Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Andrea came over and we made the Loaded Baked Potato Soup from the Pampered Chef Season's Best book. I had intended to make this for my next show, but good thing I tried it at home first - it's not a recipe well suited to a presentation. In fact, one of my customers who tried to make it actually threw it away before it was finished because it looked so gross! But it is a fun recipe to make using the Deep Covered Baker - and it is done entirely in the microwave. (If you don't have a Deep Covered Baker, order one from me, right now. You might not think you need it, but you do. If you don't believe me now, within a few months you will, when I am making fancy stuff in my microwave, and you are sitting at your computer with your mouth watering over it, about to go make it, when suddenly you remember that you didn't order one when I told you to. Just wait and see.)

Luckily, it tasted good. Ken even said it was better than Panera's soup. Salt and pepper make all the difference, though. I also used mild cheddar because I wanted it to taste like potato, not cheddar. Typically I like extra sharp, but I thought it might overwhelm the soup. I barely tasted it, so this worked. Optional add-ins listed are steamed broccoli florets and bacon. I steamed the broccoli by just wetting it and microwaving it for about 20 seconds. I like my broccoli to be much more crisp than tender, and it was a nice contrast to soup. We didn't use bacon, but that is what is in the Panera baked potato soup, so I would like to try it next time. I am not a big soup person, but I like chunky soups. This would be interesting pureed if that is something that you are interested in.

Mini Carrot Cake Bites

Edited: 10/28/2009. Photo added! :)


This is another one of my Pampered Chef recipes from the Season's Best Fall/Winter 2009. This is one I plan to make for at least one of my upcoming shows. I made these for my birthday the other day to bring in to work, and they were a huge hit - it has been requested that I make them again. (Not requested that I share the recipe... just that I actually make more of them myself and bring them for everyone to eat!)

An important caution: regular cake mix is 18 oz. This recipe calls for 9 oz. That means if you use an entire 18oz box (...mom) your cakes will come out dry and tasting like yellow cake instead of carrot cake. Also, adding extra carrots might sound fun, but it is hard enough to mix so I would stick close to the required amount.

This is another recipe that I would just love to make-over to be more healthy but it's not too easy. Although the Cool Whip in the filling makes me cringe, the recipe has no butter, unlike literally EVERY other cream cheese frosting recipe I found online. Plus, it has carrots in it. So it could be worse!

Ham and Cheese Calzone

I am not a big meat-eater (as you can probably tell if you are reading this) but now that I am selling Pampered Chef (ask me about that!) I have obviously been making some Pampered Chef recipes. This is the one I did for my Grand Opening show. It is from the Season's Best Fall/Winter 2009 cookbook (which you can purchase through me for $1!).

It is a super easy recipe, so there is not much to say. I think the thin crust Pillsbury pizza dough is better to use for the large bar pan. At home, I used provolone and mozzarella instead of swiss because Ken hates swiss. Don't be silly and forget the second half of the cheese INSIDE the calzone. And other than that, it is pretty straightforward.

I want to try some variations on this, including some kind of vegetarian version. A broccoli calzone would be interesting but I would also like to find a way to reduce the excessive amounts of cheese that are present here. This is not a recipe that lends itself well to health-itizing it, so we'll have to see what inspires me, but it's always nice to have suggestions for guests at parties. My cheese swap was one of my suggestions last time. Otherwise, I'm not sure I'll really be making this much at home as it just isn't really something I loved.