Creamy Potato Soup Recipe

As soon as I looked out the window yesterday morning and saw the gray skies and drizzling rain I knew that we needed Potato Soup for dinner.

It's like fuzzy slippers and a cozy blanket to my soul. Mmmmm mmmm.

I made this recipe up earlier this year, but I do not claim that it is original to me - there might be tons of you already cooking potato soup just like this. BUT - I call it "mine" because I didn't use a recipe, and that makes it feel special. :)

*DISCLAIMER: I am terrible at following recipes and generally start making it up as I go along even if I have one to follow. Since I actually did make this one up, you should know that all of the measurements are estimates and probably don't really matter anyway. I almost never measure anything (except when baking) so just know that this "recipe" is a very fluid concept.

Creamy Potato Soup

Ingredients:

red potatoes, peeled and sliced

chicken broth or chicken bouillon cubes

1 sweet onion, peeled and diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 breakfast ham (you know, the kind that is flat with the circle bone in it), cubed

half & half or whole milk

cheddar cheese

green onion, chopped

sour cream

salt & pepper

What I do:

Last night I used a 5lb bag of potatoes because I wanted to have some leftovers (and I had enough leftovers for lunch today and tomorrow for me and Justin). Put the potatoes in a large pot and barely cover with water. Throw in 2 or 3 bouillon cubes. You can use chicken broth or fresh stock for this too - but I usually don't have it since I refuse buy chicken with bones in it. Add the onion and garlic. Bring to a boil and let boil until the potatoes start to fall apart. Stir it often so it doesn't scorch on the bottom. When the potatoes fall apart easily, turn heat to low/med, mash up the potatoes until it's thick and creamy, and add in the ham. Add some milk or half & half - enough to make it relatively runny (see how professional I am??) - if you feel like it's too runny don't panic - it will thicken a lot and you'll keep adding milk up until you serve it. Check on it every once in a while and add milk if it is too thick. Salt and pepper to taste.

I serve it with cheese, chives, and sour cream. You can add anything that you would like on a baked potato - this soup is basically liquid baked potato. :) If you don't have ham but do have bacon, just fry the bacon and crumble it on top - it's delicious that way as well.

Enjoy!

It's lunch time now - I'm going to fix myself another big bowl. :)