This week marks the one year birthday for Texas Homesteader.  Yeah!!  Today I write my 180th article.

First I want to thank my readers.  Thank you for spreading the word about my site.  I have said this before, but it bears repeating, “The power of word of mouth is amazing.”  I have had 60,000 visitors this past year.  I have almost 200 subscribers.  I appear regularly in two different blog carnivals.  The first is The Homesteading Carnival.  The other is the Carnival of Homeschooling.

Blog carnivals are where bloggers submit pertinent articles based on the focus of the carnival.  A volunteer hosts the carnival, which links to all the different sites.  People can come read all the fascinating articles on that subject from one place.  Occasionally I submit to The Living with Food Allergies Carnival.

An article of mine called “Be-You-Tiful” appeared in the Beeyoutiful catalog.  Most importantly, a two page spread article of mine called “It Only Takes an Acre” appeared in Countryside Magazine.  The Sweeney family, who run the Catholic Family Podcast, also talk about Texas Homesteader during some of their podcasts.  I sincerely thank them for getting the word out.

One of my husband’s favorite soups is Potato Leek soup.  Before he tilled up our garden plot, which seems to get larger and larger with each season, I pulled up my scallions aka green onions.  I now have bunches and bunches of onions.  They are some of my favorite onions because you can eat them raw, saute them, add them to salads, add them to baked potatoes, etc.  The possibilities seem endless.

However for my husband, I am going to make a big pot of potato soup.  Instead of using leeks, I am going to use some of my scallions.  Here is the recipe.  It is also gluten-free.

Scallions or green onions cleaned and ready to be used.

Potato Soup

10-12 green onions, cleaned and chopped
4 Tbsp of butter
4 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
8 lg. potatoes, peeled and chopped
12 cups chicken stock
two dashes of thyme, dried
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
Sour cream and green onion tops for garnish

Chop the onions up to the dark green tops.  Saute the onions in the butter and oil until they are soft and transparent.  Add the potatoes and chicken stock.  Bring the mixture to a boil.  Add the thyme and simmer until all the vegetables are tender.  Puree the soup with a hand blender or process in a blender or food processor.  Season to taste.  Serve in bowls with a healthy dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of chives.

The soup has a tint of green from the scallions.  It would have been perfect for St. Patrick’s Day.  I will have to remember that next year.  Anyway, try the soup as I celebrate the completion of my first year with Texas Homesteader.

Tags: Blog carnivals, Catholic Family Podcasts, Countryside Magazine, gluten-free recipe, Happy Birthday, recipe for potato soup, year anniversary

This entry was posted on Friday, March 19th, 2010 at 5:54 am and is filed under Gardening, Homesteading. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.