My mother was an incredible cook, in fact she was a true gourmet cook! Our house was always the first chosen for family and friends to get together because of it. She believed in presentation too, always eliciting the “it looks to good to eat, but let’s dig in” comment. We have her large library of cookbooks, handwritten and typed recipes and notes- she always classified them as “Very Good” to “Fair” in her liner notes.  Growing up she apologized in advance when experimenting with a new recipe just in case it didn’t work, most of her new creations were really good as I remember it. The cool part was she did not shy away from trying ideas and rearranging old favorites.

Texas is all about hospitality, and hospitality is all about food. My hope is that we’ve created a fun place to post recipes, new and old, some handed down for generations- some maybe just made! There’s just nothing better that good ol’ Texas cookin’. 

Here is my mother’s  recipe for Baked Potato Soup- low fat style she made for me when I decided to eat a little healthier (gasp!)

Baked Potato Soup- from my Mother’s Recipes- this one is typed out on paper by her.

BAKED POTATO SOUP
4 large baking potatoes
2/3 cup low fat butter substitute or margarine
2/3 cups flour
6-7 cups of mile (I use skim)
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
4 chopped green onions
1 ¼ cup shredded low fat cheddar
8oz. low fat sour cream
1 cup celery diced small
1 cup carrots diced small
Bake potatoes 1 hour at 400 degrees. Cut up and scrape out pulp. In large pot melt margarine, add flour, and stir until smooth. Cook 1 minute stirring constantly. Gradually add milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick and bubbly. Add potatoes , salt, and pepper, and the onions, celery, carrots, and cheese. Save some onions and cheese as garnish. Stir in sour cream. Add more milk if needed until mixture reaches serving consistency. Use extra onion and cheese as garnish plus bacon bits if you like.

This time of year there’s little better chill time than sitting down with some good homemade hot chocolate made with real Hershey’s Cocoa. Here’s a simple recipe from our kitchen:

4 cups millk
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tbsn cocoa
1/2 tspn vanilla extract

Heat the milk slowly, stirring constantly, bring to just under a boil. Reduce heat to be sure that the milk does not boil. Stir in cocoa, sugar, and vanilla, and I
like to remove it from the heat before whisking to get a nice froth . Add your favorite garnish- marshmallows, cinnamon stick get cozy and enjoy!