Saturday, January 28, 2012

Valentine's cone wreath


My crafty friend and I are back at it! We like to get together once a month at least, preferably once a week. This time we made this super cute (and easy!) paper cone wreath for Valentine's day. I love the red/pink/grey/black colors, and I personalized mine with a picture of my family on our "forever anniversary." (The anniversary of the day we were sealed for time and all eternity in the Seattle LDS temple. For more information on what that means, visit Mormon.org )

The original pin can be found here. As you can see, I tweaked mine a bit from the original idea, and I think it turned out so much cuter!

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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Gluten free homemade Baked Potato Soup


I love baked potato soup, but it can be difficult to find a mix that is gluten free. So I decided to make it myself from scratch, and it was SO good. There is no flour, glutenous or otherwise, used to thicken, and the fresh ingredients make it is so yummy!

Recipe by Dede Bessey
Ingredients:
5-6 medium potatoes, washed (not peeled) and cubed
5 large carrots, peeled, chopped into disks
1 whole celery stalk, chopped, including greens
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 lb bacon, cut into "lardons"
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp minced garlic
5 cups water
6 cubes chicken bouillon
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
2 cans evaporated milk
2-4 Tbsp Kirkland signature no salt seasoning
1/2 - 1 cup potato pearls
Shredded cheddar, sour cream, green onions to garnish

Boil water, add chopped potato, carrots, and celery. Let simmer until veggies are tender.
In the mean time, add bacon, onion, and butter to a saute pan. Saute until bacon is cooked, onions are tender. Then add garlic and saute 1 minute longer. Add all of above ingredients to crockpot or large sauce pan. (Including the water the veggies were cooked in, the starch is important!)Add bouillon and no salt seasoning. Simmer, covered, on medium-low heat (or crock pot on high) for about an hour, stirring occasionally. About 30 minutes before serving time, add milk, cream, and evaporated milk. Stir in completely. Just before serving, add your potato pearls and re-cover. The potato pearls are used to thicken the soup, add as little or as much as you'd like, my measurements are just estimated. (This is also true for the no salt seasoning, add however much tastes good to you.) Once potato pearls are absorbed, stir well. Serve garnished with cheese, sour cream, green onions.

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