Fried Green Tomatoes and Homemade Potato Soup

 

Hello friend. 

 

I've been a bit busy the past couple days so I haven't had the time to enlighten you with one of my many dilemmas, feats of awesomeness, or cautionary tales of failure....

 

...don't worry, I'm locked and loaded today :)

 

Anyways...

 

So it rained quite a bit last night and now the area around the Farmhouse resembles a muddy, sloppy feedlot, except without the cows... and all the poop.  We went out to attempt productivity, more specifically getting the fireplace and hearth framed in, but we got stuck in the mud.  Literally. Couldn't get up to the house... We did eventually get out of the rut we created, but it wasn't easy....

 

...Imagine if you will, my husband and I, in his big white work van, tires spinning, mud flying, husband yelling "WOOOOOHOOOO!!!!!" like a cackling, crazy, redneck thrill seeker, and me, white-knuckling the arm rests yelling "THIS IS MY NIGHTMARE!"...

 

 ....it had a very Dukes of Hazard-esque quality about the moment... except we didn't move an inch. 

 

At that point we decided to call in a loss for the day as far as work on the house goes and figured we would go get some needed supplies for the week ahead, instead.  We gave it one more good attempt to escape the mud pit, and luckily we prevailed, although once the tires finally caught traction we did almost slingshot ourselves straight into the giant pit that is to be the future home of the septic tank...

 

....it was almost a 127 Hours kind of situation people...

 

We did make it out alive, however, so we made our 473rd trip to Menards, got our supplies, and decided to head home to take it easy for the rest of the day. Because of the cool, Fall-ish weather, my inner Martha was really clawing to get out, so I figured it was a perfect day for either chili or potato soup.  Since I had ALL of the ingredients for chili, naturally I decided to make the Potato soup. I swung by the store to grab what I lacked in my pantry, and headed back home to start celebrating our "windows down and feet up" kind of day. 

 

...Oh, and as if the promise of homemade potato soup wasn't enough to send me into a state of sublime, "stupid smile on my face" kind of happiness, my husband suddenly yelled from the living room those 8 beautiful words that any woman would want to hear to make her perfect, lazy day even more exquisite...

 

"SWEET! Hey Babe! Fried Green Tomatoes is on!"

 

*queue the big stupid grin, tear in my eye, and thumbs up to God*

 

TAWANDA!!!!

 

...If you are under 25 years old, you may not now what I'm talking about, but please, for the love of all that's good and pure in this world, get on Netflix and rent "Fried Green Tomatoes".  You'll thank me.  Here's a few more "must see" flicks on my list of "Autumn Day/Rainy Day" movies:

 

1. It's Complicated

2. Mystic Pizza

3. Ratatouille

4. Drive

5.  Pretty Woman (duh)

6. Sleepless in Seattle

7. Joe vs. the Volcano

8. Thelma and Louise

9. Waiting

10. Midnight in Paris

11. The Burbs

12. Father of the Bride (both of them)

13. Return to Oz

14. True Romance

15. Zombieland

16. Romeo and Juliet

17. Aliens

18. Grown Ups

19. Breakfast Club

 

There you have it folks, a miniscule percentage of my favorite movies to watch whilst chillin' on the couch with sweatpants and soup.

 

You're Welcome.

 

And here's how you make the dang soup...  Oh, did I mention I made fresh baked bread bowls for the soup? Oh yeah. I'm pretty impressive like that.

 

Homemade Bread Bowls and Creamy Potato Soup

 

For the Soup:

15-20 small yellow potatoes cut into dice size

1 small yellow onion finely diced

4 chicken boullion cubes

4 cups water

1 cup half n' half

1 tbsp. black pepper

1 tbsp. dried chives

1 tbsp dried parsley

2 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

5 tbsp. butter

5 tbsp flour

 

For Topping:

4 strips bacon crisped up and cut up

a couple cups of shredded cheese of your choice...i'm gonna use Colby jack

1/2 cup diced up green onion

 

For the Bread Bowls:

4 cups bread flour

1 egg

4 tbsp. softened butter

1 tsp salt

1 packet instant yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

 

 

1. Start with the bread.  Get your stuff together.

 

 

2. Get a big glass bowl, and mix together all your dry ingredients with your fingers. Then add in the wet stuff and get to mixing.  It's gonna get sticky and messy, but it will come together...

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Knead it as best you can in the bowl and then turn it out onto a floured surface and continue workin' it. Press the heal of your hand down and away from you into the dough, fold it over, and repeat, turning the dough ball a quarter turn each time. If you need to add a little flour until it stops sticking go ahead. Keep kneading...

 

 

4.  Once your dough ball is smooth and well formed, get your glass bowl, clean it out, and then butter the bowl so that it's nice and stick-proof...

 

 

...then put your dough in, flip it once so it's coated then cover with plastic wrap.

 

 

Now put it in a warm place to rise for a little while.  I preheat my oven for about 3 minutes just to get it warm, then put the bowl in there. Make sure ITS JUST WARM...otherwise you're done for.

 

 

Now for the Soup...

 

1. Get your stuff together...

 

 

(potatoes are in the background. shy little buggers)

 

2. Dice up your onion and potatoes, then put your butter in a big pot over medium heat, add in your chopped onion and taters, and stir it up to coat...

 

 

3.  Let them sweat for a few minutes, then sprinkle 5 tbsp of flour down over the veggies and stir it up...

 

 

 

4. Pour in your water, chicken cubes, half n' half, and basically all the other ingredients except the bacon bits, green onions and cheese...

 

 

Let it simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes until potatoes are tender and the soup has thickened a bit.  If you like your soup a bit thicker, you can sprinkle in a couple more tbsp of flour and simmer a while longer.

 

Take off heat and set it aside to cool for a while. You will need to reheat a little later after you have finished up your bread bowls and they have baked and cooled a little as well.

 

...remember a while back when I told you I like the fussy recipes? yeah, wasn't lying...

 

Back to the dough. 

 

 If it's been about an hour or so, it should look like this...

 

 

1. Take off the plastic wrap, and punch the dough down, then fold it over and press and fold it over and press again.  Like this...

 

 

2.  Now grab a couple cookie sheets and either line with foil and spray with nonstick spray, or if you are unprepared and have been out of foil for a few weeks now like me, bust out corn meal from the back of the pantry and sprinkle it on the cookie sheet.  Cut your dough into four equal pieces and knead into a smooth ball.  Hold the dough ball as if you are a grandmother holding the ears of her grandchild like she would if she wanted to give them a big ole grandma kiss... then press the dough together while somewhat squeezing the dough out and towards you....kind of like a stress ball.

 

 

 

Pinch the seams together under the ball and place seam side down onto cookie sheet. 

 

3. Repeat three more times and them back in oven for their second rise.

 

 

 

4 Once they have doubled in size, take them out of the oven and preheat the oven to 375.

 

 

5.  In a small bowl, crack and egg and empty just the whites into bowl. Add a dribble of water and fork it up...

 

 

 

...then gently brush the egg whites onto the top of each dough ball.  Don't press hard or you will deflate the dough....

 

 

 

 

7. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the tops of each dough ball are golden brown. You can also check for done-ness by taking a hot pad, flipping the baked bread onto the pad and tap the bottom of the bread. If it feels firm and the it sounds hollow when you tap, your golden.

 

 

 

Let them cool for about 15 minutes or until they are cool enough to handle. Cut the tops off while also pulling the center of the bread bowl out.  Set them aside for dipping :)  No carbs wasted in this house!

 

 

While the bread bowls are cooling, cook up your bacon bits until crispy, cut up the green onions and shred your cheese.

 

 

 

 

Ok! Time to assemble.

 

Take your hollowed out bread bowl, ladle in your soup, sprinkle on your cheese, then bacon and green onions, serve.

 

 

BOOM.

 

 

It's loved by tiny dumplins...

 

 

 

...and loved VERY MUCH by Farmhouse builders...

 

 

 

I must tell you, he is currently sprawled out on the floor, hat over his eyes, in a food coma....groaning....

 

...I'm not even going to warn him that his youngest dumplin' is about to channel her inner Randy Savage and throw herself on top of his overstuffed self ...

 

Hehehe.

 

 

Have a good night :)

 

:) Ashley