For my first experiment with this soup, I used both diced and sliced dehydrated potatoes.
Backstory:
I had received a free ten pound bag of Russets in the fall of 2020. With just the two of us, that was more than we could eat before it would go to ruin. So I bought a dehydrator and got to work. The mandolin is helpful with slicing of vegetables. I made the potato slices 1/8th inch thick. The dice was roughly a quarter inch dice. In order to keep the potatoes from turning an off color, after slicing and dicing, I put them into a pot of boiling water to which I had added the juice of a half of a lemon. They stayed in the water about 4 minutes. Then, with a spyder ladle, I lifted them out and into ice water to stop the cooking. Then I drained them thoroughly and patted them dry before putting onto the shelves of the dehydrator. It takes about 6 -8 hours to dehydrate the 6 shelves of potato slices at 165 degrees Fahrenheit. I then loaded the potatoes into quart mason jars and used a Food Saver type machine with a “wide-mouth” jar device to seal the jars. Then into the pantry they went.
Continue reading “Winter warmth – cheese & bacon potato soup”
When we went to Sintra, not long after our arrival in Portugal, we wandered the village, looking at the houses, homes, Airbnb and shops near the train station. I was not as on top of my game as I would have liked in order to be able to enjoy the town. But I was hungry and thirsty. We had a late start on the day as well. 
Directly downstairs of our accommodations is a lovely little restaurant called Zenith. We went there out of convenience the first night we were in town.
I am in the midst of cleaning out old files, which includes old recipes. I came upon one I have to share as it was one of my most favorite desserts in the 1970s. I used to hang out a lot at a restaurant/bar in Honolulu called Horatio’s. Needless to say, it had a nautical theme and an absolutely divine version of Pimm’s Cup No.1. It also had “burnt crème”. The first time I tasted this kind of dessert was at Horatio’s (Ward Avenue locale). So in looking through the recipes I am either going to document, or discard, I came upon just that recipe card. It was so popular it was also shown in the recipes section of a Sunday Honolulu Advertiser issue (shown side-by-side, here). So here is the recipe for Horatio’s Burnt Crème:
