This is our favorite, go-to soup in the fall and winter. It can be thrown together in 20 minutes or less, is great doubled for a crowd, and chances are -- you have everything on hand. It is adapted from the Baker Upstairs. We LOVE Jamie’s Breadsticks with it.

Easy Potato Cheese Soup -- printable version here.

6-8 small russet potatoes or 4 big ones

4 Tbs. butter (if you want to make it REALLY good, substitute some bacon drippings for the butter. Basically, when you make bacon, save the bacon grease in a container just for this purpose. It makes it YUM.)

1/2 cup flour

2 cups milk --whatever you have on hand

4 cups chicken broth OR 4 cups water + 4 chicken boullion cubes (my favorite is the Better Than Bouillon -- I find it is least expensive at Costco)

Seasoned salt and or garlic salt to taste

a couple of big handfuls of shredded cheese

a few big spoonful's of sour cream (also optional if you don’t have it on hand)

Optional:

If you don’t have bacon drippings, throwing in some real bacon bits is so yummy

*optional: garnish with additional cheese, sour cream, real bacon bits and green onion.

Pierce the potatoes a few times and microwave them all until soft, in my microwave it’s about 12 minutes. Let cool while you are putting everything else together. When cool, I take the skins off, but I know some like to leave them on. Cut them into bite size pieces

Melt the butter in a large soup pot, add the flour and whisk until smooth and combined about 2 minutes. Add the milk and chicken broth and cook, stirring occasionally until thick and bubbly, about 6-8 minutes.

Gently stir in potato chunks. Add seasoned salt/garlic salt to taste and add the cheese, stir until melted. Take off heat, stir in sour cream.

Printable version here.

Enjoy!!

from pinterest

Day 6: I actually love Mondays right now. I say right now because I haven’t always loved them.

They are new beginnings, a hope for a better week with grand ambitions. Monday is always my best day for exercising and eating well, my body is usually screaming for it after the weekend. I make a to-do list for the week and plan dinners and my grocery list. If you’ve noticed I hardly ever, ever post on Mondays even though blog experts report that is the highest traffic day. It’s my day to get things back in order.

The garbage comes on Monday and I always see how much I can get out there before it comes. There is something deeply satisfying watching my junk being hauled away, out of sight and to have empty garbage cans, even just for a few minutes.

I also love Mondays because I am home for most of the day. The older I get, the more I love to be at home. Errands and grocery shopping used to be a fun excuse to get out of the house with little ones to break up long days. Now, as our children are older I am in the car a lot, driving between games, practices, church activities, and lessons. I find myself wanting to be at home more and in stores less, even though it always seems I need a quick trip to the store somewhere along the way after a weekend of hungry kids. I’ve tried to plan ahead and do the only once to the grocery store a week, but haven’t been able to pull it off yet.

I also love Mondays because it is family night. A night where we do something fun together and try to involve a lesson on basic principles such as honesty, kindness, helping others, keeping the commandments, etc. and we always have treats. Some nights it’s a disaster and we wonder why we try and just go to bed. Other nights, they go really well and we grow closer as a family and we keep going. I notice that usually when we try to plan ahead and put some effort into the evening, it goes much better. I emphasize usually.

I love, loved Tad R. Callister’s talk this past weekend at our church conference: “We might all ask ourselves: do our children receive our best spiritual, intellectual and creative efforts, or do they receive our leftover time and talents?” A good thought for a Monday when I’m most ambitious.

What about you? Do you love Mondays or dread them?

I’ve been on the lookout for a console table for our front porch to be able to decorate with the seasons. This one came up yesterday on a facebook yard sale group. There were a lot of people interested, but I’ve found an email/text with the phrase: “I can pick it up today and pay cash.” with a smiley face, your name (if you are a woman) and your phone number/email has proven to be the best for scoring items.

It shows that you will show up (they want it GONE!),

that you have the money (you won’t try to to talk them down or pay with a bad check),

that you are a woman (sometimes important if the seller is a woman she won’t be concerned if she is alone), 

you are friendly. (smiley faces = friendly),

and they can contact you easily with the method they prefer.

When contacting them: if they seem younger, texting always seems to win. If they are older, CALL. They usually prefer good old fashioned talking on the phone.

Best places to check:

* Craigslist in your area

* Facebook yard sale groups -- search on facebook the name of your community, your county, or the largest one that is close to you. For my old town, it was called Montgomery County Yard Sale. There are usually more than one. Request to join the group and the postings will show up in your facebook feed. It is a group of local people that post their things they are trying to sell online. You must be a facebook member to join. Warning: people are quick on these sites! Don’t wait if it’s something you really want. It’s always good to reply on the listing that you are interested in it, and send a private message as well to show you really want it.

Online classified ads -- remember how we used to check the newspaper for classified ads? Most are online now.

Those are my tips -- what about you? Any tried and true tips for scoring awesome items online? I am off to paint that table…