Crock Pot Potato Soup

Yesterday at Redwood Sewing Center the Tuesday Morning Sit & Sew class had one of their famous birthday pot lucks. Once a month we celebrate birthdays....the birthday girl(s) wear birthday crowns, lots of singing goes on and of course, there is food! We have several "foodies" in the group...Barb takes lots of classes and always brings something good. She also makes sure we have funny cards for the Birthday Girl. Del keeps us all organized...she is the keeper of the master roll call/email list and lets us know when a birthday is imminent. Donna or Del make deviled eggs (oh, and Jan G.'s chickens keep us all in eggs!). Joan is a newcomer to our group...she just retired and sold her interest in Cherry Blossom Bakery and she brought a cake! We had pasta salads and potato salad and by popular demand, I brought my stepmom's Crock Pot Potato Soup.

Willie served this soup once and I knew I had to have the recipe. It's so easy and sooo good. Yesterday I made it with one chicken breast added to the soup before cooking and had green onions & cheese for toppings but forgot to get the toppings out of the fridge. It was still yummy!

Crock Pot Potato Soup

30 oz bag frozen hash brown potatoes

two 14 oz chicken broth

1/2 onion diced

1/4 tsp ground pepper

options: 1 cup diced chicken breast, 1/4 cut diced green or red pepper, 2 cans of clams (juice & all), 2 cloves minced garlic

place all in a crock pot on low for 5 hours

then add: 8 oz cream cheese, cubed & cook for 30 mins. Stir before serving.

Optional toppings: bacon bits, green onion, cheese, dollop of sour cream, etc.

Southern CA

So much to tell; we did so much on our short week to So. California. Liz, Sydney and I left early Wednesday morning driving south. Steve, Liz's sweet hubby, loaned us his new baby (GPS) for the trip. We dubbed her "Joyce" and were amazed at how no-nonsense, calm and intelligent she is. Joyce told us when we had made a wrong turn ("In 100 feet make a right turn if possible."), when we insisted we really DID want to go south on 101 and not Highway 5, she finally sighed and recalculated our trip. We just plugged in the addresses in Sacramento we needed to go and she got us there. By the end of the trip when we had turned her off (since we knew how to get from Sacramento to home, Sydney was confused, "How come Joyce isn't talking?" We turned her back on.

First stop was Sacramento, several business stops and then of course, we stopped at Runs with Scissors Quilt Shop in Citrus Heights. Our friend Marie owns this new shop and it looks great. It was hopping with customers, a quilting class and Jackie was demonstrating something in the back. We spent the night with Liz's friend Brilyn. Brilyn has the cutest 4 month old baby, Rylie Jayne. Thanks Brilyn & Joey. We were off on Thursday morning at the crack o'dawn thirty (5:30 am) and stopped for breakfast in Modesto. There was some rain now and again. In order to avoid Los Angeles we cut across CA at Bakersfield and through Tehatchapi (where we grabbed lunch and let Sydney play in the playland), to CA 395, down the Cajon Pass into San Bernardino and on to Redlands. Joyce was magnificent at getting us there, but she does NOT know the best way to get from the freeway to Dad's House! We arrived around 4 pm. After dinner Dad & Liz drove to the airport to pick up the Minnesota kids!

Great-Grandpa and Jakob got along fine!

The kids loved picking oranges and lemons right off the trees in Great-Grandpa & Willie's Redlands home.
Generally Jakob (3 in March) and Sydney (4 in March) get along pretty well. Some sibling-type rivalry, but they had so much fun playing (and plotting!) together. Jakob, the younger, is several inches taller and several lbs. heavier than Sydney....at Disneyland they really scoped him out as being under 3. I had to comment, "Would you like to see his passport?"

One morning we all got to go to Redlands High School, my Alma Mater for a booster's club pancake breakfast. Afterward we went to Sylvan Park and the kids all posed in front of the tree Mr. Scottie Dog and I met in....yes, a tree....I was 3 weeks out of high school and he was a junior in college. A week later we were engaged....40 years ago!

We played on the swings, slides and more. Here's sweet Mercedes loving the swing. Isn't she the cutest thing? She always has a big smile and a sparkle in her eye.
Dad and Willie were the best hosts. Willie fed us (and such a crowd!) fabulous meals....dinner conversation always consisted of , "This is fantastic! Can I have the recipe?" We filled up the house with people, toys and suitcases and not once did they complain! I think the bathrooms and the laundry really got a workout!

We visited with friends, went to Disneyland and more....I'll save that story till next time.

Family Weekend

This past Friday was a full day. Bill and I got up, puttered around the house and packed our suitcases. While I did the dishes, located a bunch of sand toys and packed the car, Bill was busy buying a new truck. At 11 am he was the proud owner of a new-to-us 2002 Chevy Truck. I think he said it was 3/4 ton blah blah blah...at least that was how much I understood. What I understand most is that we got an incredible deal on a used US Forest Service Vehicle and it is "Forest Service Green" to match my Chevy Tahoe. He bought it at an on-line auction and we didn't have to drive far to get it as it was just a couple of miles away at the Eureka Forest Service Office. He picked it up on Tuesday.
Back to Friday.....after we bought the truck we headed to Liz's house and picked her and Sydney up. Bill dropped us off at the Scottie Dog Quilt Shop and did the banking. Liz and I each had one small task to finish before we could be gone for 4 days. OOPS...one of the lights in the classroom was out. I got the ladder and the bulbs and Liz tried to change the burnt out bulbs. Double OOPS....it wasn't the bulbs, it was the ballast that was kaput. Quick call to Mr. Scottie Dog....don't just honk for us, please come in. It only took him 10 minutes to get the lights back on. Hurray for Mr. Scottie Dog!!!!
Finally we were on our way to Point Arena on the Mendocino Coast to spend a long weekend with my father and his wife Willie (here's where I draw the line......I hate to refer to Willie as my "Step Mother" because it brings up horrible connotations. I loved my mother dearly, miss her terribly BUT as I told Willie this weekend, "If I can't have my mother, I'm happy to claim her."). They met us at their time-share trade. Aren't they a good looking couple?














The time-shares were interesting. They are new modular units only one room (12') wide. Bill figured it out--they are mobile/modular units and are 12' so that you can truck them in on a regular highway. The place until recently was an RV park. The units were beautifully furnished. They were supposed to sleep us all, but Dad & Willie had their room, Bill and I slept in the living room and Liz & Sydney were good sports and slept on pads in the car....good thing the seats go down in the Tahoe. The weather was unbelievable! High 70's, sunshine. Not at all what you expect mid-November on the N. CA coast. Sydney wore shorts and we played in the sand. We played cards and for once in my life I was the big winner (two nights in a row)!!! We took a day trip to Ft. Brag, a trip to the beach for Sydney to play in the sand and two trips to the Pt. Arena Pier. Sydney loved the little beach there. It is all rocks but full of "treasures." Little bits of

shells, crab claws, beach glass and more. She filled a bucket full to take home. We ate a few meals out---who would expect to eat on

the 2nd floor deck of a restaurant right on the waterfront in mid-November???? Mr. Scottie Dog bar-b-qued some awesome steaks and Willie kept us fed too well. In fact I made her chicken cheese casserole for Stash Pot Pie Club yesterday at the store. Liz should have more pictures so maybe I'll post a couple tomorrow. We had a great time. Thanks Dad & Willie for inviting all of us.