Italian Baked Potato Soup

For my Housewarming party last weekend  I went with a new menu planning approach.  I went to the grocery store with no list, no ideas and simply let the ingredients do the planning for me.

I arrived home with two giant bags of potatoes. Potatoes are an excellent way to feed a lot of people on a budget. One three-pound bag of potatoes was $.99.  You just don’t see those kind of prices anymore!

Then it was time to decide what I was going to do with those potatoes! I knew I wanted to make a couple of crockpot recipes for the party as they’re easy to put on in the morning and ready when guests arrive. That was when I got the idea for baked potato soup.  Of course it had to be Italian style as that was the theme of the party!

The result was a creamy, rich, flavorful soup that would be perfect for upcoming fall evenings and cold winter weekends!

Ingredients

• 3 lbs potatoes
• 1 onion (chopped)
• 10 cloves garlic (minced)
• 8 cups chicken stock
• 1 tbsp rosemary
• 1 tbsp thyme
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup sour cream
• 4 tbsp butter
• ½ cup diced pancetta
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese
• ½ cup parmesan cheese

Start by dicing the potatoes into cubes.

Next, add the potatoes, onions and garlic into the crock pot.

Then pour in the chicken stock.  There should be just enough chicken stock to cover the potatoes.

Next add in the thyme and rosemary.

Cook on high for 4-5 hours or until potatoes are soft when poked with a fork.

Ladle out 2 cups of the chicken stock.

Pour in the milk, sour cream and butter and blend with an immersion blender or hand mixer.

Stir in the mozzarella, parmesan and pancetta.

Cook on low for an additional 2 hours.

This is one of those recipes that makes the whole house smell like rosemary thyme amazingness!

Lets zoom in…

… then dig in!

♣ Vegetarian Option: Omit the pancetta and replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock to make this recipe vegetarian.

♦ Gluten Free Option: This recipe is gluten-free.

♥ All pottery seen on the littleleopardbook can be purchased by visiting www.longaberger.com/muffetbond or e-mailing keepsakebl@sbcglobal.net.

Lemon Herb Salmon

This might be the most unique post on LLB to date because I’m posting it from 30,000 feet in the air!  Yes, I’m on a plane from Miami to Los Angeles that is WiFi enabled and allowing me to post to all of you amongst the clouds in the sky!

This post is also special because it involves a meal I made for two of my favorite people, my best friend and her boyfriend, who also happens to be one of my best friends! I am so beyond happy that the two of them found each other because they couldn’t be more perfect together!  I love staying with them when I’m in Phoenix because they enjoy many of the same things I do such as food, fashion and relaxation!

My last night in Phoenix I wanted to cook them a “Thank You” dinner for allowing me to stay at their beautiful condo while in town for the weekend. I asked my best friend what she wanted to eat and she said fish so I suggested salmon. It couldn’t have worked out more perfectly because the only seafood recipe I’ve posted thus far on LLB was my yummy chili-lime-garlic shrimp, so adding a fish main course seemed necessary at this point!

I paired the salmon with a Buffalo Potato Salad. I know it sounds interesting, but her boyfriend loves all my buffalo sauce recipes so I had to figure out how to incorporate buffalo sauce with fish and came up with this  delicious little side dish!

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 2 lbs salmon
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp fresh basil (chopped)
• 2 tbsp fresh rosemary (chopped)
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley (chopped)
• 3 large lemons
• 3 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper

Start by adding the olive oil to a small mixing bowl.

Next, chop the fresh herbs.

Then add the herbs to the olive oil.

Next, zest two of the lemons into the olive oil herb mixture.

Then add the minced garlic.

Squeeze in the juice of the two lemons.

Whisk well.

Place the salmon skin side down in a shallow baking dish.

Top with the lemon herb mixture.

Thinly slice the additional lemon and place on top of each piece of salmon.

Cover with foil and place in the refrigerator for an hour to marinate.

Remove from the refrigerator and cook at 400° for 30 minutes.

Once cooked through serve with your favorite sides!

I served mine with the Buffalo Potato Salad and Garlic Lemon Asparagus. I would also recommend the Roasted Root Vegetables or Nutty Greens with Bacon and Bleu Cheese as an excellent accompaniment to this delightful salmon dish!

♦ Gluten Free Option: This recipe is gluten-free.

Butternut Squash and Mozzarella Salad

Today’s lunch was inspired by a lovely salad I had at the fabulous La Piazza Ristorante Italiano at The Grove.

The salad is sweet, salty and Italian, so pretty much a combination of all of my favorite things!

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 12 oz butternut squash
• 1 tbsp Enzo Meyer Lemon Olive Oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/4 cup toasted walnut pieces
• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 4 oz mozzarella cheese balls

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees, then prepare the butternut squash.

I am fortunate enough to live within walking distance to Trader Joes (which is pretty apparent in all of my ingredient shots!) so I purchased pre-cut ready-to-go butternut squash cubes.  If you aren’t so fortunate (holler to my Oklahoma peeps!) just buy a couple of medium size squash and cube them yourself. Place them on a baking sheet (I like to line with foil bc I HATE to do dishes and it prevents them from sticking to the baking sheet so easier clean up!)

Drizzle the Enzo olive oil over the top.

Next, sprinkle with salt, pepper and cinnamon.

Then on to my favorite part… BROWN SUGAR!  I feel that everything in life would be better if it had a little brown sugar involved!

Now the squash is ready to go in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Toss them about half way through.

While the squash is roasting prepare the balsamic reduction for drizzling over all of this yummy salad! Heat a skillet over medium-high heat then add 1 cup of balsamic vinegar to the skillet, followed by 2 crushed garlic cloves. Bring it to a boil then lower the temperature and allow it to reduce by half.

Next, toast the walnuts.

Once again, I bought already chopped walnut pieces from Trader Joes, but if you have whole walnuts just give them a nice chop and you’re ready to go!

Throw these on some foil on a baking sheet and in to the oven for 3-4 minutes, these little babies toast up quick in the 400 degree oven!

Once the squash and walnuts are out of the oven and the balsamic is reduced it’s time to put it all together. Use tongs to move the squash on to a plate in a nice little pile, then top each pile of squash with 4-5 mozzarella balls, next sprinkle a few toasted walnuts on top, then it’s time for that yummy, syrup-y, balsamic reduction goodness to get drizzled all on top!  Your plate should end up looking something like this ↓

But are those two plates I see?!??!

Yes those are two plates of deliciousness you see!  So if you are thinking back to yesterdays blog and thought “didn’t she say she experimented with cooking at lunch because she was only cooking for herself” why yes, yes I did say that so now I guess I’m a liar, but all in good reason!!

Time to introduce my best friend Erin, she’s the kind of girl who will drink a case of bud light with you and enjoy an enormous burrito all while wearing 5-inch heels and approximately 68 pieces of jewelry, needless to say she is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  Well I had the fortune of feeding her lunch today after she arrived home early from a work trip and had the day off! Watch as she intently stares at her food, raising her fork in anticipation of that first magical bite:

And here she goes… time to dig in!

Mmm delicious!  Definitely recommend this dish for a great appetizer or lunch salad, or I was thinking I might skewer a ball of mozzarella between two pieces of the roasted butternut squash and drizzle with the balsamic reduction for cocktail parties! Who wants to come to my next cocktail party now, huh? Yeah I know you do

♣ Vegetarian Option: This recipe is vegetarian.

♦ Gluten Free Option: This recipe is gluten-free.

♥ All pottery seen on the littleleopardbook can be purchased by visiting www.longaberger.com/muffetbond or e-mailing keepsakebl@sbcglobal.net.