Baked Potato Chowder w/ James

When I came up with the idea to do this blog I was so excited. I imagined

making lots of different recipes with the help of my kids, taking pictures

and then typing about it. This takes alot more time than I thought. I

have 5 kids, three are school age and when they get home there is homework,

piano practice, violin, chores, dinner to prepare and the occaional whiny baby.

There are so many things I want to get done while they are at school that I have a

hard time sitting down at a computer for too long.

I still love this idea and I will keep at it as much as I can. Bear with me.

James is helping me again with this next recipe. He loves to cut, slice, shred, whatever

it takes to help. We are making Baked Potato Chowder, my favorite.

One of the ingredients is shredded cheddar cheese. I'd like to say that James

is the one that shredded all that cheese but he didn't. He certainly tried though.

There's no real measurement of the cheese. We just add as much as we like.

Here is our chowder base. Melt 1/2 cup of butter in the pan then stir in 1/2 cup

flour. Then add 6 cups of milk(2% or 1%)2 cups at a time. Constantly stir on medium heat until it thickens and is a little bubbly.

Before making the chowder base, we prepared the potatoes. James
and I just cut them up in cubes and boiled them, like you would do for
mashed potatoes

Here James is mashing them for me. Only mash a little not too much.


James added them to the prepared base.
We also added salt and pepper to taste.

Nest comes the cheese, chopped green onions,.......

.......sour cream and....

.....REAL bacon bits.

Stir together and serve. You can eat the soup by itself or with

Sour Cream and Cheddar potato chips.

Absolutely delicious!!!

Now, James helped me make the chowder but does he eat it?

No Way!! "I don't like onions."

James and the Giant Cookie

James is my 3 year old and he LOVES to help cook, especially cookies.

Whenever he sees me take out the mixer he knows we are going to cook

something yummy and he just has to help.He unwraps the 1 stick of butter and puts it in the bowl with 3/4 c. sugar and 3/4 c. brown sugar.
He likes to be the one to crack the 2 eggs and I put them into the bowl.

I've made this recipe so many times I don't even measure the 1 tsp. of vanilla.

James likes to help pour it in and I have my hand on the bottle or he'll

pour the whole thing in.

Then he adds the 2 cups of flour plus just a smidge more.

He turns the bowl while the mixer does its job.

His favorite part is adding the semi-sweet chocolate chips.

He makes sure there are plenty in the cookies.

I put them into the oven for him at 375 for 9-10 mins.

And here we have our favorite chocolated chip cookies. One day (when he's older) he

will be able to make these cookies all by himself and all I will have to do is eat them.