Potato Soup - with bacon and cheese

2oz. crumbled bacon

You can start with a few strips of raw bacon, or the pre-packaged crumbles like I used here. Heat the finely chopped or crumbled bacon in a heavy 4-5 quart pot. When nicely browned, scoop out the pieces and set aside for later. Add butter, more bacon grease or EVOO if needed. Then sauté the following chopped vegetables:

2 carrots

4 celery stalks

1 red mini pepper

1-2c onion and shallot

2# scrubbed Yukon Gold potatoes

When everything starts sizzling, add a little water, stir and continue until a couple cups of water have been added. Add the following then simmer, covered for an hour.

4 c water 

3 bay leaves

1T ground cumin

2T chicken soup base

Cool the soup for 20 minutes, remove the bay leaves and mash with a potato masher. Stir in:

1 can cream of crimini-shiitake mushroom soup

4oz. grated strong cheese

4 chopped green onions

the crumbled bacon

Check the flavors and make adjustments needed in the flavor. Serve with crispy crackers. . .Lin

Grown-Up Mac and Cheese

1½c dry medium pasta

3oz. sharp cheddar

4oz. neufatchel cheese

¼c bleu cheese crumbles

⅓c cooked crumbled bacon

¾c± half and half or cream*

1t± Hungarian hot paprika

I almost never make mac and cheese!  Today while cleaning out the cheese drawer in my 'fridge, I couldn't get it out of my head, so I started assembling some not-so-typical ingredients for a special one.

Cook the pasta about halfway, to before the al dente stage.  While it's cooking, combine all the remaining ingredients in a small casserole dish.  Grate the cheddar and break up the neufatchel (creamed) cheese and stir with all the rest.  If I had thought of it sooner, I would have also added ¼c chopped up sun-dried tomatoes.  That would have been good!

When the pasta is cooked, quickly drain, then put the hot pasta in the casserole dish.  Cover and let stand for a minute or two.  Using a small wooden spoon, stir, fold all the ingredients together, coating all the pasta with the cheese and bacon mixture.  *(I used leftover mushroom-onion 'gravy' from the chicken I made the other day.  It added a lot of flavor.)  This turned out really well, but it's rich and heavy.  I'll serve it more as a side dish to a big, fresh green salad. . .Lin