Carol and I Make Dinner...From Begining To End

How about a wonderful hearty Sausage Potato Soup, Homemade Potato rolls and an absolutely delicious Fluffernutter Cake for dessert, all in one post. It sounds awfully good to me, especially since the weather has turned down right frigid here in Pennsylvania and I'm sure Carol would agree in Massachusetts. We're gonna start with Carols wonderful Hearty Sausage Potato Soup which will be an entry for Ruth's Book Marked Recipes Event.




It's definitely soup weather here in the Northeast! As the temperatures drop-my craving for soups of all kinds really kicks in. Every time I make a soup recipe, it never seems to come out the same way twice...probably because I always manage to be out of one of the ingredients and have to substitute. That's OK....it always seems to hit the spot.
I usually use the recipe as a guideline and add more vegetables than called for. No, I don't measure carrots and such......we like PLENTY of veggies in soup so I guess you could say I eyeball it until it looks like the right amount to me. And I CAN'T make a small pot of soup-any more than I can make a small pot of spaghetti sauce....I always have enough for an army but that's fine...it always tastes better heated over.
I suppose I could call this Use-What's-In-The-Fridge-Before-Grocery-Shopping soup! I've made Sausage Potato Soup for years and we really like it, but being as I had a few stray vegetables to use up before hitting the grocery store this weekend....I modified my tried and true recipe and came up with something really good! I'll add what I added at the end of the original recipe.

SAUSAGE POTATO SOUP
(Original recipe from Quick Cooking magazine)

1/2 lb. fully cooked kielbasa or Polish sausage (I use the Healthy Ones kielbasa)
6 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 c. frozen corn
1 1/2 c. chicken broth (I use fat free, reduced sodium broth)
1 celery rib, sliced
1/2 c. sliced carrot
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. salt (I don't use)
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 c. milk (I use fat free or low fat-whatever I happen to have)
2/3 c. shredded cheddar cheese (I use low fat)

In a Dutch oven, brown sausage; drain. Remove sausage from pan and set aside.In the same pan, combine potatoes, corn, broth, celery, carrot and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add milk, cheese and sausage. Cook and stir over low heat until cheese is melted and soup is heated through. Makes 6 servings.

**Here's what I added tonight,....2 jalapenos, seeded and minced, 1 medium zucchini, diced, and I cut back on the potatoes to 3 and added 1 medium head cauliflower, broken into florets. I added the jalapenos and zucchini with the other vegetables; when the mixture had come to a boil and simmered about 5 minutes, I added the cauliflower.I also added about 4 shots of hot sauce when I added the milk, cheese and sausage.It was really good with the extra heat...Bob really liked it with the cauliflower...I also had to double the soup since the pkg. of kielbasa I thawed out was 14 oz.....so I used 2 (about 14 oz. each) cans of chicken broth and a hefty 3 cups of milk, then added 2 c. shredded cheddar (8 oz.). I never measure the carrots and celery-I dice a couple of each and don't bother getting out the measuring cup...it's soup...the more veggies the better!




Carol's soup sounded so good I decided to pair it with these Homemade Potato Rolls. Homemade soup and rolls...how good does that sound! This will also be my entry for Wild Yeast's Yeastspotting event and Cathy at Noble Pig's Potato Ho Down Event..I have a two fer here! These rolls were very easy to make and they were delicious. I took some pictures while I was making them.




This is what the dough looked like before I kneaded it. I used real potatoes instead of instant, I also used the water that the potatoes cooked in for the water in the recipe.



After I cut the dough into 12 strips I rolled them into little snails, put them on a greased baking sheet and let them rise.



They rose up very nicely following the recipe instructions to put boiling water in a shallow pan and put the baking sheet of dough on top of it and cover. These rose up in just 15 minutes!




Bake them for 25 minutes and this is what you get...the perfect companion for a hearty homemade soup.


Potato Rolls
Breadworld
Makes 12 Rolls

3-1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 envelope FLEISCHMANN'S RapidRise Yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup instant potato flakes or buds*
2 eggs

Directions

In large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, undissolved yeast, and salt. Heat water, milk, and butter until very warm (120o to 130oF). Stir in potato flakes; let soften 1 minute. Stir into dry ingredients. Stir in 1 egg and enough remaining flour to make soft dough. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 4 to 6 minutes. Cover; let rest on floured surface 10 minutes.Divide dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece to 12-inch rope. Coil each rope to make "snail" shape. Arrange rolls in a circle on large greased baking sheet with sides barely touching. Place large shallow pan on counter; half fill with boiling water. Place baking sheet on pan. Cover; let rise 15 minutes. Lightly beat remaining egg; brush over rolls. Bake at 375oF for 25 minutes or until done. Remove from sheet; let cool on wire rack.

*To use fresh potato: Follow above directions except decrease water to 1/2 cup and replace potato flakes with 1/3 cup cooked, mashed potato (at room temperature). Stir mashed potato into dough along with egg.

I don't know about you but I could go for something sweet to top off our dinner. How about a Fluffernutter Cake. This recipe came from Cookie Baker Lynn and is outstanding. We start by making a two layer banana cake , then we're going to top each layer with chocolate chips and bake it.






Then we're going to slather it with Peanut Butter Fluffernutter Frosting!



I couldn't cut this cake because this was my son's birthday cake, but trust me it was good and you can find the recipe here. A hearty soup, homemade rolls and cake...I'm feeling very satisfied and comfy, how about you?