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This meal was born of my love for cheesy biscuits made from Pioneer baking mix (or Wagon Wheel, as it’s known in this house), and thick, creamy potato soup. I’ll eat it any time of the year, but it’s especially great in winter. So I’m a bit late posting, but now you know for next time

Also, I don’t always use exact measurements in cooking (yeah, it’s a little Rachael Ray, but not intentionally). So these are the best measurements from all the times I’ve made this. Except for the biscuits. You can’t just throw some stuff in a bowl all willy-nilly and expect awesomeness to result. Not with baking, at least.

Soup:

• 4-6 medium sized potatoes (I’ve used Russets and red skinned new potatoes with equally great results)
• water
• Cooked bacon or real bacon bits (I like the Hormel brand, in the glass jar)
• paprika, to taste
• salt and black pepper, to taste
• heavy whipping cream and skim milk
• shredded cheddar

Peel, wash, and chop the potatoes into small chunks. Rinse the chunks, and place in a 4-quart crock pot. Add enough water to pot to cover potatoes, and add spices. Turn cooker on high, and go do something else for about 5 hours. In the beginning of hour six, add bacon bits (half the jar should do), and about a cup of cream and enough skim milk to make it soupy- whatever soupy means to you. Cover and cook one hour more. For the last 20 minutes of that hour, it’s time to make the biscuits! Here goes:

Chee Biscuits:

• 2 cups Pioneer baking mix
• 2/3 cup milk, plus a splash of heavy cream (about a tablespoon should do)
• shredded cheddar- I just throw in two handfuls. I love cheese.
• half a jar of bacon bits. They have to be the real deal. Not those dehydrated bits. It won’t be the same.

Preheat oven to 400. Put baking mix in mixing bowl, add cheese and bacon bits, and mix it a bit with your hands. Don’t be afraid to get dirty. Add milk and stir just until mixed. If the mix still looks a little dry, add the cream (and if not, do it anyway. it makes a difference!) Spoon onto a baking sheet. Non stick spray is often helpful, so use it if you like. Place in oven and bake for 12-15 minutes. When done, brush them with a bit of melted butter or margarine. You don’t need the butter, and if you don’t like it, it won’t make a difference. I just prefer mine butter-basted By this time, the soup is done, the biscuits are out and still piping hot, and you’re hungry. So dig in. I also love to sprinkle a bit of cheese on top of the soup, mostly if I decided not to add any to the soup in the crock. I know this meal sounds like an artery clogging fat fest, but no one told you to eat this way every night. Once in a while though, you can misbehave, and I won’t tell if you won’t. One last note- if you like spice, red pepper goes really well in this. I especially like red pepper flakes in the biscuits. But not too much, because I like my tongue not on fire. But a little bit of heat really complements the salty bacon and cheese. Either way, they’re just awesome biscuits, and super easy.

I love winter, I really do. It has two of my favorite holidays- Christmas and my birthday- the weather doesn’t really bug me (we don’t get a lot of snow in Louisiana), and there’s nothing better on a cold winter night than a bowl of potato soup and a cheesy biscuit (and I’ll be posting those recipes shortly!). But for the last few years, winter just doesn’t do it for me. I’ve started to miss leaving the windows open all day and seeing flowers in the yard. I blame the Burpee and Park Seed catalogs.

Last year, I went a little crazy in a couple of garden centers. I bought several packs of flower seed, some bulbs (I hope peonies last a while in unopened bags!), and a couple of pink ranunculus, tulips, and purple hyacinth (that my cat peed on while in the window…) This year, I’ve decided to challenge myself. Our yard doesn’t suck at all; we have various flowering shrubs and trees, all blooming at different times. What’s missing are smaller bursts of color. Basically, I really love all sorts of flowers, and I’d fill the entire yard with them if I could. But I have decided this year, instead of spending way more on flowers than I do on a lot of other things, I am going to challenge myself to work with the rest of what I have from last year, and try to spend no more than twenty dollars on new stuff. Part one of the challenge is deciding which areas need the most work. There are four areas I want to improve: the two flowerbeds, the front walk, and the mailbox.

The flowerbeds each have specific challenges. The front one has a spot that is flooded each time it rains. I need to find plants that will stand up to run off from the roof, and I’d like to find some way to combat that problem, without giving the local mosquitoes a place to breed. The side bed is where my rose is. It’s problem is it gets a little more sun that it should, and it looks kinda lonely there all by itself. It’s a yellow hybrid tea, and last year it bloomed at the same time a wild purple iris bloomed. I loved that combo, so I think some lavender will work with it. And I’d like to add both some wood mulch and a lower growing flower, to combat the weeds and give the lower part of the rose a little break from the high sun.

I planned to put petunias on each side of the front walk, but I wound up planting most of them in hanging baskets. They died after a month or so, but they looked good while they lasted. I saw in one of the many seed catalogs I get a grouping of red, white and blue petunias, and I liked it. Not only is it cute and patriotic, it goes well with the house’s exterior and the stargazer lilies I have planted at the end of the walk.

Lastly, there’s the mailbox. I still have a good amount of gladiolus’ left, and I like the idea of them mirroring the verticalness of the mailbox. I was also thinking of some medium height sunflowers and maybe some coleus for below. I loooove coleus It comes in so many colors. And even though I won’t be getting any anytime soon, I really like the black velvet elephant ears. So dramatic and striking. They just wouldn’t look right in my yard, I hate to say. But Diana, if you’re reading this, you should look into them!

So, I have a list to make, and I’ll post it once I’ve finalized. We’ll see if I stick to it!