Good Season'n With Herb'n Renewal

Okay, the ice has melted and now we can really see the damage to our beautiful trees and we're gonna cry. Something had to get us out of our “funk” so what could be better than a kettle of soup! And, seen as how our sweet potatoes didn't care whether or not we had power...they survived! They ended up in a pot yesterday for one of our favorite recipes. :) Drew prepared this recipe when he was the guest chef at our local Williams & Sonoma and it was a hit! Rich and creamy without cream!!!

Thought I would share it with you. Pardon the CAPITAL letters. The font that I use on our recipe cards always come out that way and right now I've got to get busy trying to clear the limbs so I can get to our commercial kitchen...herb seasoning seems more important than old capital letters right now!

JAMM'N SWEET TATER SOUP

2 RIBS CELERY, DICED

1/4 CUP ONION, DICED

1/2 STICK BUTTER

3 LBS. SWEET TATERS, PEELED & CUT

INTO 1/4" CHUNKS. ABOUT 10 CUPS

2 LBS. YUKON GOLD TATERS, PEELED AND QUARTERED. ABOUT 7 TATERS

1 1 /2 QTS. CHICKEN BROTH

1 TBSP. JAMM’N JERK

IN A 4 QT. POT, OVER MEDIUM HEAT, SAUTE' CELERY AND ONIONS FOR 10 MINUTES OR UNTIL TENDER....DO NOT BROWN! ADD BOTH TATERS AND CHICKEN BROTH; BRING TO A BOIL. GIVE IT A STIR; COVER POT AND REDUCE HEAT. SIMMER FOR 20 MINUTES. REMOVE LID AND STIR IN JAMM'N JERK; SIMMER FOR 10 MORE MINUTES. REMOVE FROM HEAT AND BLEND UNTIL SMOOTH IN A FOOD PROCESSOR OR WITH A STICK BLENDER.

TRY ADDING A DOLLOP OF SOUR CREAM OR BLEU CHEESE TO EACH BOWL BEFORE SERVING! YUMMY! MAKES 3 1/2 QTS.

Here's a link to our Jamm'n Jerk. 

http://www.localharvest.org/jammn-jerk-C261

The snow and ice started on Monday night and by Tuesday morning we were looking at our beautiful pine trees collapsing. The both of us cringed each time we heard another branch break. All we could do was watch and shake our heads. And, of course we kept hoping that huge oak next to our house could handle the weight of the ice and thank heavens most of it did. The cherry tree in the back yard is now leaning towards our home and I'm afraid we'll have to cut it down.

Then the power went out!

It's a good thing we keep an emergency box on hand. Out came the candles, lanterns, radio and all of the extra batteries. The freezers all have extra jugs of water frozen in them so we knew our “summer stash” of veggies would be okay.

Then we hear on the radio that our water company has frozen pumps so we are put on a restricted water use mode. Then the trickles of water that we had stopped flowing, so no more water. Tough thawing out jugs of frozen water when the temperature outside is 5 degrees! We managed to cut open some jugs and boil our water on the outside grill. Believe me, neither one of us could have survived without our old coffee percolator!

By day four we had water!!!! Still no electricity though. Funny, our neighbors all had power. We've had this problem before and it seems like we are the last ones on the transformer and the fuse pops out every time the power goes off. The utility company comes out and pops it back in...two minutes later we have lights! Not this time. It took 13 days to get someone out to our farm and get us back in business. I think it might have taken longer except I finally called and informed them that we rely on our business to pay our bills...yours included! Lol Oh, by the way, keeping that old dial phone sure paid off because those modern ones don't work without electricity...remember that next time you see one at a yard sale.

The one good thing about not having power was the amazing food that we ate. The freezers started to thaw and I'll be darned if I was going to let all of my hard work go to waste. We had the most wonderful grilled veggie tortilla pizzas. And, the huge kettle of veggie soup was to die for! Of course Drew kept giving me a strange look every time his spoon came up with a whole Brussels sprout!!! I think I'll chop them up next time I decide to recreate that soup.

All in all we survived even if our tree lined driveway did not. But, I guess we'll just get a bit more eccentric and have 40' topiaries! It's nice to be back in the land of power and no....we do not want to go through this again!

This is what our farm looked like on day one!