Soup for the sickies...

It has been an eventful weekend!

First Darren was in town on Thursday for another interview and he stopped by to watch shows with us (Survivor and the Office!) before heading out.

Friday was Halloween. We had about 7-8 trick-or-treat-ers...We watched some TV shows that we needed to get caught up on and "The Wedding Singer", which is very funny and always seems to be on TV. Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler- comic gold! Then we headed off to bed in preparation for Saturday's game, for which we got to use our first tickets of the season, yay!

Saturday we got up and headed down to Corvallis. Spent some time with Tara at her place, met up with Larry, Marlene, Jim and Jill, ate lots of yummy American Dream pizza and then headed out to find a parking spot. We got a great (slightly super secret) spot and then walked off some of that pizza. I forgot how much I absolutely love walking on campus. It is so easy to forget how beautiful it is...and how much walking you can do in one afternoon. Don't get me wrong- I love walking. I could walk to the ends of the Earth and back...except that I foolishly chose Saturday afternoon to break in my new Nike walking shoes.

I'm not sure that everyone knows- but I have weirdly shaped heels. The back of my heel bone actually juts out a little bit, which makes shoe buying very tricky. Anyways I'm very prone to blisters- and I got two really huge ones...they really tore up the backs of my heels. I'm doing extra TLC today to help them get better.

At any rate, the game was good. We tried to give it away (thought it would be a repeat of Utah for a minute), then the refs tried to give it away, but in the end we pulled out the victory and it was sweet. It was even sweeter with our 45-yard line tickets. But sadly we spent so much time yelling and booing and cheering that my throat was pretty sore by the time we got home at 1 AM!

So Sunday I spent most of the day laying around and watching movies...and I made soup! Well Steven did the grunt work (shopping and chopping) while I stirred and added seasonings. It was pure team work. Anyways, last time I made it I had problems with the soup reheating. The seasonings were off. But today I ate some at lunch and it was amazing. So I'm going to the share the recipe here, it takes practically NOTHING to make this soup! It is delicious and filling and probably isn't too terrible for you. At least that is what I tell myself :)

Julie and Julia's Potato Soup:

2-3 large-ish Russet Potatoes, peeled and chopped roughly
1 medium sized onion (yellow), diced
8 cups of liquid (I prefer to use 3 or so cups, usually one container, of low sodium chicken stock and the rest water- but all water is the Julia Child way.)
3 Tablespoons of salt (possibly less if you use chicken stock)
2 Tablespoons of softened butter

That is the base from Julia Child's recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking...the rest is all me:

2 strips of Bacon cut up into small bits (I find kitchen shears work really well)
1-2 teaspoons dried or fresh Chives and Parsley, or to taste
Pepper, to taste
2-3 cloves of Garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes

Put the bacon pieces in a large stock pot or dutch oven, on medium heat. Cook for a few minutes to render out the fat of the bacon. Then turn the heat up to cook the bacon until crispy, but not burned. (The bacon will become soft during cooking in the soup, so getting it crispy now is good). At this point you can either remove the bits and add in at the last minute, or you can leave them in, personal choice. I leave them in, the more the merrier!).

Now, add the liquid (stock/water) to the pot. Be careful with the fat in the bottom of the pan- you will get steam! Add in the potatoes and onions and bring the liquid up to a boil. At this point I added all of my seasonings- to taste. Once the liquid is at a boil, reduce heat to simmer and simmer soup for 45-50 minutes, partially covered, stirring occasionally. Right before the soup is done, add the butter for added depth of flavor and richness.

I like to serve it with crostini or a big hunk of bread with butter or for dipping. Yummy!!

I hope you like it. Its very hard for me to find soups that don't call for tomatoes (which I can't have anymore!) so I like this. Its easy, its cheap and it tastes so good!