Happy new year, all my friends! I hope your holiday season was great. I have a tale to tell you, so pour yourself a glass of leftover eggnog and stay a while.
The night before Christmas, when all through the city, not many a creature were stirring.. not even the rats. But my dear had to work late, so met up we did, at an old fashioned bar with plenty of goods. Stone Pale Ale I had and something fancier had he.. and by the end of the night we were giggly with glee. A Christmas Eve date was had, what a merry night.
We enjoy
Hopleaf bar because our beer taste buds are expanding, and our fascination for craft beer is growing. The best part about it is, very rare beers are available and at inexpensive prices. The bartenders are friendly and the food is delicious too.
B asked me every day for an entire week for potato soup like he had growing up. I thought it would be a fun to incorporate this into our first Christmas together. Unfortunately, Chicago's grocery stores played a funny little trick on me. I thought I saw a sign at our nearest store that stated they'd be open for the holiday (they are for most others). The hustle and bustle of the holidays got the best of me, so I planned to go pick up our ingredients Christmas morning. We were so sad when the stores were closed, as were the other four nearby. So instead, we opted for Chinese. It felt good to know we were part of that "club."
We even found a couple of Christmas movies: National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation, the original Grinch, and Jim Carrey's The Grinch.
Round 1: the Chinese food..
Round 2: the dessert, and the beers. Several of our friends are bakers and gave us delicious baked goods for Christmas. We feasted on these all afternoon long, paired with Bell's Christmas Ale and Half Acre's Big Hugs (which is also made with
Dark Matter Coffee).
Also, I taught myself how to
crochet! Using
this pattern for a crochet beard, I looked up each step on
YouTube and went with it. The beard isn't done yet because, well, I'm still learning!
Are you ready for the potato soup action? Here goes.
My mom sent me over this little recipe.
Creamy Potato Soup
Prep: 15 mins Cook: 30 mins Ready: 45 mins
2 tbsp margarine or butter
4 green onions sliced (about 1/2 cup)
1 stalk celery sliced (about 1/2 cup) **we left this out because neither of us are big fans.
1 can (14 oz) chicken broth **I used organic vegetable broth from Trader Joe's.
1/8 tsp black pepper
3 medium potatoes (about 1 lb) sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 1/2 cups milk
*additions: I grated half of 1 clove of garlic and a small carrot into the soup
Step 1. Add the butter, green onions and celery into the saucepan over medium heat. Cook until tender.
Step two: Chop those potatoes! Maybe this should be step one. I turned the heat off of my saucepan during this step.
Step three: measure out your broth and add it to the saucepan
Step four: add broth, pepper and potatoes to the saucepan. Heat to a boil. Reduce heat to a low, cover and cook for 15 minutes (I had to cook about 20 minutes and next time I'll do 25, but I'll explain later).
Step five: This is my added step. Grate bits of carrot and garlic into the soup. This is completely optional but resulted in deliciousness. :)
Step six: In a blender or food processor, place half the broth mixture and 3/4 cup milk. Cover and blend until smooth. Repeat with remaining broth mixture and milk. Return to pan. Over medium heat, heat through. Garnish with a small bit of green onion. Note: Since I don't have a blender or food processor, I had to use a mixer. This is why next time I make the soup, I will cook the potatoes a bit longer. It was very difficult and resulted in a bit chunkier of soup than desired.
Et voila! Delicious potato soup.
No, I don't have any pictures of the soup in the bowl. It was just too delicious, and too quickly eaten. I quickly see this becoming our new Christmas tradition. :)
Happy New Year to you and yours, from us!
