A bit of a bite

 When I make potato soup it more or less becomes cheese soup.  I will grab whatever cheese I have available and add to it.  This time I grabbed a jar of Velveeta's Queso blanco I had in the cupboard.  Along with a can of white cheddar soup from Campbell's. I also added a cube of Velveeta (I purchased a small box of three foil-packed cubes of the cheese just like the kind you get when you buy the big block).  It was nice, this way you don't have to worry about wrapping the rest of the block to ensure it doesn't dry out in the fridge.

This jar of queso blanco gave the soup a tiny little bit which I rather enjoyed.  Sometimes I follow my recipe, sometimes I stray from it.  I totally forgot to add any butter to this and I liked it just fine.  

And, I HAD to make cornbread.  A box of Krusteaz honey cornbread.  Delicious.  And then to top it all off, I was worried about a bag of left over apples, so I whipped up a new recipe of apple crisp.  This recipe had me create a gel-like syrup made of water, sugar, vanilla and cornstarch.  I must remember to stir the cornstarch in the water so that it dissolves.  As it was, I just dropped it in and it clumped up.  

I looked back on my recipe from  years ago.  Back then I added a jar of alfredo sauce, butter, half and half, cream of celery soup and thinly sliced onion.  I never add carrots.  Not yet, anyway.  I do keep the water I used to boil the potatoes so I can add it to the cans and jars of soup and cheese and add that to the soup. This uses the last bits left in the cans and jars.  Of course I chop up celery.  I try to always have a bunch of celery in the fridge.  I found that wrapping it in foil keeps it fresh the longest.  I have frozen celery before, it doesn't look the best but it can be added to soups and pot roast for the flavor. Usually if I add frozen celery to a recipe, I remove it before eating it because it is soft and mushy.

Before retirement I was quite fond of cooking on top of the stove.  Hated baking.  Since I retired I did a bit of baking but had to stop because I was the only one eating my results.  A lot was thrown out. Nobody else will eat the soup but they may try some of the crisp.  I added a handful of dried craisins to it.