and stir constantly until thick and smooth. Stir in vegetables and clam juice. Heat through, but do not boil.
3. Stir in clams just before serving. If they cook too much they get tough. When clams are heated through, stir in vinegar, and season with salt and pepper.

Recipe Bio: A cold, dreary December day in Penryn and we needed something warm us up. I found this recipe online at www.allrecipes.com. We ate this with a warm loaf of Sourdough bread, YUM!

Corn Chowder

Prep: 20 min
Cook: 35 min
Total: 55 min

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 6 cups canned vegetable stock (we used Chicken broth)
  
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 Idaho potatoes, peeled and diced(we used 5 medium potatoes)
  
• 6 ears corn(we used 3 ears)
  
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves

Directions

Heat the butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and thyme and cook until the vegetables are good and soft, 8 to 10 minutes. Dust the vegetables with flour and stir to coat everything well. Pour in the vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Add the cream and the potatoes, bring to a boil and boil hard for about 7 minutes, until the potatoes break down (this will help to thicken the soup and give it a good texture).

Cut the corn kernels off the cob and add to the soup. Season with salt and pepper and simmer until the corn is soft, about 10 to 12 minutes. Stir in the parsley and give it another little drink of olive oil. Ladle the soup into bowls and serve.

Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

Recipe Bio: Jacob and I visited San Francisco for our 12 anniversary. We decided that it would be fun to have Sourdough breadbowls and Clam Chowder like we did when we visited SF in our dating era. We had a delicious dinner at Boudins on the Wharf and later decided to bring the yumminess home for our kids to try. We purchased 4 small bread bowls at a supermarket called Mollie Stone's in Sausalito the next day before we went home. We didn't have any clams to make clam chowder so we found this recipe online and it was great in the mini sourdough breadbowls. Yum!