Broccoli Cheddar soup

Well you would think that these would get better rather than worse, but this particular entry was a summation of poor judgement and fatigue on my part. Having spent a very busy first part of the day out of doors, my decision to go ahead with this blog, scraggly hair/hayfever eyes and all was probably not the best.

BUT this is one of my favorite and most asked for recipes and since I don't make it all the time, carpe diem and all of that.

This is a surprisingly simple recipe that is a quick fix and never fails to bring Mmmms to the table. Damn right, its better 'n yours. Its also pretty much the only way I can get veggies of any quantity or substance into my youngest child, so there is that.

You will need:

12 oz Cheddar, grated or cubed. (I suggest sharp cheddar)

One head of broccoli (Or equivalent amount of broccoli spears)

3-4 large carrots

1 small white or yellow onion (Yellow onions are sweeter, so based on your own flavor palate, go with that feels right)

Water (enough to cover one inch in the bottom of a large sauce pan or small stock pot)

1 cup chicken or vegetable broth

2 cups of 2% or whole milk

Optional

1 can of Cream of Onion soup (I strongly suggest doing this, but its not completely necessary)

Cayenne pepper or Paprika to sprinkle on top

1/4 cup Parmesan (If you like that extra sharp taste)

And now: to the videos!

Hmmm. Not sure why I keep saying '1 cup of milk'. There is most definitely 2 cups of milk

and I do, indeed, ADD two cups of milk during the video, so we'll chalk that brainfart up to hay fever.

I hope you enjoyed the soundtrack provided by 'My Children Playing BattleFront 2'.

Hahaha, guess who hasn't learned how to pull stills from her video yet, hahaha! Guess who forgot to snap a photo of the finished product before it was eaten, hahaha! Its certainly not this girl sitting and eating hilarious pizza with her two friends!

Hey Guyz! Well this entry is just FULL of mistakes, but that's what makes it fun, right? Right!?

I made pizza, which I love to do. I've worked in one sit-down pizzaria and one pizza take-out place so I hazard to say I make pretty good pizza. This is the 'quick and dirty' version, because I use prepared sauces. I mention that I'm going to do alfredo sauce and marinara sauce from scratch at a later date; both of those can be used instead of the prepared sauces I demonstrate here. So go ahead and hop in your time machines to visit those future blog entries so you can write down those recipes before we get started...or just use the suggestions I make in the videos for choosing/using a premade sauce.

Lets get started:

Crust

3 cups of Bread flour

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3 TBS corn oil

1 packet of yeast

1.5 tsp salt

2 TBS dark brown sugar

1.5 cups warm water

And now the videos. In this first one I spell bread, 'bred'. Sadly I made straight As in english throughout high school and university studies. Your tax dollars at work.

Okay, so Tim WASN'T out of batteries, his phone just made a suspicious 'Out of batteries' noise.

Here is the rest of the first bit. Notice how INSTEAD of taking off my ring as I tell you to do, I just kneed with one hand? Old habit from trying to carry a baby in one arm while I make dinner :P

Now, while that is rising, lets talk about what comes next:

Sauce

Red sauce with a pinch of black pepper, garlic salt and a TBS of Oregano

Alfredo: you can use a thin layer of ranch dressing instead if you don't have real alfredo on you.

This actually works better than jarred alfredo.

Cheese

16 oz of part skim mozerella

Toppings

Whatever you want, but for a white pizza I tend to use chicken, mushrooms and chopped garlic.

Red pizza you can get away with everything but the kitchen sink. Here I used sliced plum tomatoes, green peppers, mushrooms and chopped garlic.

This is where things get a little silly. We had given the boys a bunch of water balloons and told them to go play in the yard while I made the pizza, but my youngest decided halfway through that he was going to come in and give an impromptu speech.

Also: the boys breezing in and out the front door forced pollen into the front of the house, triggering both cook AND cameraman's allergies. So about halfway through we start SNERRRRKing. On my honor, no SNEEERRRRK wound up on/in the food.

The final product! Mmmm! I meant to take a picture of the second pizza, but both had smelled up the house with awesom deliciousness and so they were quickly consumed by the fam the second they were cool enough to eat. Lets just say the second looked like the first one, but more colorful.

Thanks to Tim (Karvald, for my MST3K roomies) for his camera work and promises that next time I won't run the dishwasher while making a blog video.

Now go make some pizza!