Kay Wheeler Moore

Welcome to my blog

Hello. . .

The Newfangled Country Gardener is for anyone who has a garden, would like to have a garden, or who simply enjoys eating the garden-fresh way. I don't claim to be an expert; in this blog I'm simply sharing some of the experiences my husband and I have in preparing food that is home-grown.

About the author

Kay Wheeler Moore is the author of a new cookbook, Way Back in the Country Garden, that features six generations of recipes that call for ingredients that are fresh from the garden. With home gardening surging in popularity as frugal people become more resourceful, this recipe collection and the stories that accompany it ideally will inspire others to cook the garden-fresh way and to preserve their own family food stories as well. The stories in this book center around the Three Red-Haired Miller Girls (Kay's mother and aunts) who grew up in Delta County, TX, with their own backyard garden so lavish that they felt as though they were royalty after their Mama wielded her kitchen magic on all that was homegrown. Introduced in Kay's previous book, Way Back in the Country, the lively Miller Girls again draw readers into their growing-up world, in which a stringent economic era--not unlike today's tight times--saw people turn to the earth to put food on the table for their loved ones. The rollicking yarns (all with recipes attached) have love, family, and faith as common denominators and show how food evocatively bonds us to our life experiences.

Monday, January 7, 2013

A sweet start to the new year—Sweet Potato Soup

A heartwarming first course for any meal—or a meal in itself, as it was for Hubby and me—that’s our appraisal of Sweet Potato Soup. Golden, smooth, and comforting, this dish truly bowled us over, just as the recipe in the magazine stated it would for diners.

A couple of large sweet potatoes, some chopped onion, and a cup of apple cider, along with reduced-sodium chicken broth, formed the basis of this creamy soup. Some sour cream with fresh lime juice added were swirled into the soup for a finishing touch.

Hubby adores anything featuring even a hint of sweet potato, so when I told him this dish was about to be placed in front of him, his anticipation of dinner got kicked up significantly. We served it with crescent rolls spread with cranberry butter, a past creation. All this made for a great early January dinner.

Sweet Potato Soup

2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
5 1/2 cups reduced-sodium fat-free chicken broth
2 pounds (about 2 large) sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 cup apple cider (I used light apple juice)
1 teaspoon minced canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
1 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/2 cup sour cream (I used fat-free sour cream)
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat; add onion and sauté 5 to 7 minutes or until tender. Add garlic; sauté for 1 minute. Stir in broth and next 4 ingredients. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Process mixture with a handheld lender until smooth. (If you don’t have a handheld blender, cool mixture 10 minutes and process, in batches, in a regular blender until mixture is smooth. Return to saucepan and proceed with next step.) Cook potato mixture over low heat, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Stir in 2 tablespoons lime juice. Whisk together sour cream and 2 teaspoons lime juice. Ladle soup into bowls. Drizzle each serving with sour cream mixture. (I added a sprinkle of crushed red pepper as a garnish.) Makes 8 cups. (Source: Southern Living December 2012)

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