Jack is Cooking Root Vegetable and Leek Soup

Well Hello Internet!
This past sunday, julie and i decided to make a Root Vegetable and Leek Soup!
its very easy to make.
heres what you need
1 leek
1 potato
1 rutabaga
3 carrots
3 parsnips
1 onion
2 inches of ginger
parsley
chicken stock (3-4 cups)
salt and pepper (1/2 tablespoon each- more pepper if you want)
cinnamon
half and half (1/2 cup)
first chop everything up into 2 inch cubes (except the ginger.  chop that up pretty finely)
then with a little butter sauté the carrots, onions, ginger, and parsley for about 5 minutes, or until the onions start getting a little clear
put the rest of the vegetables in the pot with the chicken stock (enough that all the vegetables are covered)
cook for about 45 minutes.  at this point all the veggies should be nice and soft.  take a potato masher
and mash them all together.  i prefer the masher to an immersion blender, because i like it still a little chunky.  then add in the half and half, the salt and pepper, and the cinnamon (just a dash)
cook it for 15 more minutes, then serve.  i served it with a spoon of greek yogurt, some chives, and a dash more cinnamon
mmmm mmmm delicious

Jack is Cooking Mashed Carrots and Swede (Rutabaga)

Well Hello Internet!

The other vegetable side dish in the Christmas Dinner that we made is mashed carrots and swedes.  this is something that my grandmother used to make, and is especially delicious.  In england the vegetable is called Swede, but here in america they call it a Rutabaga.

whatever you call it its pretty darn good.

This is the easiest thing we made!

heres what you’ll need:
carrots
swedes
butter
salt and pepper
nutmeg

so first peel and cut all the vegetables and put them in a pot covered with water.  boil until they are tender, but not mushy

remove and strain, and put them back into the pot. and mash up with a potato masher

add some butter, salt, pepper, and a little bit of nutmeg, and mash again!  keep it a little lumpy though, you don’t want this to be creamy.
so that’s the carrots!
mmmm mmmm delicious!