The Soup Nazi: Potato Soup

T came home two weeks ago, breathless with excitement over a purchase he had made at Wal-Mart.

"Um, that's a really big bag of potatoes." I said, eyeing the lumpy sack he was clutching.

"Yeah! It's 15 pounds." he replied, dumping the bag ceremoniously on the kitchen table. "It was only 6 dollars!"

I didn't realize that one could experience such heights of joy over potatoes.

So I guessed we'd be eating a lot of potatoes and started looking for some new recipes online. I found a great potato soup recipe on AllRecipes.com that I thought I'd share with you today.

Golden Potato Soup

Ingredients:
3 cups peeled and cubed potatoes (I was in too much of a hurry to cube anything. I just chopped 'em up into bits)
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion (I used onion flakes)
1 cube chicken bullion
1 cup water
1 tsp. dried parsley
1/2 tsp. salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
2 tsp. all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups shredded American cheese
1 cup chopped ham

Directions:
1. In a large stock pot, add potatoes, celery, onion, chicken bullion, water, and parsley flakes. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer until vegetables become tender.
2. In a separate bowl, mix flour and milk. Once it is well blended, add to soup mixture and cook until soup becomes thick. (I added slightly more flour to make a thicker soup)
3. Stir in cheese, cooked ham, or hamburger, and simmer until cheese is melted. (I added the cheese to the individual servings because T is weird and hates cheese)

I'm going to make a confession here. When I took the girls to buy the soup ingredients, it was a Saturday morning at Wal-Mart, which is a death sentence in and of itself. We looked all over the place for chicken bullion, which they did not have. Seriously, who doesn't have chicken bullion? Apparently Wal-Mart.

So by the time I was ready to visit the deli for the ham, I had two whiney kids and no chicken bullion, and we were also late to a birthday party. So I made a short cut. I bought canned ham. I did. It's true.

And you know what? It wasn't horrible. You couldn't really tell too much of a difference because I tried to chop it into small pieces. It was either canned ham or wait in line at the deli while the kids ransacked the bakery.

I went for the easier route.

And here was my result:

This is a fantastic Fall weather comfort food recipe!

Now for the other 13 pounds of potatoes....

(If you have any clue at all as to where I found the inspiration for this blog's title, then you know exactly where this post is going.)


*Come and join Soup-a-Palooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dish, sponsored by Bush's Beans, Hip Hostess, Pillsbury, and Westminster Crackers.