50 Different Recipes: #2 Delicious Ham and Potato Soup

Let me just start by saying, I LOVE SOUP! I could probably eat soup every day if I had to, as long as there was a grilled cheese thrown in there every now and again.

I think my soup romance began in high school, as juniors and seniors on the honor roll we were aloud to leave during lunch and study halls. A lot of the time my friends and I would go to the Belfast Co-op (I can still remember how it smells in there, mmm earthy goodness). We would go, have lunch, chat, play cribbage (I won a tournament there once but that's another story), whatever we had the time for. Most of the time they would have two or three soups on the menu at their deli. I would choose my bowl for the day and have it with a toasted bagel with butter melted on it. We were there so frequently that the person behind the counter knew us by name and would grab a bagel out and get it toasting for me when they saw me walk in. Some even knew that I preferred a cream based soup over a chili or stew. One of my favorites was their potato cheddar soup. I had it so often that when one day it was a bit off I asked the new cook what pot she cooked it in. Turns out it was made in an aluminum pot and the cream had soured. They had to throw that batch out, but I'm sure she never used that pot for a cream based soup again!

I have made similar soups for myself in the past, but I chose this one as having ingredients that I knew Kevin would eat. In leu of a grilled cheese or toasted bagel with butter I'm going to bake up some crescent rolls (left over from the Chicken Enchilada Crescent Bake the other night).

This should be a quick and easy soup, ready in 45 minutes, with 20 minutes of prep and 25 minutes of cooking. Yields 8 servings.

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
• 1/3 cup diced celery
• 1/3 cup finely chopped onion
• 3/4 cup diced cooked ham
• 3 1/4 cups water
• 2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1 teaspoon ground white or black pepper, or to taste
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups milk

Directions

1. Combine the potatoes, celery, onion, ham and water in a stockpot. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the chicken bouillon, salt and pepper.
2. In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour with a fork, and cook, stirring constantly until thick, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in milk as not to allow lumps to form until all of the milk has been added. Continue stirring over medium-low heat until thick, 4 to 5 minutes.
3. Stir the milk mixture into the stockpot, and cook soup until heated through. Serve immediately.

I am really looking forward to dinner tonight, because it's a soup night, and also because my fingers are still cold from softball this morning, brrrr!!!

Update

This was a simple yummy soup to make. I added in some carrots as well as more ham, the 3/4 cup the recipe called for was about 1/2 of the ham steak that I had so I cubed up the rest and threw that in there too. This may have added to my verdict of it being a little on the salty side, but it was still yummy and definitely warmed me up from the cold softball game that morning. It smelled AMAZING while all the veggies & ham were cooking, it reminded me of my dad's split pea soup, which I may just have to make here sometime soon. I don't know if Kevin will eat it, but that just means more for me! Speaking of Mr. Picky as we were about 1/2 way through our soups I asked him, "On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best, what would you rate this?"

"It was good"

"So good being 5, 6?"

"No, I'd give it an 8."

Awesome! This will definitely be a soup I can make again!

50 Different Recipes: #1 Easy Chicken Enchilada Crescent Bake

I've been trying to meal plan lately for a few different reasons: to try to get Kevin (aka Mr. Picky Eater) to try different things; to help me from getting bored cooking the same things over and over again; to limit the number of times in a week I get the response of "I don't know" when I ask the question "What do you want for dinner"; and to aid in grocery shopping planning which helps us from spending money picking something up, or going out when there isn't anything to cook at home.

The first recipe that was an actual recipe to follow and that was new to both of us was this Easy Chicken Enchilada Crescent Bake.

Ingredients

• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken
• 1 (10 ounce) can red enchilada sauce
• 2 (8 ounce) cans Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls or Pillsbury® Crescent Recipe Creations® refrigerated seamless dough sheet
• 1 1/4 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend

Directions

1. In 2-quart saucepan, mix chicken and 1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce. Heat to boiling over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.
2. Separate or cut dough into 8 long rectangles (if using crescent rolls, press perforations to seal). Spoon chicken mixture and 1 tablespoon of the cheese onto 1 long side of each rectangle. Roll up; pinch edges to seal. Place seam side down in 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas, and sprinkle with remaining cheese.
3. Bake at 375 degrees F 15 to 20 minutes.

Serves 8

The directions say to mix the chicken and 1/2 cup of the sauce in a pot and bring to a boil -- there wasn't enough liquid to bring to a boil as the 1/2 cup just barely coated the chicken. So I let it warm a bit, but probably didn't have to as the chicken was still warm from being boiled and shredded and everything was going back in the oven so next time it'll be okay to just mix it together. I only put the extra sauce over half of the rolls to limit the likeliness of Kevin not eating something with sauce on it. I also had to bake it for a little more than the 20 so that the dough on the inside was cooked through.

I think I enjoyed this more so than regular enchiladas, where they are more like filled crescent rolls. We ate them warm, right out of the oven, but I had one as a lunch the next day cold, and it was still good, and better yet, no utensils needed. Even reheated it wasn't bad! I would like to see how they would be with pulled pork rolled up inside of them and bbq sauce over the top.

They are quick and easy enough that they could make a great pot luck item given you had enough baking pans! And better yet, Kevin ate them! Even after sneering at the enchilada sauce and asking me repeatedly in a semi-disgusted tone what it was that we were having for dinner. There wasn't a moment when he bit into it for the first time and said, "Wow! These are amazing!" but on the other hand he didn't spit it out either. So I would say I won this cooking battle, even got the go ahead to make them again sometime.