Roasted Garlic Potato Soup

Admittedly...this winter has been pretty mild so far. Like...no complaints here. BUT...I still want soup sometimes! And when I'm presented with a potato soup with roasted garlic and onions...well...I'm certainly not going to say no.

What's your favorite Christmas movie?? It's a tie for me: Muppet Family Christmas and Muppet Christmas Carol (yes...they're both muppet movies...do not judge me. Also...the runner up is How Elmo Saved Christmas. True story). Whatever your fave holiday flick...wouldn't it be wonderous to curl up by a fire, with the Christmas lights on, and watch your favorite holiday movie while eating spoonful after spoonful of this rich, creamy, soup?

I think so too. You need to carbo-load to help with all that present wrapping you have to do.

This soup is seriously thick and smooth and has that mellow, sweet roasted garlic flavor and the comforting taste of potatoes. And...I HIGHLY recommend topping stirring in some cheese. Seriously...it makes all the difference. It turns a good soup into a GREAT soup. 

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Yes.

More mashed potatoes.

Healthy ones. Pretty much. AND these ones have ROASTED GARLIC in them!!

I loooove garlic.

I'm even gonna show you how to make roasted garlic, in case you didn't know (I totally didn't before I made these).

Wanna hear a funny mashed potato story? Up until...I don't know...like...college(?) I would only eat 1 kind of mashed potatoes: Hungry Jack instant mashed potatoes, made very thick and "lumpy". For a long time I had a very specific butter regimen as well ("squeeze" butter in concentric circles on the pile of mashed potatoes and a big hunk of "spread" Country Crock in the middle). I was a little OCD about food. Also, boy that was a lot of butter. It's a miracle I wasn't obese. Why did I only like instant? I imagine because that was what I had been raised on. Anyway, I eventually figured out that real mashed potatoes can be totally delicious, and I've never looked back since. I still like my potatoes thicker, though. So I suppose some things stick.

I promise I don't do that thing with the butter anymore....actually I usually don't put any butter on mashed potatoes...they usually have enough that was made into them. I've overcompensated it seems. 

Do any of you have weird food neuroses from your youth? 

Pizza Caprese with Garlic Cheese Bread

My Italian ancestors will be so proud of me. I made pizza! Alright...I didn't make the dough, but I will do that on some special, ambitious day. To make the pizza a meal, I also made cheesy garlic bread. I realize that that pretty much is almost the same thing as pizza. Apparently, all decent side dishes to serve with pizza, are essentially pizza. Regardless! This was delicious. Beloved by all in my home (AKA....Michael). And seriously...the pictures speak for themselves. Drool away!

Garlic Cheese Chicken Roll-Ups

This post has been a long time coming in a couple ways. First of all, these pictures have just been sitting on my computer (in my "Food" folder) for months, waiting to be posted! I actually have a quite a buildup of recipes just clamoring to be shared. The second way this is overdue, is that I haven't posted in a bit. I got super busy over last week, and then (as most of you know) there was that whole Hurricane Irene mess this weekend. We're fine, we didn't lose power or anything, but I was a little worried and was taking some precautions. Now that all of that is done this recipe can finally be shared! Yay! These are a very cool, new way to make chicken that is creative and just gosh darn yummy!

Linguine con aglio e olio d'oliva

I have been eating what my family calls "oil pasta" for as long as I can remember, from Christmas Eve's Feast of the Seven Fishes with all of my Grandpa Blogna's family, to learning things to cook for when I moved out to NYC . It's a recipe I learned from my mom, who learned it from my dad's mom, who learned it from grandpa's mom (my great-grandma Helen Blogna-maiden name Porrini). I don't even have this recipe written down anywhere, I just know how to make it-so bear with me on this recipe. It's basically just linguine with olive oil that is cooked with garlic-it's Italian name is linguine con aglio e olio d'oliva (linguine with garlic and olive oil). It is extremely good, easy to make, and goes great with a lot of different things, or used in different variations. And-BONUS-it makes my hands smell like garlic!

Linguine con aglio e olio d'oliva "Oil Pasta"