Cooking Success!!!

I am addicted to Pinterest.  In a very bad way.  I find all these great things that I want to cook/make/wear/read... and so on.  But let's be honest... most of those things will never happen.

Tonight I was feeling really domestic (and hungry), though.  I decided I was going to cook!  Rather than make something that I always make like tacos, pasta, bbq chicken, etc., I decided to venture out into the world of cooking and find a new recipe.  After passing on some more difficult ideas, I settled on potato soup and some mint chocolate chip cookies.

I LOVE potato soup.  It's one of my all-time favorites!  I'd had several different people make it for me, but always forget to get the recipe.  And I have one or two more that I like... but they are slow cooker recipes and I was hungry NOW.  As in I almost decided at Wal-mart just to but some pre-made stuff.  But I overcame laziness and starvation to get the ingredients that I needed.

With the potato soup, I made a few changes to the ingredients.  First, I used frozen hash browns instead of cutting and peeling potatoes.  It was late and I didn't have any patience for it.  I used the Ore Ida regular hash brown cubes (32oz bag).  I wanted to use the Potatoes O'Brien, but it was a smaller bag.  I also used chopping green onions instead of the yellow onion.  It took about 3 bundles. And, in place of the ham/chops, I used pre-cooked bacon.  Took about 8 pieces.  I also added some garlic powder.

I was going to be all fancy and do a "cast of characters"... And I did for the soup!  But for some reasons, I have eggs in the picture and left out a few of the cast members... so we'll just save being fancy for next time.

It took about 45 minutes with the prep and cooking.  I really liked it!  Although, I think I might use less mashed potato flakes next time.  The soup came out tasting (and looking) like loaded mashed potatoes.

Now, on to the cookies!  I love me some mint chocolate chip ice cream.  Baskin Robbins is the best with Ben and Jerry's Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream coming in a close second.  Baskin Robbins even used to make Mint Chocolate Chip hard candy.  Why not put all that into a cookie?

My cookies turned out a little less minty than I expected.  But they were still good.  A little flat.  I think I might use a different butter/margarine next time.  And maybe leave out the food coloring.  With them browning on the bottom, they just look funny.

Hopefully, I'll venture out into the cooking world again soon.  Maybe next time, with pictures.