Potato Soup with Grilled Onions

On a very cold day, I remembered that I had a package of wonderful Vidalia onions in the freezer.  I grilled 6 big onions in late summer and put them away for wintertime.  They had a fantastic smoky flavor right off the grill and I was sure they would retain that flavor!  And they did!

What a delicious foundation for a pot of creamy potato soup.

Soup making doesn’t require a detailed recipe.  Add what you like! For this batch, I used creamy Yukon Gold potatoes, fresh celery and 2 halves of my grilled onions. 

Grilled Onion Potato Soup

2 Tablespoons of garlic infused olive oil

4 cups peeled and cubed gold potatoes

2 halves grilled onions

2 stalks of celery chopped

4 cups of savory chicken broth

2 cups of half and half

½ teaspoon celery seed

½ teaspoon of dried dill

Several grinds of black peppercorns

Sauté the potatoes and celery in the olive oil for about 5 minutes. Add the seasonings, onion halves and chicken broth.  Simmer for 30 minutes or a little longer until the vegetables are done.  Pour in the half and half and continue to simmer for a few more minutes. The onion halves will separate into rings, but you can chop them even more, if you’d like.  If your soup isn’t thick enough, you can add a couple Tablespoons of instant mashed potato flakes or a slurry made with a Tablespoon of corn starch with ¼ cup of half and half, milk or cold water.  You can also slightly mash the potatoes in the soup and that will thicken the mixture. 

 

How to Grill and Freeze Onions

Vidalia Onions are the best for this!  Clean the onions and cut them in half. Brush the onion flat side with olive oil.  Place the onions, flat side down, on the bbq grill over medium heat.  Cover the grill and leave the onions for 20 - 30 minutes until they are soft, but still firmly held together.   Remove the onions.  Let them cool and place them in freezer containers.  I put waxed paper between layers.  Freeze them until you are ready to use them.  Thaw them on the countertop for a couple hours, or in the fridge overnight.

 

Blueberry Biscuits

 

Here's a recipe you just can't mess up!  Pillsbury created these delicious blueberry biscuits and you just pop then out of the can and bake them according to the instructions provided!  They are great with a cup of coffee or a glass of cold milk!

Butter Beans & Cabbage for New Year's

Butter beans on New Year’s Day!  Everybody has their own traditions for food on New Year’s!  My husband always wanted great northern beans and cooked cabbage.  Beans keep us healthy during the next year.  Cabbage keeps us financially sound!  I have never liked great northern beans. I think that I had to eat them too often as a kid!  So, butter beans were on my menu this year. 

I’ll share my method for cooking butter beans, but the cabbage is what came from my freezer.  I want to make sure you know how simple it is to freeze cabbage and grab a bag of it to cook.  Why would we freeze cabbage when it lasts two months in the refrigerator crisper?  Because you end up with two big heads of cabbage accidentally!

Crock Pot Butter Beans

Use a ham hock or a left-over ham bone to flavor the beans.  Put 1 pound of dried butter beans in the crock pot.  Add the ham bone and a sweet onion cut into chunks.  Add at least 6 cups of water to the pot.  If that doesn’t cover the beans with about an inch of water over the top, add more water.  Add about a teaspoon of black pepper and a half teaspoon of salt.  The ham will have plenty of salt in it, so there is no need to over salt.  Add ½ a teaspoon of celery seed.

Cook on high for 2 hours.  Turn down to low and cook another 2 – 3 hours, until the beans are tender.  There is no need to soak the beans overnight.  The crock pot does all that magic.

 

Sautéed Cabbage

I’m not sure I have a recipe for sautéing cabbage!  Melt 2 Tablespoons of butter with 1 Tablespoon of lemon infused olive oil in a heavy skillet.  Add 3 cups of chopped cabbage and sauté until the cabbage is crisp tender.  In the last minute of cooking, turn the heat to high so you get a nice crunchy caramelization on some of the cabbage.

 

How to Freeze Cabbage

This is pretty easy!  Slice the cabbage into thick shreds, and portion it in zipper freezer bags.  Freeze it until you are ready to use it.  Cook the cabbage from the frozen state. There is no need to thaw it.  Do not, however, drop the frozen cabbage into hot oil or butter.  Make sure your skillet is warm but not sizzling.

I’m writing my first post of 2025 on a very cold day in the middle of a snow and ice storm. Roads and businesses are closed.  Power lines are down and much of Southern Illinois is without electricity.  This is a perfect day to get started on my foodie project for the new year.  I’ll be posting about all the ways I am using the produce I froze in the summer and fall last year.  I deliberately filled my freezer so I wouldn’t have to do much grocery shopping during the winter, but more importantly, so I could have the same delicious vegetables and fruits off-season that I enjoy in-season! 

I care about the nutritional value in fruits and vegetables.  Many studies show that there is very little loss of nutrients in frozen fruits and vegetables. In fact, it is possible that frozen vegetables contain a higher level of nutrients than those found in fresh vegetables purchased at the supermarket.  It is all about the fact that fruits and vegetables are often picked before they reach peak ripeness, so they can ripen as they are being transported to supermarkets.  My pantry is also full of lots of canned fruits and vegetables, and until I became an empty nester, I practiced canning and preserving just like my mother and grandmother had!

My blog posts for the upcoming months are going to include lots of the foods that I have frozen with wintertime in mind!

I almost always prepare a menu including fish for Christmas Eve.  This is a simple way to prepare Mahi Mahi. 

Mahi Mahi with Creamed Zoodles and Shrimp

Thaw the fish and pat it dry with a paper towel.  Brush it with avocado oil and season it with lemon pepper and parsley.  Drizzle a little avocado oil in a sheet pan and air fry the fish for about 12 minutes at 350 degrees.  No need to turn it over. The size and thickness of the fish will determine the time needed. 

My zoodles came right out of the freezer.  Dip them in cold water and they immediately thaw.  Press all the water out of the squash and let them continue to drain on a paper towel.

In a skillet, melt 2 Tablespoons of butter and sauté peeled deveined shrimp.  I cook for one person, but you can plan on using 6 large shrimp per person.  Make the cream sauce by making a slurry of 1 cup of half and half with 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch.  Before adding the slurry to the skillet, sprinkle ¼ cup of grated dry parmesan cheese to the skillet and stir it around.  Gently pour in the half and half and bring the skillet to a simmer. While simmering, add the zoodles.  The shrimp and the zoodles will release some water into the sauce.  If it isn’t as thick as you’d like, simply make a little more slurry of cornstarch and half and half and add small portions to the skillet until it reaches desired consistency.

This recipe for one serving can be adjusted for more servings.  It is very simple and delicious. 

How to Freeze Zoodles?

This is such an easy process!  Make your zoodles.  Do not wash them.  Just drop them in a freezer container and freeze them.  I froze mine in 2 cup containers.  They will retain their flavor and will retain most of their texture.  Zucchini is a vegetable that is known for absorbing the flavor of whatever you add to it!