Baked Potato Soup & Salad with Easy Buttermilk Garlic Dressing

I used to make Baked Potato Soup constantly when I was catering - lunch meetings for clients, or ladies luncheon showers.  It is so satisfying and filling - in a decadent sort of way.  It is definitely something fabulous to serve for a special occasion.  Therefore... it is not something that I make often.  It is just hard for me to serve for dinner during the week because it really has no nutritional value.  I'm not anti-potato/carb like many people are, I just like to have some sort of healthy balance to a meal.  But, it is such a yummy soup...

Which brings me to this salad.  I somehow feel better about serving this rich soup with a large platter of fresh greens and veggies in the form of a salad.  I modeled the dressing off of one of our favorite comfort food restaurants, Houston's.  The recipe is so easy - you probably have everything you need, (except buttermilk) and it takes seconds to stir together.  Again, I understand that a mayo/sour cream dressing topped salad isn't necessarily "health food" but it is fresh, homemade, crunchy and full of nutrients.

Emma decided that it was her "new favorite snack" - as she told Mike when he got home.  Of course, I think she was just dipping the chopped bacon in dressing, so who wouldn't like that?

Traditional Salad

4 cups of greens (I used romaine, arugula, shaved brussels sprouts, and red leaf)

carrots

cherry tomatoes

boiled egg, chopped

crispy bacon, chopped

Buttermilk Garlic Dressing

1/2 cup of sour cream

2/3 cup of mayo

1 clove of garlic, crushed/pressed

1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

1 teaspoon of paprika

1/2 teaspoon of cracked pepper

1 tablespoon of sugar

1/2 cup of buttermilk

3 green onions, minced

Whisk together sour cream and mayo.  Mince garlic finely, or push through a garlic press.  Add salt, paprika, pepper and sugar to the mixture.  Whisk in buttermilk.  Add green onions. Keep refrigerated.  

Baked Potato Soup


1 stick of butter
1/2 cup of flour
6 cups of whole milk
1 cup of half and half
salt & pepper
5 cups of red potatoes, 1/4 inch cubes

Cut potatoes into 1/4 inch cubes, then cook in salted water until tender - about 8 minutes.  Drain potatoes and set aside.

In a medium/large sauce pan, melt butter, then add flour over low heat and whisk until smooth.  Let the flour cook for just a minute - be careful not to burn!  Whisk in a cup or two of milk.  Whisk until smooth, then add in cream.  Bring the soup to a simmer, stirring constantly.  Add potatoes just before serving.  Keep the heat on low and be careful not to scorch the bottom.

Optional garnish :
smoked sausage, cubed & browned
cheddar cheese
bacon
green onions

This Week's Menu & Fall Fun with Cousins

We had a fall fun-packed weekend with my Sister and her family in town.  In two and a half days we went to a pumpkin patch, a train station, we stumbled upon a parade, had a craft day at kaleidoscope, ran around in a hotel (since we don't have a house...) and went to the Fall Festival in our neighborhood.  I love this photo of the 5 of us at the pumpkin patch!

Here Emma and Sam are running for the Corn Maze.

And running through the Corn Maze.  Pink cowgirl boots, of course.

Yeehaw!

Emma in the tunnel, 2014, age 2

Kate in the tunnel, 2014, age 1

Flashback : Sam in a tunnel 3 years ago, 2011, age 1

*You might remember my post of Sam in a similar tunnel at a pumpkin patch and some Halloween gifts I made for friends - 3 years ago!

I love this photo from our neighborhood fall festival - Emma's 2nd horse ride of the weekend.  One of our friends took this photo of her daughter and caught Emma and me in the background : )

After being in survival mode for the last couple of weeks - packing, moving, unpacking, hosting family - we are settling into our new routine.  I still have some organizing to do this afternoon so I am no longer digger through boxes to access my work things, but we're feeling a little more settled.  The house is moving right along - the digging starts today!  I'm headed over this afternoon to look at the progress before I pick Emma up from school.  I'm a little cautious of exposing her to too much of the ugly part of the construction, because I don't want her to be worried about her house being torn apart.  I'll take her there more when the fun, building part of the process begins.

Here is my dinner plan for the week... I'm not really sure what order they will happen!

French Onion Soup & Salad

This is Emma's favorite soup... who would've guessed?!  I have to say it is one of mine, too.  I'll be making a really yummy salad with greens, chopped egg, bacon and veggies with buttermilk garlic dressing, too.

Roasted Beat & Vegetable Salad with Goat Cheese & Chicken

This will be a new recipe - sort of like the one pictured, but more of a salad, without olives or rosemary... so verry different, I guess.  My plan is to roast beets, carrots and brussel sprouts, along with chicken breasts.  Then cut into large pieces, toss with arugula and lemon shallot vinaigrette and add goat cheese.

Meatball Lasagna

If this doesn't happen on Wednesday, it will happen on Sunday.

Braised Short Ribs

A popular one!  Again, this might happen Sunday instead, we'll see how the week goes.  Sometimes by Thursday we are having Chinese takeout : )

A vintage glass doorknob DIY for under $14!

Home sweet home... it feels good to be back! Thanks to everyone for sticking around while we took some time off to visit Florida.

Our tile guy was supposed to start on the fireplace last week but he's been working on another job so it keeps getting pushed back (the frustration!). We're hoping he'll start this week (or we may just have to find someone else).

In the meantime, I've been tackling some smaller projects. I finished one yesterday that I am so excited about, it's worthy of its own post (updated after new reader info!)

Vintage hardware lovers... today is your lucky day.

So, remember how the downstairs door looked like this a couple weeks ago?

A while back we upgraded all of the knobs in this oval oil rubbed bronze style, which was fine, but once I painted the door black I wanted something that popped a bit more.

Vintage hardware has always spoken to me, and I'd be in heaven if all of the doors in our house could look like these...

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But seriously, have you looked at the prices of these things? Most will set you back $100 or more, and if you plan to do a whole house... well, forget it. Not an option for us. Not only that, but most don't fit with the modern 2 1/8" bore hole size and you'll need to completely modify or replace the door to get all the parts to fit. So not worth it.

I've been determined to find another way.  After much searching, I stumbled upon this glass knob set for the very reasonable price of just under $14.39 shipped:

The link is acting strange, you'll need to copy and paste this into your browser to get it to work: atgstores.com/interior-door-handles/first-watch-security-1148-passage-door-latch-set_g946614.html 

(it comes in nickel and brass as well). To complete this project you only need the door knobs though (assuming you are happy with the color of your latch and strike plate). You can get the knobs easier, like this one for under $8 on Amazon or Home Depot (if you don't mind spray painting the metal, or you can get the bronze for $10):

The problem with the complete door knob kit that I purchased is that it doesn't fit standard bore holes (despite what the Q&A says). The screw holes are placed 2" apart but the bore hole is 2 1/8" so there's nothing for them to screw into.

The solution is to buy these wooden inserts which you attach to the inside of your bore so the screws have something to go into:

But even those are way more than I wanted to spend, and more hassle than it was worth.

I had to come up with a solution... so after some pondering and google searching, I came across these back plates (also called escutcheons):

They were $13.98 shipped which I thought was a great deal considering my alternatives. And I knew I could easily customize them to get rid of the brass.

While writing this post, I found them at Amazon for $8.99 shipped and Home Depot for $5.80 shipped!

Now that I had all my parts, it was time for a little DIY.

First, I had to remove the metal ring on the holes because my spindle wasn't long enough to reach through to the other side:

I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with the brass finish, so I started by sanding it down a bit (with 220 grit paper). There was a silver metal underneath which I let peek through.



Then I sprayed a light coat of satin black. I didn't like how it looked up against the black door (which is a cool/light black) so I sanded it down and decided I liked what was happening (you can see the sanded plate on the left and unsanded on the right).

Then I dug around in the garage and found some gold and brown spray paint, so I started experimenting.

I added some gold and sanded a bit, and once I added the brown it gave it a subtle rusty effect which looked very realistic. After a bit more sanding, they looked like this:

Love! The whole thing only took about 10 minutes (including waiting for the paint to dry in between sanding).

Installation was super easy. The latch and strike plate were staying so I simply removed the old knobs, slid the new ones through with my new back plates, screwed the plates directly onto the door, and tightened the handle. Easier and faster than replacing standard door handles (and about the same price!)

I love the way the rusty color coordinates with my fall wreath. Happy accident.

Because I didn't shop around enough (oops) my price came to just under $25 for everything, but if you buy the back plates for $5.80 and the glass knobs for under $8 on Amazon or Home Depot  (and use your existing latch and strike plate), you could get the same thing for under $14. That is seriously cheap for this setup.

UPDATE: A reader just informed me that they sell a kit like this at Home Depot for $19—it includes the mortise latch but you could just leave that out for modern style doors. Unfortunately I don't live near one but that's also a good option if you just want to buy everything together!

I would replace all of the knobs in my house in a heartbeat, except that I haven't been able to find any vintage style privacy knobs that work with modern doors (and aren't ridiculously expensive). Boo. If you know of one, let me know!

In other hardware news, I got my pendant pulls in for our sideboard!

They came in brass, so a couple quick coats of black paint later and they're perfect (and I was able to leave the key hole exposed!)

And that's all for now. I have an almost finished project in the garage right now that needs my attention today... those of you who follow me on instagram got an early preview :)

In the meantime, we're enjoying this beautiful fall weather that arrived right on schedule...

And after months of a dry spell, we even got some rain!

Unfortunately it was short lived, as it's expected to climb back into the 90's in a few days. But it did get me excited for fall.

I'll be back at the end of this week to share, and *hopefully* will have an early fireplace update then as well. Fingers crossed!