Thick And Creamy Potato Bacon Soup

My dear friend Jerry, the driving force behind one of the (IMO) greatest foodie blogs on the 'net, Cooking, By The Seat Of My Pants aka CBSOP, made mention last week that the most popluar recipe on his site was his Thick And Creamy Potato Bacon Soup recipe. Really no wonder, with the crisp fall weather much of the country has been experiencing.

The surprising chill includes the beautiful city of Memphis, and Jerry's recipe sounded too good to pass up! In my typical 'right now' style, I dropped everything, and headed off to the grocery for the few ingredients I didn't already have. Within hours, the soup was becoming a reality!

Of course, my typical style is also never to be able to force myself to prepare a recipe without my own tweaks, so my foodie brain went to work. As a credit to Jerry's wonderful skills in the kitchen, I must admit that (for me) there were very few tweaks.

For the base recipe I used, go to Jerry's Thick And Creamy Potato Bacon Soup. I'm absolutely sure this recipe is totally delicious just as it is written, I just have this 'can't leave things alone' thing going on in the kitchen...

Here are the things I did differently:

*I halved the recipe, which for me, yielded just over 2 qts (1 for the freezer, yay!)
*I used my slow cooker, just to see if it would work, and because I love the melding of flavors that 'low and slow' produces. My times were: 2 hrs on high, 2 hrs on low, and approx 1 more hr on low, the last hour being after the pureeing and addition of the cream and cheese. Remember, slow cookers behave differently -if you choose this method, you may have to adjust your times accordingly.
*I cooked and crumbled my bacon beforehand, and added it at the beginning of cooking.
*I basically pureed the entire batch of soup, leaving a very few, very small 'lumps' of potato, only because I love my potato soup to be really creamy and smooth.
**Due to the pureeing of all of the soup, I added an additional cup of chicken broth when adding the cream, to thin it just a bit.
*I added 1 cup of extra sharp Cheddar (shredded, to ease melting) at the time I added the cream. This was right before the last hour on low, so it would melt nicely.

My result was the most decadent Potato Soup I've ever tasted - it even surpassed my recipe, that has been getting raves for years! :-)

As Jerry notes, this is pretty much a dieter-and-health-guru nightmare, but as I always say, all things in moderation... It's definitely worth the extra workouts I've done to make up for this guilty pleasure!

I hope you'll give Thick And Creamy Potato Bacon Soup a try, as Jerry does it, or with my tweaks, or with tweaks of your own!

Blue Cheese Cream Toasts with Walnuts

Calabres Con Nuezes

Another tasty, yet super quick and easy, Tapas recipes!


Yield: 10-12 toasts

Ingredients

French baguette, cut in half inch slices
2 Tbl Extra Virgin Olive Oil
8 oz Cabrales, or other bleu cheese (Cabrales really is the best!)
2 Tbl sour cream
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup English walnut halves, shelled

Directions

Preheat oven to 375F. Brush each slice of baguette with olive oil, and place on baking sheet. Bake for about 5 minutes, until golden brown.

In medium bowl, crumble Cabrales, add sour cream, and mix lightly with a fork. Do not overmix - mixture should not be smooth. Season with pepper to taste. Spread a tsp of cheese mixture on each slice of baguette, top with a walnut half.

That's all there is to it! Serve with cocktails, sparkling white wine, or as a finger food with other appetizers.

Herbed Olive Oil

Some of you know that my love of gardening follows very closely behind my passion for food. As I was transplanting my little herb seedlings to their strawberry pot today, I was already making plans for the sprigs of fresh new growth they'll soon be producing. Most herbs benefit greatly by regular trimming, this provides us with a constant supply of fresh herbs over the summer.


This morning's transplanting inspired me to share one of my favorite herb recipes with you...

Herbed Olive Oil

Makes 3/4 cup

3 Tbl fresh parsley, chopped
1 Tbl fresh rosemary, chopped, or one small sprig
1 and 1/2 Tbl fresh oregano, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed through a press
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground peppercorns
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Assembly:

In a food processor or blender, combine parsley, rosemary, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper. Process until herbs are finely minced. Add olive oil and blend well. Let stand at least 10 minutes before serving or transfer to a covered jar and store in refrigerator for up to one week.

**Please do not increase this recipe unless you plan to share with others. Due to the lack of preservatives in this oil, dangerous bacterial growth is possible if stored for over a week, even in the refrigerator.

It's A Wrap!

With the onset of warmer weather, I'm all about 'lighter' meals, especially one I can munch on while doing almost any other task, be it reading, writing, driving,(oops, not so safe, say the 'driving police', lol) or taking a walk.
Wraps are my new favorite, and I'm finding some delicious recipes!
For those who may not know, 'wraps' are almost any combination of ingredients, hot or cold, conveniently wrapped in a (flavored or plain) flour tortilla.
Below, I'd like to share one of the tastiest wraps I've made to date:

Shrimp Caesar Salad Wrap
(makes 2 wraps)

Ingredients:
1 Tbl plus 2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbl lime juice
1 Tbl lemon juice
1 Tbl concentrated orange juice
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp minced garlic
Kosher salt
3 Tbl olive oil, plus 1 tsp for brushing shrimp
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I prefer Parmigiano-Reggiano)
1/2 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined
Fresh ground black pepper
2 and 1/2 cups chopped Romaine lettuce, firmly packed
1/4 cup croutons
Two 10 or 11 inch flour tortillas (plain, whole wheat, or sun-dried tomato are good choices)

Preheat broiler.
Combine mustard, citrus juices, Worcestershire, garlic, and 1/2 tsp kosher salt in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk in 3 Tbl olive oil. Stir in cheese, set aside.
Brush shrimp with remaining olive oil, and season with 1/4 tsp kosher salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Place under broiler, and cook until firm and orange colored, about 2 minutes, turning once. Remove from heat and cut into quarters.
Toss together the shrimp, romaine lettuce, and croutons in large bowl. Add the mustard mixture and toss to coat evenly. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide mixture evenly between the 2 tortillas and wrap.

To wrap:
Place filling vertically along center of tortilla, to within 1 inch of bottom edge of tortilla. Fold bottom upwards to beginning on filling line, then roll tortilla from the sides, working from left to right. Leave top open, to showcase filling.

Substitutions: You may substitute chopped grilled chicken for the shrimp in this recipe.

Green Olive Cheese Bites

I've doing a lot of work with appetizers lately, and I'd like to share some of our most popular ones with you.

Green Olive Cheese Bites

2 cups sharp, or extra sharp Cheddar cheese
4 Tbl butter, softened
1 cup flour
1 tsp paprika
dash of cayenne pepper (optional, but really adds to the flavor!)
1 (8.5 oz) jar of pimento-stuffed green olives
1 egg
1 Tbl cream
1/4 cup sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine cheese and butter in food processor, blend well. Add flour, paprika, and cayenne, and process until smooth.
Drain olives well. Wrap about 1 tsp of the dough around each olive, pinching edges to seal. Form into balls, and place on foil lined baking sheet.
In a small bowl, beat egg and cream well, and brush over the top of the bites. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
**If you'd like to make these appetizers ahead of time, cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap, place in freezer until bites are frozen, then place them in a freezer bag in freezer for up to several hours. Thaw in refrigerator before baking.
To bake and serve immediately, place baking sheet in prepared oven, and bake for about 15 minutues, to until just golden brown. May be served hot, warm, or at room temp.
Makes about 48 bites

I'll be posting more appetizer recipes soon!

Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

As promised, changes are coming to the blog!

Although Italian cuisine will always be my passion, we do frequently enjoy other (non-Italian) foods! (I can hear gasps of disbelief, lol)

I've decided to begin including 'other' recipes here at Flavors Of Italy, to prove that I actually have quite broad foodie tastes, and to share more of the recipes we love with my readers.

Last weekend, the weather here in Memphis resembled late spring much more than late winter, with highs of nearly 80F on Saturday and Sunday. (of course, we had snow flurries on Monday, and are now back to the 60s today.) Such is the constant weather roller coaster we learn to live with here. But, I digress...

With the lovely weather, I refused to spend Saturday in the kitchen, so we had a quick and easy, but very tasty dinner of Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches.
Allow me to share the recipe with you-

Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

1/4 to 1/3 cup of hot pepper sauce (use your favorite 'red' pepper sauce, and adjust the amount to your liking!)

6 TBL butter

1 envelope of dry Italian dressing mix

4 Kaiser or other good bakery buns

4 Romaine lettuce leaves

4 skinless, boneless, chicken breast halves

all-purpose flour, for dusting

2 TBL olive oil

Bleu cheese dressing, for topping

Stir hot sauce, butter, and dressing mix into a heavy saucepan, and place over low heat, stirring constantly until well blended.

Slice rolls crosswise, and spread 2 TBL sauce on bottom of each roll.

Season breasts with salt and pepper if desired, and dust lightly with flour. coat chicken thoroughly with remaining sauce, and dust lightly with flour again.

Heat olive oil over medium heat in large skillet. Add chicken, and saute until lightly browned and cooked through, about 5 minutes on each side.

Place on breast half on each prepared bun bottom, top with 1 romaine lettuce leaf, and a nice dollop of Bleu cheese dressing, replace bun top.

Serve with crispy fresh veggies (we like carrot and celery sticks), and plenty of napkins!! ;-)