Cream of potato soup

Tonight's dinner turned out to be a pantry-and-leftovers dinner.  I had several big potatoes left over from the mother's day dinner, along with a little chopped/fried bacon from a dinner last week.  I thought it called out to be made into soup.

 Cheesy Cream of Potato Soup

3 large potatoes, diced
1/4 cup margarine or butter
1/4 cup flour
3 cups milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cooked, chopped bacon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Sprinkle of onion powder (or you could sautee fresh onions with the margarine or butter, or sprinkle in a couple teaspoons dried onion flakes with the milk)

Boil the potatoes in water until tender.

While the potatoes are boiling, melt the margarine or butter.  Sprinkle in the flour and mix and stir until bubbly.  Slowly pour in the milk (I used dry milk I had reconstituted), mixing thoroughly, then bring to a boil and boil for one minute.

Add the cheese, bacon, salt, pepper, and onion powder.  Stir until the cheese is melted, then add the drained, cooked potatoes and gently mix until well-combined.

Serve with sour cream, additional chopped bacon, or green onions if desired.

Our favorite muffins

My girls are always delighted when I make these pumpkin muffins.  We had these with our soup tonight.  I found the recipe on the Internet and I'm sorry I don't remember where so I could give credit.

Pumpkin Muffins with Cinnamon-Pecan Streusel

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree

Cinnamon-Pecan Streusel
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 Tablespoons butter or margarine
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease 18 wells of regular size muffin tins.
2.  In a stand mixer or mixing bowl, combine the butter or margarine and sugar until smooth.
3.  In a mixing bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt.
4.  Add the eggs, 1 at a time, to the butter and sugar mixture.  Stir after adding each egg and scrape down the sides if using a stand mixer.
5.  Next stir in about half the flour mixture, until smooth.  Then add half the milk and stir until smooth.  Repeat with the other half of the flour and milk.  Finally, mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree.  Mix until just smooth.  Pour into the greased muffin wells.
6.  In a small mixing bowl, combine all the streusel ingredients and cut the butter in with a fork, table knife, or pastry blender.  Once it is crumbly, sprinkle all of the topping over the 18 muffins.
7.  Bake in the preheated oven for 21-23 minutes.

Makes 18 delicious and perfectly moist muffins.

New old style

Elizabeth told me she wanted a side pony tail this morning. I hear they're in fashion--just like they were when I was a 4th grader in 1970!

And on a completely different note--if you are lucky like I am and have a tree groaning with grapefruit, take a look at this recipe. I didn't freeze the yogurt, although I'll try that next time. I added about a cup of ice cubes to freeze things up a little more than just the strawberries could, and threw in a packet of Splenda. Delicious!

Muffins from Australia

Okay, just the recipe. I mixed the wet and dry ingredients separately before I went to bed. I used dry milk and mixed it into the dry ingredients. In the morning I broke an egg into the wets, mixed it up and combined the halves. I had fresh muffins out of the oven 25 minutes from my starting time. Who needs a boxed mix?

Marshmallow muffins
10 oz plain flour
6 tbsp cocoa
3 tsp baking pdr
3oz castor sugar
1 egg beaten
10 oz milk
2 1/2 oz melted butter
3 1/3 oz choc chips
2 oz mini marshmallows

preheat oven to 375F
sift together flour,cocoa,and baking pder.stir in sugar
beat together egg,milk and butter in bowl.
make a well in dry ingredients pour in liquid mix
Add choc chips and marshmallows
stir gently.

spoon into muffin tins
bake for 20-25 mins

That is the recipe as I received it. Castor sugar is finely granulated sugar, but I used regular. The quantities were a little hard for me to decide as I think my friend changed them from metrics for me and some may have referred to weight and others volume. I know, I know, I don't want to hear from anyone how crazy our American measurement system is because I dearly love it. I added the marshmallows by eye, since I knew 2 oz by volume wasn't much. I used oil instead of butter/margarine just to make it a little healthier. When I make them again, I'll add 1/2 tsp. salt. The batter seemed thin at first, but thickened right up. I used 10 oz. flour by volume (1 1/4 cups), and if I had done it by weight it would have been a little more. A variation for next time too. Some chopped walnuts would have been nice too, making it more of a rocky road muffin, but my littles wouldn't have appreciated that as much as I. As it was they loved these muffins. The recipe made 16 muffins.