Baby, it's cold outside!

Sorry for the blogging hiatus, folks.  This has been me...

And I'm sure many of you as well!  

I'm trying to ease myself back into blogging a bit.  If you follow me on my Facebook page, I post lots of things from there (I know....slacker....!) but am trying to make an effort to blog more this year.

So, here's to a random post today about weather, full moons, testing, and potato soup.

Mmmhmmm...very random.

So, about the weather.  Tonight and tomorrow we are having our first real blast of cold weather for the year.  Really cold!  (Northern followers, please don't laugh.)

wdbj7.com

No snow yet, but it's cold enough to complain.  And delay school??  A girl can always hope.  The girls were excited, somewhat, to get their cold weather gear out from Christmas.  Moms of daughters...how many Frozen items were under the tree??  

The view from my classroom this morning:

That big circular thing in the sky?  Yeah, it's a moon.  A FULL moon.  Right in the middle of my reading assessments and during the first week back to school.  The only thing worse is to add snow to the forecast!  And no outdoor recess because it's so cold... So today, we're going to do the GoNoodle indoor recess mix.  I just learned about GoNoodle a few months ago and it is a lifesaver on testing, full moon, no outdoor recess, and for any day!  The kids have loved it and they'll be excited to add this to our indoor recess routine!

Now on to the potato soup...

I'm linking up with Laurah at The ESOL Odyssey for her January Recipe Round up!

This is my Cheesy Potato Soup.  Probably not the most healthy of soups, but dang, it's good!!

Ingredients

4 large potatoes, washed

16 oz. sour cream

1 large can of cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup

2 (or more!) cups of shredded cheddar cheese

cubed ham (or for lazy cooks like me, I use sandwich meat!)

Fill a large pot halfway with water and begin to boil.  Peel and cut potatoes into cubes (any size).  Cook til almost done.  Drain about 2/3 of the water.  Dump potatoes and the remaining water into your crock pot.  Add the soup and sour cream.  Mix, but don't over mix (you don't want cheesy mashed potatoes!) Add the cubed ham and shredded cheese.  

Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low all day.  

Great with a fresh loaf of sourdough bread!

The original recipe called for cream of mushroom soup, but I hate mushrooms, so I use chicken.  It's yummo!  For the shredded cheese, I usually just buy the medium bag of pre-shredded cheese...sometimes I add more, depending on my mood :)  The cubed ham is good, but I couldn't find it at the store one day so I grabbed some sliced deli ham, shredded it, and have used that ever since.  Chives and parsley make a good garnish as well.

If you don't want to wait on the crock pot, follow the directions as is and leave it in the original pot, draining the same amount of water, but adding all the ingredients to the pot.  

Hope you enjoy it!  

Stay warm!