Baked Potato Soup

My husband's and my idea of potato soup greatly differ. In efforts to find a middle ground, I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com. I think we've found a compromise -- I had to make more the next day he like it so much.

Baked Potato Soup

3 bacon strips, diced
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 cups chicken broth
2 large baked potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup half-and-half cream
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
Shredded Cheddar cheese
Minced fresh parsley

In a large saucepan, cook bacon until crisp. Drain, reserving 1 tablespoon drippings. Set bacon aside. Saute onion and garlic in the drippings until tender. Stir in flour, salt, basil and pepper; mix well. Gradually add broth. Bring to boil; boil and stir for 2 minutes. Add the potatoes, cream and hot pepper sauce; heat through but do not boil. Garnish with bacon, cheese and parsley.

Note: I didn't use basil or hot sauce because we don't care for those flavors, but I did add some chives in place of the basil. I also used precooked bacon and used a little oil to saute the onion and garlic. Pretty sure I upped the amount of potatoes and it was still "soupy" enough.

January 2011 Meeting

Here's the scoop for January's meeting:

Place

Maggie Barnhouse's residence

*Email me @ lottewl@juno.com for address/directions

Day/Date

Friday, January 14th

Time

6:30 - 9:00 pm

Topic

Beauty

Speaker

Maggie Barnhouse - Inner Beauty

Fun Feature

Jessica Lechner - Outer Beauty

(giving tips on what colors suit you best, etc.)

Feel free to bring an appetizer or dessert. Drinks will be provided by host. Please sign up at church on the bulletin board if you plan to attend to give our host an idea of how many to prepare for. Thank you for your consideration.

Cocktail Meatball Sauce

This is a family-favorite around our house. Chances are, if you go to SRBC, that you've had these. At lease once a month we have an "appetizer meal" which usually includes cocktail meatballs, wings, veggie or fruit tray and motzarella sticks. I love that this recipe feeds an army or a little army at least 3 times. ALDI meatballs taste good and are very inexpensive. Just noticed last week ALDI now carries cocktail sauce, so you could get all the ingredients there!

Cocktail Meatball Sauce

1 can jellied cranberry sauce
1 - 12 oz jar chili sauce
2 tbs brown sugar
1 tbs lemon juice

You can add a little garlic powder, horseradish or tabasco to taste. (For those of you that have eaten my version, I use about 1 tsp horseradish sauce.)

Stir over medium heat until cranberry sauce is melted. (I break mine up with a whisk in the can to help speed up the melting process.) Pour over meatballs and heat through.

This recipe cover 3-4 bags of meatballs or approximately 100! This can be used on cocktail weiners or keilbasa slices as well. The sauce freezes well, so you can use it for multiple occassions. The photo shows the meatballs in a crockpot. I have thrown the meatballs in frozen and cooked for a couple hours or if I'm in a hurry have baked them in the oven and thrown them in a crockpot to keep them warm while serving.