1. Like most recipes  i find, the timings are too short. Especially when it comes to smoke-roasting the potatoes. My oven temp is near bang-on according to my IR thermometer, but my potatoes had to go for 2 hours before they were truly ready to puree.
2. Unless your immersion blender says “Husqvarna” on the side you will need to cube the potatoes before trying to blenderize them. Despite my very good immersion blender (honestly the best kitchen tool i own)  even the smaller taters had to be fished from the broth and cubed before they would puree properly. IMPORTANT: Tim’s comment below is very true… do not over-blenderize if using an immersion blender or a food processor. I stopped once the cubes were gone… the soup maintains a fine porridge texture. If you’re going for “velvet” a ricer or some sort of food mill is the way to go. Also experimentation involving peeling first, peeling & cubing first, is in order. I suspect cubing first might limit surface area exposure in the steamer/smoker, but peeling first would sure be easier than peeling after.

The smoke-roasting worked perfectly. I did remove the steamer/smoker from the oven once to stir the wood chips and re-heat them to smoking temp. The kitchen smelled wonderful.

DIRECTIONS1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Place the wood chips in the bottom of a large stockpot and set over high heat. Once the wood chips become fragrant, after about 5 minutes, place a steamer insert over the chips and set the potatoes in the steamer. Cover the pot and transfer to the oven. Cook until a paring knife easily slips into the center of the potatoes, about 1½ hours. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool slightly, then peel the potatoes.

2. Meanwhile, make the soup base: In a stockpot set over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion, leek and celery and cook, stirring often, until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Pour in the water, cream and milk, and then stir in the miso, salt and pepper. Turn the heat to high and bring the mixture to almost a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer gently for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

3. Add the potatoes, buttermilk and sherry vinegar and use an immersion blender to blend until smooth (alternatively, blend in a blender, working in batches, then return the soup to the stockpot). Warm gently over medium heat. Serve hot.

This trip was nearly all business. We wanted to inspect our Boise property and meet the latest tenants, visit our accountant to get the taxes in process, i needed to visit the dentist since i’ve not yet found one here in Ashland, and then, once all that was done, we wanted to be there for the gathering for Henry and Peter, the twins of Amanda and Nick.

The trip to Boise was a two-parter broken up by a day in Portland for Annette to get in some work time. I took advantage of that stopover to examine more properties for the potential next phase of our lives.

The trip back was not a two-parter. We opted for the “scenic route” across the Oregon Outback.

Oregon contains a fascinating mish-mosh of environments. Minnesota too has a remarkable number of distinct zones, but because the terrain of Minnesota is largely flat it doesn’t feel as varied. Driving from Boise, either via the i84/i5 route or the shorter, but slower, southern route one crosses low scrubby sage desert, sandy desert, high juniper pine desert, lava fields, high escarpments with lake impoundments, lodge pole and douglas fir pine forests, temperate rain forests, low basin lands, and lots of other stuff i probably failed to note.

The drive from Boise via the southern route is 10 hours plus an hour for the time zone change. Via the interstate it’s closer to 12 hours plus the time change, but it sometimes the interstate seems shorter since you travel faster, there are no speed-trap towns, and fewer dogs, deer and children are crossing in front of you.

But taking the interstate deprives one of seeing the “town” of Wagontire (pop. 3) and, my favorite, the Abert Rim.

I mention this because traveling outside of Ashland can be quite a shock.