Day 9 - Jay's Potato Soup and Pesto Pizza

C's homemade bread

I officially have cooking envy.  I went by a friends house for a "Say Yes to the Dress" marathon and she had made her own bread from scratch.  And I mean scratch.  She even made (grew?) her own yeast.  The bread was amazing!!  I totally want to try to do this on my own now.  We had it with a poached egg.  Yum!

After the television marathon I had absolutely no excuses not to cook.  I removed all my christmas decorations, took the dogs for a walk and then started planning my week.  I was going to make a roast chicken for dinner thinking I could stretch it out for a few days but the grocery store was out.

So I decided to go for some comfort foods for dinner.

It was having trouble warming up after taking the dogs on a long walk so I decided to make my sister's carrot potato soup!  It's so easy!  This is all I put in it:

5 medium potatoes
2 large carrots
Milk (to taste)
Salt and pepper to taste

I cut the potatoes and carrots in to similar sized pieces put them in a pot and then filled it with water to cover the pieces.  I put the burner on max and boiled until soft.

In the meantime I needed something else to tide me over and I had picked up everything I needed for another old favourite.  This was a recipe I picked up from a roommate in university.

Pesto Pizza:

Greek style pocketless pitaso
Pesto
Spinach
Sliced olives
Feta cheese

I didn't put any amounts because it's all to taste.

I was going to make my own pesto but I left my Magic Bullet blender at work and my pine nuts at R's place so I had to go with the PC Brand pesto.

The pizzas are easy to put together.  Spread pesto on the pita then top with spinach, olive slices and crumbled feta cheese.  I also added some artichoke hearts.

I normally pile on the spinach because it really cooks down but today I decided another good idea would be to chop it so you don't pull everything off with one bite.  I threw it all in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes and it was done.  And very good!  It's a touch salty but if you don't mind that you'll love it.  Sometimes I also add mushroom slices and chicken to make it more of a meal.

When the pizza was done the potatoes and carrots were soft.  I turned off the burner and left the pot to cool for ten minutes.  Then I put the carrots, potatoes and half of the water they cooked in into my blender.  I added a bit of milk and salt and pepper and blended it all up.  If you want to cut the fat you can completely cut out the milk and it's still very good.  I was thinking it might also be nice with some rosemary but I didn't have any.

My sister started making this soup when we were in high school and I always loved it.  Tonight it warmed me up and filled me up just enough!  And now I have a whole batch to eat throughout the week!

I was going to make a salad for tomorrow's lunch ahead of time but I'm so tired I might have to just go to bed instead.  I've got to get up early to get in a work out tomorrow so I'll make it then.

I'm also hoping to pick up a whole chicken on my way home tomorrow night.  I should probably pick up a meat thermometer as well!

One more thing - as I was making dinner I was thinking it would be nice to have a glass of wine but didn't want to open a whole bottle.  I hate when it's just me because I don't want to waste wine but one bottle is way too much for one person.  I end up feeling like I have to have a glass every night until it's gone.  I know... it's not a terrible problem to have but I'm really trying to cut some extras out of my diet these days.

I was going to just go without when I found a can of wine I had bought in New Brunswick.  I can't find a link to the company's web site but what I found out is the wine in a can is available in four variants.  I had picked up a red and white.  The red was not superb but we were drinking it right from the can at the end of a late afternoon snowshoe along the river.  Today it seemed like the perfect solution.  I cracked open the Chardonnay can and poured myself a glass.  It seems each can pours two glasses - perfect for sharing and the wine was quite good.  It went well with the pesto pizza anyhow.

If I see it again I'll have to pick up another red and try it in a glass!

Happy cooking!