Bacon, Leek, Tomato, and Potato Soup

I made this because Kea bought a big bag of potatoes and of all the recipes I have on file, this one calls for the most potatoes. It came out good--the thinly sliced potatoes give it a really nice texture--but there are some things I might change next time.

It was my first time cooking with leeks so I had to look up some information on them. I had no idea if my grocery store even carried them. The recipe said to use three and I had no idea how to count them. Is one stalk one? Or is one leaf one? Well, the internets told me to cut off the roots and the leaves--so basically just use the white stalk. You also need to peel away the outer layers if they are tough--of course I didn't really know what was too tough. It said to wash it well as dirt can get between the layers.
Pros and cons:
+it was sort of fun to break the layers apart--like onions, but new.
-it seemed like so much waste to throw away so much of the vegetable.
+it smelled really good cooking--like Chinese food.
-couldn't really taste it in the final product.
The bottom line: I might just use round onion or scallions next time, especially if I have them lying around.

This recipe called for the carrots and potatoes to be thinly sliced. The carrots went okay; it was kind of fun actually, although I did feel a bit wasteful and so chopped up and threw in anyway the pieces that were too small to be peeled. Slicing the potatoes were a nightmare. I think it would be best if you have the food processor Kea's mom has. It's got a slicing attachment that would be perfect. Kea managed to slice them pretty easily though. I don't know if it was brute strength or less fear of grated fingers. I guess maybe I should've cut them cross-wise rather than length-wise; I couldn't figure out which way "across" meant in the recipe. Maybe that would've made the pieces less slippery or otherwise easier to slice.

We also used regular old Costco bacon rather than "good quality" or whatever the recipe calls for. Of course I guess we are simple and easy to please.

Also, I guess I am slow cuz I swear this took me like two hours to cook!

Warm Spinach Salad with Bacon and Sweet Potatoes

I was charged with bringing a salad to a friend's party on Christmas Eve. It being the holiday and all, I felt like it had to be a somewhat special salad. Kea likes spinach much better than lettuce (and last night I found out that a lot of other people do too) so I knew I wanted to make spinach salad. And I like green salad with potato in it--my mom started doing this a couple years ago. I finally settled on this recipe.

I didn't slice the sweet potato like in the picture because the text says 1" slices. So I did that first, but the pieces seemed so big so I cut them into chunks. I think next time I would just shoot for bite-size chunks. That seems like a good rule for items in salads. Roasting the sweet potato was really good; I think my mom just throws in boiled potatoes, but the roasted ones hold together better rather than getting smushed.

I also subbed feta for chevre cuz I don't like goat cheese.

Another challenge was that this is supposed to be a warm salad, but we had to drive an hour to the party. I kept everything separate--spinach in a bag, and sweet potato, bacon, and dressing each in their own Tupperware and then assembled when we got there. I thought about heating the potatoes, bacon, and dressing, but ended up not. Maybe next time I would heat the dressing cuz I ended up with some coagulated bacon fat stuck in the Tupperware. lol. Yummy.

It went over really well though. And people thought it was fancy. lol.

Florentine Cannellini One Pot (off a can of Bush's Beans)

This is one of the recipes Kea and I have in rotation, truly off a can of Bush's Beans. It's quick, easy, yummy, and full of fiber.

4 slices bacon, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (14 oz) can chopped spinach, drained*
3 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth
1 (15-16 oz) can of EACH drained and rinsed: cannelini beans,** dark red kidney beans, light red kidney beans
1/2 c. sun-dried tomatoes, cut in thin strips
1 t dried basil
Garnish: shredded parmesan

Brown bacon over high heat in large stockpot, about 8 minutes.*** Add garlic and onion, saute 6 minutes. Add spinach, saute 2 minutes. Add beans and all remaining ingredients. Simmer 10 minutes.

*I use frozen spinach because canned spinach seems gross to me.
**I use something called Northern beans because cannelini's cost more and they look the same.
***My onion pieces were about twice the size of my bacon pieces so the bacon got burnt. So you probably either want to throw the garlic and onion in earlier or make sure the bacon is not chopped too small and the onion is not chopped too big.

Savory Pancakes

Kea and I got this idea from Rachael Ray's $40 a Day, when she went to Europe (either Amsterdam or Belgium--can't remember which episode it was). Rachael was introduced to savory pancakes for lunch.

She told the chef, "You know, in America we usually only think of pancakes as breakfast food."

And he looked at her like, "You Americans--you're stupid."

I tried finding recipes for savory pancakes and found these: Cheddar Chive Pancakes (you may have to scroll down), Corn Pancakes, and Ham Pancakes. We decided to go the easy route, however, and just mix in some savory ingredients in our typical Bisquick pancake mix.

We put in a cup or two of shredded monterey jack, some bacon (cooked and chopped, not too much, just enough for some meatiness), a handful of fresh spinach, and a couple handfuls of frozen broccoli (just cuz we didn't have much spinach). The batter was pretty thick by the time we put this all in, which made for thick pancakes. We first tried making big ones--the size of our non-stick pan, but I lack the skill to flip those so we went back to ones just about three inches in diameter.

I think the version on $40 a Day was thinner--more like crepes, with the filling done more omelette style, but I knew there was no way we could pull that off. Ours tasted good though--a little reminiscent of biscuits or quiche.

We'd like to experiment with this more in the future--especially adding some spiciness.