is it only 10:30 in the morning? i am already starving.

as you know, the past couple of months, i have been trying to expand my culinary skills. true to beckiestyle, i do not like to follow recipes. i like to be guided by recipes and then add my own flair, tweaks, and love. sometimes it works out marvelously, other times...we would be better off fasting.

yesterday i tried a new crockpot soup. i rarely use my slow cooker, even though there are so many great recipes for it, i just never need to make that much food at a time. this time it was a victory. a few people wanted the recipe and stuff, so here it is:

32 oz frozen hashbrowns

42 oz chicken broth

1 can cream of chicken soup

pepper

1 package cream cheese (cannot be the low-fat kind because it will not melt correctly)

6-8 hours on high

i originally got the recipe from here. it seemed simple enough and we had red potatoes left over from earlier in the week and i had an 8lb ham to use up.  (mama always put ham or bacon in her potato soup and it made it sooooo much more yummy!!!).  

i put the hashbrowns, chicken broth, pepper, chopped red potatoes and cream of chicken soup into the crockpot. at about 3 hours in, i added the chunks of ham. and an hour before you are ready to serve, add the cream cheese. so it was pretty much the same but i did not add the onions (original recipe calls for 1/2 c), i added a little garlic, the potatoes (definitely recommend you add some...it just makes it better) and ham and it was some of the best potato soup that i have ever had. i cannot wait until it is 11:30 and i can go heat some up for lunchtime. 

i am not trying to be one of those braggy cooking people, i just was so excited about how easy, inexpensive and surprisingly delicious this was, that i had to share.

besides eating yummy soup, it was a fairly relaxing weekend. watched some friends in their intramural team games, went to dinner, made breakfast with the ward, watched some movies, snuggled and just hung out. it was really nice.

oh we also went to the matt costa concert.  now i know that i already said this to some people...but i felt bad for him. it was probably his worst audience ever. they set him up in the wilk with a $10 sound system and 300 zoobies. as jared said, it literally felt like EFY. it was like matt costa had been assigned community service and had to come to byu. it was real bad. felt awful for him. but it was still fun to go and his music is really good. but it is amazing how much the crowd affects the entire show...

ps i filed my taxes and i get.... wait for it.. $35 back! shopping spree???? :/