Cold Weather, Hot Soup!

During the winter I love to make soup, it just warms you up. I make only a few soups so I decided I needed to try to expand my horizons. One of my favorite soups is 54th Street's Baked Potato Soup. It's so very creamy and yummy. I wanted to try and duplicate it. I think the recipe I found was perfect. It made a large pot and we were heading over to our neighbors that evening to let the kids play so I took it over with us and we all had it for dinner. Everyone loved it (at least that's what they told me!) and I even had enough to take over to my moms house the next day for her and I to have for lunch. I have to say it was pretty darn good, I think even better than 54th Street's soup :) So if you love Baked Potato Soup you need to try this!

Baked Potato Soup

6 sliced bacon
1 C. chopped onion (I used about half)
2/3 C. flour
6 C. Chicken broth
4 C. diced potato ( I left skins on, but would be great without)
2 C. milk
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. minced garlic ( I used about 2-3 cloves, but I love garlic)
1/2 tsp. black pepper
Shredded cheese and green onion for garnish

Directions:
Cut bacon into small pieces. Cook bacon and onion over medium heat until cooked through (bacon will not be crispy, just needs to be cooked through). Remove onion and bacon from pan. Leave grease, add flour and whisk. Slowly add chicken broth and continue whisking. Mixture will be thick at first but as you add the broth it will thin out. After broth is mixed well, add milk, potato, salt, garlic, bacon and onion. Let soup simmer and cook potatoes through. If you like thicker soup, once potatoes are cooked use a potato masher and mash a few times in the soup, leaving some potato chunks. Garnish with shredded cheese and green onions.

Enjoy!