Cooking with Crafty Holly Louise

In an attempt to make the recipes that I share a bit easier for everyone to locate, you’ll see that I’ve added a RECIPES tab to the top of my blog.  I hope that you’ll be patient with me as I figure out the best way to share my favorite recipes with you (both old and new).  Please feel free to leave me a comment if you have any tips/suggestions – I’m always open to good ideas!

I’m starting out my “official” recipe-sharing with yesterday’s dinner; which we enjoyed with good friends.  I’ll apologize right now for the lack of pictures in this cooking post.  My itty-bitty kitchen was still “pre-scrub down” when I was prepping, and by the time the soup was ready, I was too hungry to think to take a “final product” shot!

Using my crockpot during the week always seems [in theory] like such a great way to make dinner on a week night, until I remember that it requires either morning prep before work, or evening prep the night before (and enough room in my fridge for my crockpot sleeve overnight)!  This basically means that my crockpot rarely gets used, and if it does, it’s on the weekend.

Anyway – I love creamy potato soup!  This recipe was easily made Gluten-free, and very easily adjusted to accommodate a vegetarian friend!  This was my first time using this recipe, so I really have no idea how differently it would taste with chicken stock and cream of chicken soup.  Honestly, it tasted so good the way I made it last night that I really have no desire to try!  I love that this is now a vegetarian meal – bacon’s a vegetable right?

The one thing that I will try next time is using some milk and cornstarch to thicken it up instead of cream cheese.  I think it’ll be just as tasty without the full-fat cream cheese (required to melt properly), and a bit less rich.  I’m going to put cheese on top of my bowl in the end regardless, so adding that much to the soup as well just doesn’t seem necessary in my book!  I’ll try to remember to do an update the next time I make this soup with the cream cheese substitution, and let you all know how it works out!

Crock-Pot Potato Soup

1 30 oz. bag of frozen, shredded hash browns
5¼ cups chicken or vegetable stock (or three 14 oz. cans)
1 can cream of chicken (or mushroom) soup
½ cup onion, chopped
1 T garlic powder
1 T dry dill
¼ tsp. each salt and black pepper
1 pkg cream cheese (not fat free, it won’t melt)

Combine everything in Crock-Pot, except cream cheese.  Cook for 6-8 hours on low heat.  About 1 hour before serving, add cream cheese and keep heated until thoroughly melted.  Dish soup, and top with shredded Cheddar and crispy bacon.

(Recipe adapted from Cara of http://pearls-handcuffs-happyhour.blogspot.com/)

Click here for a printable recipe.

Did everyone watch the Oscar’s last night?  We “watched”, but a napped halfway through, and definitely didn’t make it till the end of the evening (5 a.m. comes waaaay too quickly at my house!)  I haven’t seen any of the movies that were nominated (other than Brave), so I really watch the same way we watch the Super Bowl – not because we’re football fans, but because it’s the Super Bowl, so you watch!

Of course, there HAD to be Oscar crocheting!  I just got a new mill-ends of cotton yarn on Saturday that was screaming “Make pot-holders and matching dish cloths out of me!!, please”  So I followed orders:

Who did you think was best dressed?  Of what I saw of the Red Carpet, Kerry Washington’s dress was my favorite!

Don’t forget about my GIVE-AWAY and all the ways that you can enter to win!  Spread the word too – you have until Thursday, February 28^th at 11:59 p.m. to enter for a chance at being “most-fashionable” this St. Patrick’s Day!!