Baked Potato Soup

In my family this is the meal all the girls get together and have when the guys go to Priesthood session.

Baked Potato Soup
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup flour
Cook together until flour starts to brown.
4 large baked potatoes, diced and skinned
12 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
4 green onions
1 cup sour cream
1 1/4 cup shredded cheddar
7 cups milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
 Mix all ingredients together and simmer until cheese is melted and all is hot.

When I make this soup I start by browning my flour in the butter and then I take my blender out and make 7 cups of powdered milk. While the blender is still going I dump the clumping flour into the blender because I HATE clumps and otherwise I seem to spend forever trying to stir the clumps out. I empty my blender into the pot and throw everything else in and call it good.

 A little hint... this meal is best finished with a hot brownie and ice-cream on top!!

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

This recipe comes from the kitchen of Shellee Draper. Her son is in my cub scout den. One week we were talking about our favorite foods and this boy said "My moms Tomato Basil Soup". Now let me tell you... if a 10 year old boy puts his moms soup over pizza you know it is going to be good. Shellee says:


When we have it at home, I make ham and cheese sandwiches and we dip them in as we eat it.  Just so you know!  

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

2 cups onions chopped

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 dried basil

3/4 c butter divided

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 cans (1 pound 15 ounches each) Italian tomatoes

4 Tablespoons tomato paste

4 c chicken broth

1-4 c flour

1 c heavy cream

1 tsp sugar

salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, saute onion, thyme, basil in 1/2 c butter and olive oil until onion wilts.  Add tomatoes and paste, simmer for 10 minutes.  In a separate bowl, mix 5 Tablespoons broth to flour until smooth.  Stir flour mixture into soup.  Add remaining broth and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring frequently.  Put soup through blender, food processor or hand blender.  Soup can be prepared ahead of time up to this point.  just before serving, add sugar, cream and 1/4 c butter, salt and pepper to taste.  

SO, I basically follow the recipe on this, but here are a couple of hints:  Since you do have to blend the soup at the end, I chop up my onions very carelessly.  :)  When you do blend, do it in small batches.  Don't fill up your blender more than half way, unless you enjoy a red ceiling.  Sometimes I will let it cool a bit before I blend it.  Just be careful doing that.  The only other thing is that sometimes if I'm feeling like NOT dying an early death, I will half the butter and use half and half.  Most of the time I make it full throttle though!  It's so yummy!  Enjoy!  

Lacie's Creamed Corn

From Lacie Meyers

20 oz. frozen kernel corn
8 oz whipping cream
4 oz milk
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp accent
6 tsp sugar
pinch white pepper
2 Tbs melted butter
2 Tbs flour

Mix all ingredients except the butter and flour in a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Blend butter and flour. Add to corn. Mix well and remove from heat.

Zucchini Oatmeal Cookies

From Holly Thurgood

1 c. butter
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
2 c. zucchini, grated
3 1/2 c. oatmeal
1 c. raisins, optional
1 c. nuts, optional
(instead of nuts or raisins, she did 2 cups chocolate chips....)

Beat butter and sugar together well. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients together and add creamed mixture. Stir in zucchini, oatmeal, raisins and nuts. Drop onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes.

Note: 2 cups mashed bananas may be substituted for zucchini.

Zucchini Brownies

2 cups shredded and drained zucchini
2 cups flour
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup nuts (optional)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 Tbs cocoa
1/2 c melted butter or margarine
1 beaten egg

Sift dry ingredients together then add to rest of ingredients. Spread in greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes. Test by touching- it will be moist and sticky. Cool before icing (if you want to ice...).

Zucchini Soup

From the kitchen of the FABULOUS Becky Rollins.

3 cups slice zucchini
1/2 cup water
3 Tbs fresh chopped onion (or 1 Tbs dried)
1 tsp season-all
1/2 tsp parsley
2 chicken bouillon cubes
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
1 cup milk
1/8 tsp white pepper (or salt and pepper to taste)
1/2 cup light cream

Combine onion, water, season-all, parsley and bouillon with zucchini in a pot. Cook 5-10 minutes until tender. Puree in blender.
In a separate pot, melt butter and flour as roux, add milk and pepper, simmer until it all melts and thickens. Combine your two pans of deliciousness and add cream.
Top with a dollop of sour cream and paprika.

Pesto Veggie Pizza

1 tortilla (for each person who wants one)
cheese (cheddar or mozarella)
pesto sauce
raw spinach,bell peppers, artichoke,zuchinni, squash,tomato, etc.

Take a tortilla and pour pesto sauce over it to cover (just like you would do tomato sauce for pizza) then add veggies. You can add more vegetables than I put or less depending on what you like. I slice my veggies and place on pesto sauce. Then cover veggies with cheese. Put the oven on broil for about 5 minutes until the cheese is melted. Eat and enjoy.

You also can add chicken to this if you would like.