Soups On....Again

So remember my last post when I said that Sharon likes to live on soup when the temperature dips? Well, yeah....here is another soup recipe. I call it Red Potato Soup.

I must admit though, this is a pretty good soup recipe I came up with. We like potato soup (and anyone from Ireland loves ANYTHING with potatoes in it), so I want to share it with you. It is a chunky soup made with...you guessed it Red Potatoes and it is very filling. A bowl of this soup paired with a nice hearty bread and you'll be full for the rest of the evening and ready for a good night's sleep.

I wish I could get real Irish potatoes, especially the ones that are grown in County Down where Sharon lived. Those potatoes are not just as dense than other varieties and they have a very soft skin, much like Red Potatoes. The soil there is very dark, rich and warm. And because the soil is warmer there than many places in Northern Ireland, they can harvest more potatoes more frequently. They are fresher and tastier and abundant.

Here is the recipe.

Well, that is all for now. Coming soon will be a post with one of my all time favorite foods (Mexican) and one of my favorite recipes (New Mexico style Stacked Enchiladas).

If you like what you've seen so far, tell you friends and subscribe to my post. You'll be notified automatically when I put something up on my blog. And if you have tried making and eating any of the recipes, let me know what you think about it (there is a section at the bottom of the page for comments). If you have any recipes you want to share, please send it to me with a story about it (why it is important to you and your family) and I will get it onto the blog.

So until then, I'll be in the kitchen.

Soups On!

Well, winter is finally here in Winston-Salem. I know for some of you it has already arrived and for some it has arrived with a vengeance.

However, in our household anytime the temperature dips below 60 degrees that means several things:
1) The cotton and/or microfiber sheets are replaced with flannel sheets (not my choice!)
2) The pilot light is lit on the fireplace (not my choice!), and,
3) Our sustenance now comes from soup.

My wife grew up in Northern Ireland and they lived on soups and stews. Don't get me wrong I like soup just like the next person, but not 4 or 5 times a week like my wife would prefer at this time of year.

The good thing about soups though, is that they are relatively easy and quick to make. You just dump a bunch of stuff in a stock pot and turn the stove-top on (or crockpot) and let it simmer away.

The soup that I am featuring today is my copy-cat recipe of a soup we love from one of our favorite Italian Grills (here's a hint...let see if you can get it...it is s'abbarraC). It is my version of their Italian Sausage Lentil Soup.

Doesn't this look delicious? Well it is...so there!

It is a hearty and filling soup. We love it with fresh crusty bread (as we do with all soups we eat).

Here is my copy-cat recipe:

Give it a try and let me know what you think of it.

I'm sure we will be eating more soups as the "winter" months go on here in Winston-Salem. Enjoy your winter months wherever you are. Keep warm and well fed!

Until next time, I'll be in the kitchen.

My first post featuring Kevin's Famous Chili and Basic Cornbread

Awww snap! I just entered the blogosphere and this is awesome. Look at me I'm swimming. Weeeee! Now I'm doing somersaults. Ewww...I'm getting a little nauseous. This weightless thing is a little freaky. Oops, my laptop is floating away. I'd better get it. Let me get my helmet back on.
There that's better. Oxygen deprivation isn't to be played with. I'm feeling more normal now.


That was corny I know.


So, a blog about food. I'm told that doing a food blog is a fairly new concept and that there may only be a handful of them out there, so I'm glad I'm on the ground floor of this whole food blogging thing. Maybe I can help start a new trend.


First, let me introduce myself to you. Hi, I'm Kevin and I eat food. You can find out a little more about me in the aptly titled section "About Me". Its right over there. Betcha didn't figure that one out...


So you may ask "Why a food Blog?" That is a very good question. I'm glad you asked. Here are my top 5 reasons for doing a blog about food:


1) I eat food.
2) Some of my friends have blogs and so I thought to myself, if they can do it then it should be easy-peasy for me.
3) No one else is doing the food blog thing.
4) I eat food.
5) I like to cook.
6) I'm bored


OK, top 6 reasons.


So there ya go.


By the way, before I venture too much farther into this post, let me first give a huge shout out to, a big thank you to, tons of hugs and kisses to and all the other mushy stuff I can think of giving to my daughter Erin. She is the one who inspired me to start this blog in the first place. She is a blogger herself. She is a writer extraordinaire and has her own blog. I know I mentioned it in the "About Me" section, but it is a little buried in there, so here is her site: www.fiercebeagle.com . I highly recommend reading it. It is superb. And to top it all off, she spent a lot of time helping me design the web page (OK...truth be told...I just came up with the title of the blog, she did all the design work. She doesn't get her artsy fartsy gene from me. Can I say artsy fartsy on a blog?)


But the main reason I want to do this blog is to share recipes. I think we all love to eat something and say "That was delicious! Can I get that recipe?". I am guessing that many of your favorite recipes (like mine) came from some other amazing home cook. And then over time, we make little adjustments to them here and there and pretty soon, we have our own recipes. I bet you a ton of cabbage (the veggie kind, not the money kind) that is how most recipes have come to being over the course of time.


So I want all my friends and family to start sending me your favorite recipes to share with everyone. This could be a good place to preserve those family recipes from the past that have just been written on a piece of paper or card that is now covered with food and barely legible.


So just a few rules to put in place before we get this thing really rolling.


1) No foul language. However, fowl language is not only appropriate but highly encouraged.
2) No critical remarks about food styles, techniques or tastes. This is not Iron Chef, Top Chef or Chopped. We are all just home cooks who want to share our family's and friend's recipes. Nothing more and nothing less.
3) I know the photos are not professionally done. Even though I love photography as a hobby, I still have things to learn about aspects of photography I know nothing about. Food photography is one of them. So the pics are what they are. I will take tips and help, so don't expect highly stylized and professionally shot photos (unless you want to come here and do it for me for free). I don't have the gear or money to do much more than what I do already.
4) If you send me a recipe to share with everyone, tell us all a little bit about it. Why it is important to you, what it means to your family, who made it and when. I know I would love to hear those stories.


So since this is the Thanksgiving season, here's my first recipe. Chili and Cornbread...what says Thanksgiving more I ask?

I believe this recipe started out as something my mom made (not entirely sure). But over the years I have made little subtle changes to it and have the recipe now to where I like it. It has always been a hit at church potluck’s or for other gatherings (Super Bowl Sunday, etc).

For me, chili is one of those foods that is comforting and good any time of the year. I made it a lot in the long winter months when we lived in Chicago. But sometimes I just get a hankering for it and whip up a batch.

Unfortunately, this recipe doesn’t call for much spice as most of my family have what I like to call “Gringo Mouth” (gringo as defined by dictionary.com means a foreigner, especially of American or British descent…hence the gringo mouths in my family). As well as that, anything too spicy and my wife will get glossitis (also known as geographic tongue). I’m quite disappointed with her condition as I was hoping to see a map of Ireland appear on her tongue when she eats spicy food. But to date, nary a round-about has yet to appear (read my About Me to see who I married). So, if you want/like your chili hot (which I do), you will either have to add some cayenne or chipotle powders or replace the Poblano peppers with Jalapeno or Serrano peppers. For the truly adventurous add Habanero peppers (you’ve been warned!). Or add your favorite hot sauce after dishing it out (or if you’re truly insane, add everything listed above).

Click on the pic below to get a larger view of it and click on the recipe cards below to view and print them if you wish (they can be printed on 4" X 6" card stock).

 

 

So what goes better with Chili than Cornbread? Ummm, nothing that I know of. So here is my recipe for Basic Cornbread. My family like to eat plain cornbread occasionally. But they prefer cornbread with a little sumpin' sumpin' in them. So at the bottom of the recipe card, you'll find some additions to the basic recipe. I have some additions for Honey Cornbread (the darker cornbread) and Jalapeno Cornbread.

Click on the pic below to get a larger view of it and click on the recipe cards below to view and print them if you wish (they can be printed on 4" X 6" card stock).

 

So, here it is folks. My very first (and hopefully not last) food blog post. Let me know what you think. Try the food out and give me your feedback om it. Share your favorite recipes with me and the story behind it and I will share it with everyone else who reads this blog.

Most of all, enjoy the food. I look forward to hearing from you.

Until then, I'll be in the kitchen.