Adopt A Blogger-November

This month's edition of Adopt A Gluten-Free Blogger, hosted by Sea at Book of Yum was supposed to be suitable for a Thanksgiving menu. I struggled with this one and ended up deciding to make the Potato Chowder recipe from Linda at The Gluten Free Homemaker.

What? You don't serve Potato Chowder as a side dish to your traditional turkey? Neither do I, but I usually have plenty of unused potatoes left over. You know I can't resist buying that 5lb bag; it is more cost effective. Problem is, the rest of my family members are not potato lovers. What is a cook to do? Easy, make Potato Chowder.

Linda's recipe was simple and straightforward. One needs simple after the frenzied cooking that comes with hosting Thanksgiving dinner. I followed her recipe exactly, but some things were open to interpretation. She lists bulk sausage; I used bulk sweet Italian sausage. Her potatoes were listed simply as potatoes, so I chose to use my extra Yukon Golds.

The chowder was simple to make and I did it while multi-tasking. I was making several other dishes for dinners and lunches at the same time. Perhaps that is why I over smashed my potatoes. I just kept breaking them up and before I knew it, I had almost pureed them by hand. It would be great therapy if you have some aggression to work out.

The end result was fairly tasty. I think next time I was break up my potatoes a bit less. A few chunks of potatoes would have been nice. I think the Yukon Gold's were a touch too sweet. Perhaps those starchy, high-glycemic index Russets would be better. Or, if I had used hot Italian sausage. I ended up adding a touch of cayenne pepper to counter the sweet from the potatoes and the result was great.

But, I couldn't leave well enough alone. I cooked, tasted, photographed and reviewed by following the recipe as published by Linda. Then I added Italian Kale. I love finding ways to get extra veggies "for free." I didn't mind the addition, it gave it more texture and was vaguely reminiscent of the Zuppa Toscana I miss so much from Olive Garden. Not quite the same, but similar. Maybe, someday, I will try to adapt a copy cat recipe for that.

PS I know my pics are a bit off in color. My soup is quite yellow, partly due to the Yukon Golds, but also because I couldn't remember how to change the white balance on the camera I used. I found instructions and hope to have better pics next time!