Creamy Potato Soup

My boy's school project, one of the three recipes he requested:

Took it off from this website, simple and clear instruction, even comes with video. Taste test, passed! In fact he requested it again shortly after the first pot.

https://www.cookingclassy.com/creamy-potato-soup/

Ingredients:

6 cups peeled and diced Russet Potatoes about 5 medium potatoes. Dice into small cubes about 3/4-inch)

1-1/2 cups chopped Yellow Onion (1 medium)

1-1/4  cups peeled and diced Carrots (3 medium)

1 cup diced Celery (2 stalks)

2 cans (14.5 oz) low-sodium Chicken Broth (approx 430ml)

Salt and freshly ground black Pepper

1/3 cup Butter (75g)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour (43g)

2-1/2 cups Milk 

1/2 cup Sour Cream* (120g)

For Serving:

Crumbled bacon or chopped cooked ham, shredded cheddar cheese, chopped green onions or chives

Instructions:

1. Combine diced potatoes, carrots, celery and onion with chicken broth in a large stockpot and season with salt and pepper to taste.

2. Cover pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat (it will take about 10 minutes to reach a boil), once it reaches a boil reduce heat to medium and continue to cook about 15-20 minutes longer until potatoes are very soft when pierced with a fork.

3. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan melt butter over medium heat, add flour and cook for 1 minute while whisking constantly. While whisking, slowly add milk and cook, stirring constantly until mixture begins lightly bubble and thicken.

4. Once potatoes are soft add thickened milk mixture to potato soup mixture and stir (potatoes should start breaking down into soup, if not cook a few minutes longer). Add sour cream and mix well.

5. Ladle soup into serving bowls, top each serving with bacon or ham, cheddar cheese and green onions (Note that the soup will thicken as it rests so if you happen to have left overs you can thin with a little water or milk).

Tips to Perfect Potato Soup

1. Stick with russet potatoes. They aren't firm and waxy like the red and yellow and they'll start to break down and make the soup creamy.

2. Measure out the ingredients. If you have too many or too little potatoes it will change the consistency.

3. Don't add herbs or spices. I know that can be hard for some but the more neutral flavors are perfect here.

4. Don't leave off the toppings, those are what will add layers of flavor to the soup. Bring on the cheddar!

5. Try substituting heavy cream or half and half for the sour cream. It is also such a delicious option.

Sandwiches - Egg Mayo and Chicken Mayo

The boys favourite... Egg Mayo!

Ingedients:
Hard boiled egg (usually for my family of 4, around 3-4 eggs)
Mayonnaise

Steps:
Cooked the eggs to hard-boiled and use the egg slicer to cut up the chicken to small pieces
Add mayonnaise and mix, make sure all eggs and mayo and evenly mixed.
Can add pepper and salt to taste.
Serve with bread.

Chicken Mayo
A recipe that I decided to try when the boy suggested sandwich for his class party. A search on the Internet did not render a recipe that I like so I decided to tweak them to suit me.

Ingredients:
1 packet of chicken breast meat (approx 200g) - can cook quite alot, maybe can make about 10 sandwiches
Mayonnaise

Steps:
1. Marinate chicken with garlic powder, salt and pepper and leave it for approximately 20 mintues.
2. Boil the chicken in a pot of boiling water until well-cooked.
3. After cooled, shred up the chicken. (frankly I shred until my fingers nearly cramped, later I saw on some video hack that you can use handheld mixer to shred up the chicken faster and easily)
4. Add in mayonnaise and mix. Pepper and salt to taste.

Teriyaki Chicken Pizza

So encouraged! Even my picky brother-in-law asked to more. So far those who had a chance to try my pizza, give a thumbs up.

Hawaiian Pizza was my first try but I decided to try a new recipe and ventured into Teriyaki Chicken Pizza and sorta of understand why some mentioned that they do not have the recipe as everything is by agar-ation.

Dough, I used the same as previous but tried using 100% all purpose flour (no bread flour). I think the difference is the dough is slightly less chewy and if on the thick side, can be a tad bit tiresome to chew but I will still continue to use this recipe unless I have bread flour at home if not I will not intentionally purchase bread flour just for this recipe.

Ingredients:
1 packet of Chicken breast meat (approx. 200g)
1/3 capsicum
Teriyaki Sauce

Steps:
1. Cut the chicken into small cubes then marinate with teriyaki sauce, garlic powder, salt and pepper for about 15 minutes.
2. Fry the chicken and set aside
3. Spread the dough on pizza tray. Spread generous layer of teriyaki sauce over the dough. Sprinkle generously the cooked chicken meat and capsicum all over the pizza.
4. Preheat oven with 200 deg C for 10 minutes. Place pizza in the middle rack of oven and bake for 20 minutes, till crust lightly brown. Serve warm.

Vanilla Scrub

Had not cooked or baked for quite awhile but these days seemed to rekindle the motion. Partially I think my elder boy has a food project and he proposed 3 food to be made at home. I will get around to post those later. Then for Mothers' Day celebration and we were requested to bring some food. Initial intention was to buy some stuff but again, the boy requested for sandwiches and I decided to get busy again. Went for some interesting classes, although did not get around to repeat what I had learned, I sure invested to buy quite a fair bit of equipments. Hopefully my investments will not go to waste. Hee!!

In any case, let's start my long siesta with a non-edible recipe. Vanilla Scrub... a Mother's Day gift from my elder boy, prepared by his teachers, his classmates and himself.

Today I had used it and the verdict....... it's great! My skin feel sooooo smooth and smells so good. I was not given any recipe, just the ingredient. Maybe next time can get the boy to make for me again. Hee!!

Ingredients:
Brown Sugar
White Sugar
Organic Coconut Oil
Vanilla Essence

Actually it sounds almost edible, hee!!

However, nothing Google search cannot solve the problem. Found this from Internet using almost the same ingredients:
https://www.instructables.com/id/Brown-Sugar-Vanilla-Body-Scrub-Recipe/
This website has quite alot of DIY recipes, worth to check it out 😉

Ingredients
1-1/2 Cups Light Brown Sugar
1 Cup White Sugar
1 Cup Oil (your choice, Olive and Sunflower work well)
1 TB Pure Vanilla Extract

Steps
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. If the mixture is too dry, add abit more oil. You want it moist but not soupy wet.

Spoon the scrub into a sealable container such as a mason jar and enjoy!