Mashed Potato Soup in the Crockpot

We have a LOT of mashed potatoes left over from a meal a few days ago.  I wondered if some of them could be used to make a soup in the crockpot.

I found a very basic recipe and added to it.

The basic part is one can of cream of mushroom soup
                                          1/2 pound of mashed potatoes
                                           3 cans of water (using the soup can)
                                           1 cup of milk
                                         

I have no idea how to measure one half a lb of mashed potatoes, so I  think I used more  than that.

These are my additions: minced garlic
                                    minced onion
                                    dried dill
                                    garlic pepper
                                       and maybe one more spice that I cannot recall
                                    grated Muenster cheese (about half of a regular sized block)
                                    about a half cup of barley (not sure if instant or long cooking) but it went in about half way through the cooking time.

I put it on high to get things moving and then turned it down to low.  At the end of the cooking time (I chose about three )........I stirred in some leftover cooked carrots and several slices of crumbled bacon.

I decided to do dumplings since I had a can of Pillsbury Grand Biscuits in the frig.  I used four out of the seven in  the can.  I cut each one into eight pieces, then sprinkled cornmeal on them, and dropped them into the soup and sprinkled some parsley on top.  Put the top back on quick and it took about a half an hour to cook the dumplings.   I baked the rest of the Grands biscuits and had one with butter and jelly with my bowl of soup.

NEXT TIME: I would stir in an extra cup of milk BEFORE adding the dumplings because this soup turned out VERY thick (my grandaughter ate two bowls and said it was more like a stew).
Also, I would add some salt at the beginning.  It DID need a bit of added salt.

Baked Grape Tomatoes

I served these with stuffing/turkey/gravy casserole
four bean salad and
homemade cranberry sauce tonight

(its a recipe I made up, on the spot)



spray a small casserole dish with PAM
put in the tomatoes (washed and dried)
some minced garlic
some pieces of pepperoni (chopped up)
sprinkle liberally with parmesan cheese
put top on casserole and bake
at 375 for twenty minutes
in the meantime cut some of your favorite
cheese (I used am Amish smoky flavored cheese)
 into small chunks
take casserole out of oven and stir in
the cheese and bake another five minutes
then take top off and put under the broiler for
a couple of minutes


next time I would use more pepperoni
and less cheese