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 Focaccia

Aghhhh today I am SUPER anxious! Michael has his job interview and I am just hoping hoping HOPING it goes smashingly and he gets the job and he gets a great shift schedule and everything works out perfectly for the move and it all just falls into place...

is that too much to ask?

Whatever. I'm anxious. You know what's an awesome cure for my anxiety?

Bread.

Making, baking, and eating bread. Especially when it's covered in roasted garlic that makes Michael turn to you and say, "What's this stuff? Cheese?" (at this point he's already tried it and declared that he liked it, so it was safe for me to say:) "Nope. Roasted garlic."

Mmmmm....I feel better just talking about it.

I've been dying to make focaccia* for quite some time now: I mean, it's a pretty simple bread, and it looks crazy delish.

*Side note: Michael and I got into a discussion on the correct way to say focaccia. He says "focasha", I said, "FocaCHIa" and I'm pretty sure the correct pronunciation is somewhere in between. Regardless, try saying focaccia over and over again...it just starts to sound ridiculous (as is the case with most words if you say 'em enough.)

Yeah. This recipe doesn't disappoint. It's sort of like a giant, chewy loaf of garlic bread. That's like...super...deliciously...garlicky. I love roasted garlic. And bread. We finished off these four loaves in less than a week. Just the two of us. I ate 1 whole loaf in that first day.

Whatever. No shame.

Crock Pot Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Ugh....it's November. Which means I'm chilly. Like all the time. The only good thing about this time of year (aside from it being my birthday month and that we're getting closer to Christmas) is COMFORT FOOD. Food that warms ya up, inside out! Food that makes you feel full and happy. Food like mashed potatoes.

Plus, you gotta love a slow cooker in the fall. You just throw a bunch of stuff in and leave it alone for awhile. That's a full on win-win-win situation if you ask me! 

Funny story: I just got a filling a couple months ago (my first filling that I've needed in quite a few years) and it totally brought back memories of having my mom make me mashed potatoes to eat while my face was numb. I used to exclusively eat very thick instant mashed potatoes. Nowadays I'll eat some real potatoes. And if there's garlic involved, all the better. With or without my face being numb. :P

This recipe is like...really good, guys. Like...super duper tasty. You get a BIG batch (like...really big...like...it was difficult to finish off because there was so much. So it's perfect for big families or entertaining, etc.) of really creamy, really flavorful potatoes. I did have a problem getting all the chunks whipped up (but this seems to be a problem I always have...maybe it's my mixer?...or maybe I don't chop them up small enough...)--I definitely recommend cutting the potatoes into smaller pieces to make it easier on yourself later.

End of the day though...let's turn on some Netflix, curl up in our pj's with a big warm blanket, and dig into a big bowl of these potatoes. The perfect cure for my fall blues.

Roasted Garlic Macaroni and Cheese-Guest Post at A Zesty Bite

Hello you all! Today I wanna talk a little bit about Meagan, from A Zesty Bite. Meagan is SUCH a sweetheart, and she keeps tempting me with offers of moving to Texas and being best friends and baking and letting me pinch her adorable little baby girl, Olivia's, cute chubby baby cheeks! Not to mention, she makes super delicious food and has a super fun, super gorgeous blog. Today I have the amazing honor of guest posting for her while she spends some very needed, very important family time. My heart goes out to her and I am so happy to help out in this way.

Roasted Garlic Macaroni and Cheese-there's nothing not awesome about this dish. You have an amazing roasted garlic, cheesy sauce mixed with the pasta and topped with a toasty breadcrumb and scallion topping. Super flavorful, super delicious. And you can get the recipe by heading on over to A Zesty Bite!

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?