Friday, January 14, 2011

Dine Out At Home

On Monday night, I get a girls' night out with the women at church to go learn how to cook a gourmet meal at home, taught by French chef, Jean Claude.  I'm psyched about this.  Mostly because it means I get to eat a gourmet meal for $10 with no children to chase around for 2 hours.  But until I get my official gourmet lesson, I rely on the internet to provide me with restaurant quality meals for my family.

One of our favorite restaurants is Outback Steakhouse.  Back in the day, when we had the luxury of eating out more often, John and I loved ordering the potato soup and salad.  It was perfect on a cold night.  We were up for a change of pace last night and potato soup was sounding good.  I have tried a LOT of potato soup recipes and neither of us has been overly impressed, so I decided to google "outback potato soup recipe" and I hit the jackpot.  We have a winner!  So I thought I would share that with you here!  It's totally yummy and it hit the spot for us last night.

Outback Potato Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

8 potatoes, peeled and diced
4 cans of chicken broth
1 small onion, diced
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper
3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 cups of cold water
1 1/2 cups of heavy cream
1 cup of butter

Boil potatoes and set aside.  
In a separate pot, combine broth, salt, pepper, onion, and water and simmer for 20 minutes.
In a small pot, melt butter.  Add flour and whisk together.  Add to pot of broth slowly, whisking constantly.
Slowly add the heavy cream, continuing to stir.
Let simmer for 20 minutes.
Add potatoes and serve!

Garnish with cheese, bacon bits and green onions.

Yummy!

Now I did mention that we liked the soup AND the salad!  And what makes Outback's salad so great?  The DRESSING!  And yes, I have the ranch recipe right here.  It's my FAVORITE dressing to put on a salad.  


Outback's Ranch Dressing

1 tablespoon of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing (You can also use the buttermilk packet)
1 cup of Mayonnaise (note:  NOT Miracle Whip!)
1/2 cup of buttermilk
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder 

Mix together and chill for at least an hour! 
If you like it "spicier" you can substitute cayenne for the paprika or double the spices.  

I LOVE it!


Stayed tuned for more Dining Out At Home! 

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