New Fashioned Potato Salad

This is a maiden voyage for me with blogging. I'm sure this initial post is going to look quite silly and amateur to just about everyone. But give me a minute, and I will get it together. My friend, Susan, will be rolling on the floor over this, but I'm trying. Anyway, on to this recipe.

Don't those store bought containers of potato salad just leave you a little cold? Tons of mayo and no personality??  Kick up your potato salad a notch this holiday weekend and try this recipe. Finely chopped colorful vegetables give this great flavor.  I used my food processor to achieve the really small chop for the vegetables. If you don't have a processor, just chop away by hand. The overall   result should be uniformly small pieces of vegetables resembling confetti that you will mix into the salad. No one wants to chomp into a huge piece of jalapeno or onion. 


Start with:
3 to 4 lb. of potatoes
1/2 of a red onion
1 small jalapeno, seeded
1 medium carrot
1 medium stalk of celery
1 clove of garlic
1/2 cup of fresh parsley
1/2 cup of mayonnaise
1/3 cup of sour cream
1 1/2 Tbs. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. seasoned salt (such as Emeril's Essence)
Freshly ground black pepper and extra salt to taste


Boil the potatoes whole with the skin on until firm tender, adding a generous amount of salt to the boiling water. Drain and allow to cool until you can handle them.


Place the onion, jalapeno, carrot, celery, garlic and parsley in your food processor and process until they are chopped very small. Place in a large mixing bowl.


Mix the mayo, sour cream, mustard and seasonings together.


When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, remove the skins. This is a whole lot easier to do after they're cooked. Cut them into edible sized pieces. You should have about six or seven cups of potatoes. Dump these into the large bowl with the vegetables and toss gently to mix. Pour the dressing over the warm potatoes and vegetables and gently mix again. Check for seasonings. Cover and chill.


Enjoy everybody. Have a safe and relaxing holiday weekend. And don't give up and buy that store bought stuff, EVER! 


If you like this recipe, please let me know by leaving a comment for me, and thanks for stopping by. I need encouragement to go on! And from time to time, I will bother you about my cookbook Singingirl Cooks! which is proudly for sale and full of recipes, pictures and stories just like this. Ask me about it.

Mushroom Chowder

Yesterday, my long time gal-pal from State College, PA days, Cathy, sent me a picture of a recipe she made from my book "Singingirl Cooks!"  She told me she was going to be entering it in a contest at her church.  I'll be anxious to know how far up or down the list of entries it placed!  In the meantime, she said it was delicious, and it is.  With fall kind of around the corner for you up-north friends and family, this chowder has terrific flavor and tastes like you were laboring over it all day, even though it comes together in no time. Try it and tell me how you liked it!  Thanks, Cathy, for choosing something from the book for a contest and for sending me this picture to use today.

MUSHROOM CHOWDER

1 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced

1 cup diced potatoes (2 large) 

1 cup finely chopped celery (2 large stalks)

1 cup diced carrots (2 or 3)

1 clove of garlic, chopped fine

1 tsp. dried thyme

Freshly ground pepper

4 Tbs. melted butter

1 big handful of fresh parsley, chopped

1 pkg. of dry onion soup mix (such as Lipton)

1/4 cup cooking sherry

1/4 cup of flour stirred into 1/2 cup of water

2 cans of chicken broth (or you can use stock)

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup half & half

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

In a large soup pot, saute the mushrooms, potatoes, celery, carrots, garlic, thyme and pepper in butter until soft over medium heat, ten minutes or so.  Add the onion soup mix and parsley, stir to combine, then pour in the chicken broth and sherry. Stir, then cover and simmer on low for another 15 to 20 minutes. Meanwhile, stir the flour into the water until smooth and add to the pot.  Add the milk and half  & half to the soup over very low heat, along with the Parmesan cheese and continue heating on low, do not boil, until nicely warmed and looking absolutely gorgeous. Serve immediately.   Reheat any leftovers over low heat.

Note~ I don't add salt to this recipe because there is quite a bit in the dry onion soup mix. Add extra to taste after you've put the whole thing together.

P.S. This recipe and more than a hundred pages of other great recipes, stories and beautiful food pictures can be found in my book "Singingirl Cooks!" If you don't own a copy and would like to, please let me know. Thanks!

Kale Soup - Go Green!

All this talk about going green... how about a recipe for delicious kale soup to start the new year off? This concoction turned out to be a real winner for me and everyone else who tried it. And I actually felt like I was doing something good for me with all those dark leafy greens in there, lots of garlic and tomatoes, and no meat! Here's the recipe:

KALE SOUP
2 medium to large onions, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 Tbs. olive oil
2 cups potatoes, diced but not too small
1 lb. chopped kale
5 cups of vegetable stock
1 28 oz. can diced or crushed tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. salt
Black pepper
1 15 oz. can of cannellini beans

Start by heating the olive oil in a very large soup pot. Over medium heat, add the onions and garlic and saute until soft but not browned. Add the diced potato and cook a few moments longer. Rinse the kale well, and remove any tough, woody stems. If you buy the bag already chopped, which I did ;-) then it's all pretty much done for you except to give it a once over to make sure the tough stems, etc. are removed.  Okay, so add the whole bag to the pot. It will seem like it's just not all going to fit. But as it sautes it will wilt just like spinach does. Lower the heat to medium low and continue to saute until wilted down. At this point, add the 5 cups of liquid. Now you can buy cans of vegetable broth or you can use a cooking base like I did. This is the first time I've ever bought a seasoned vegetable cooking base, and I have to say it is waaaay different than using bouillon; specifically, it is less salty and has much more flavor. There's a brand out there called Better Than Bouillon or Glory Seasoned Cooking Base just to name two.  Whichever you use, make 5 cups of it and add it at this time to the soup pot along with the can of tomatoes and the rest of the seasonings. Stir well, cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer this for a good hour or so.  Remove a cup of the soup to a blender, let it cool for a few minutes, and then blend until smooth*. Return it back to the pot to give the soup nice color and texture. Remove the bay leaf. Add the beans and heat through. Serve!

*Have you ever tried to blend hot things in a blender? It explodes! So let the soup cool down for a few before blending.

A note on the photo.... I have friends who will strangle me because I used a flash to take this photo, leaving the food very unnatural looking. I couldn't help it! It was nighttime and I had no other choice. Apologies to all the fabulous food photographers out there.