Hunger Games: Potato Soup with Soda Bread

I told you this whole week was going to be Hunger Games, so I made a whole meal that I feel like reflects the series relatively well.

I was originally going to make this meal during St. Patrick's Day week, but I decided to wait since I already had enough food to last a whole week. And when I thought about it, this meal is kind of rustic and reminds me of something you'd find in District 12. It seemed fitting to me, I mean, most of the districts are poor, and they made do with what they have. It isn't a fancy meal, or an expensive one, but it produces a lot of food. Also, just think of buying that big loaf of soda bread from the Mellark's bakery. It turns out a little crusty on the outside but really soft on the inside - delicious. And most of the ingredients in the soup are vegetables I would imagine you could get in the Hob if you swapped the rabbits you just killed for them.

First, the soup originally comes from MyRecipes.com. I added 1 can of vegetable stock to replace one of the cans of chicken stock and my soup turned out to be a brown color as opposed to the typical white colored potato soup, but I felt like that made it more rustic looking. And I would imagine in Panem vegetable stock would be easier to come by.

District 12 Potato Soup

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 3 leeks, sliced
• 3 large baking potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• 2 cans chicken broth
• 1 can vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• Optional Toppings: shredded Cheddar cheese, crumbled cooked bacon, chopped fresh chives
• Preparation
• 1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat; stir in onion and leek. Cover and cook 20 minutes. Stir in potato; cover and cook 15 minutes. Stir in broth, salt, and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes or until potato is tender. Remove from heat, and cool slightly.
  2. Process soup in batches in a blender until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides; return to saucepan, and cook over medium heat until thoroughly heated. Serve with desired toppings.
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  Now, for the soda bread. It is so delicious I can't even explain to you. It has this kind of sweet taste, and I'm thoroughly planning on dunking it into the soup. I can see Peeta now baking up something like this. The recipe originally came from AllRecipes.com.
  
  
  Mellark's Bakery Soda Bread
  
  
  Ingredients
  
  
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 4 tablespoons white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup margarine, softened
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup butter, melted
  • 1/4 cup buttermilk
  
  
  Preparation
  
  
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a large baking sheet.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and margarine. Stir in 1 cup of buttermilk and egg. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead slightly. Form dough into a round and place on prepared baking sheet. In a small bowl, combine melted butter with 1/4 cup buttermilk; brush loaf with this mixture. Use a sharp knife to cut an 'X' into the top of the loaf.
  3. Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 30 to 50 minutes. You may continue to brush the loaf with the butter mixture while it bakes.

  
  

  
  

  You could finish the entire meal off with sugar cookies from the Mellark bakery. Of course they say "The Hunger Games," "Team Katniss" and "Team Peeta." If you're from District 12 you have to show support for your tributes. They aren't decorated so that they look rustic, too. The recipe is the same one I used for the St. Paddy's cookies. Except I added a teaspoon of almond extract into these.

  
  

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  • Does this all make me a huge dork? Yes, I believe it does.

Buffalo Chicken Rolls

This recipe comes from the blog Can You Stay for Dinner? I totally don't like blue cheese so I just used mozzarella, I'm sure you could use any kind you want. This recipe made a ton of rolls. They're good but I needed to use more sauce, I feel like I couldn't taste it after I baked them. Also, I feel as though I have no future working at a Chinese restaurant. I was a complete failure at rolling these things. I started getting better towards the end, but it was just never quite right. O well, they're easy to store and to put in a container to take for lunches at work, so that's nice. I dipped mine in ranch instead of blue cheese dressing.

Buffalo Chicken Rolls

12 egg roll wrappers (roughly 4 square inches)

1 cup cooked and shredded chicken (6 ounces)

1/2- 2/3 cup Frank’s Red Hot Sauce

1 cup crumbled blue cheese (4 ounces)

1 cup broccoli slaw or cole slaw (dry)

Small bowl of water

Nonstick cooking spray

Blue cheese dressing, for serving

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lay egg roll wrappers on a clean work surface. In a small bowl, stir chicken* (see note below) and hot sauce until well coated, using more or less sauce depending on your spice preference. The meat should be moist with sauce.

Begin by placing one tablespoon of the broccoli slaw on the diagonal of the bottom right corner of one of the wrappers. Next, place 2 tablespoons of shredded spicy chicken evenly on top of the slaw. Spoon 1 tablespoon of the blue cheese crumbles over the chicken. Do not overfill.

To fold: Fold the bottom right corner over the stuffing mixture so that it covers it completely, with the tip of the corner now pointing to the center of the egg roll wrapper. Fold in the bottom left corner, followed by the right, so that you now have formed an envelope. Roll the wrap upward one time, leaving the top left corner open. Wet your index finger in the small bowl of water and press to moisten the top left corner. Now fold that down on top of the filled roll, sealing it like you would an envelope.

Repeat with remaining rolls.

Place the rolls on a wire rack set on top of a cookie sheet (or just on a greased cookie sheet) coated with nonstick cooking spray. Spritz each roll evenly with nonstick cooking spray. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the rolls crisp and turn a light golden brown.

*Note: To make the chicken, place 1/2 lb of uncooked chicken breast in a small pot and fill with enough water just to cover it. Bring to a boil on your stovetop, reduce the heat slightly, then simmer for about 12 minutes, or until cooked through. Drain and let cool before shredding with two forks, pulling against the grain of the meat.

Here's my finished product.

Buffalo Chicken & Potato Casserole

I found my latest recipe on Pinterest, but originally it came from this blog, Holy Cannoli Recipes This was an incredibly easy recipe, and if you like buffalo chicken and ranch then you'll probably like this. Basically all it is, is chicken in buffalo sauce (you can use any kind, I just used Frank's because they recommended it) frozen hashbrowns, ranch, cheese and then bread crumbs sprinkled on top (I used Panko because I wanted to try it, honestly it's really good. It's crunchier than bread crumbs.) Also, I don't own a 13x9-inch pan, so I just made due with two round cake pans.

Buffalo Chicken and Potato Casserole

• 1 1/4 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch strips
• 1/3 c. Franks buffalo sauce
• 6 c. potatoes, grated w/ box grater
  
• 1 c. light ranch dressing
• 1/2 c. cheddar cheese, shredded
• (10 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 c. panko
  

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2. In medium bowl, stir together chicken strips and buffalo sauce. Spoon into baking dish in a single layer.
   
3. In the same bowl, stir together potatoes, dressing, cheese and soup. Spread over chicken. Sprinkle panko evenly over the top.
4. Cover with foil. Bake 30 minutes; uncover and bake 20 to 25 minutes longer or until potatoes are tender and juice of chicken is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut.

Try it out. I can only assume that this recipe would be good for a football type of get together or something like that. I have this weird thing about letting my meat cook in a recipe, I always think I'm going to get Salmonella so I usually cook mine before putting in the recipe, but that's just me. Just in case.

Here's a picture of the final product in one of the cake pans.