Potato Soup...

Another cold day... This afternoon I'm taking dinner over to a friend who just had a baby. I usually bring over a Roasted Chicken Dinner because when my neighbor brought one to us after our daughter was born, I thought it was just the perfect dinner for a nursing mom. However, today with temperatures in the single digits and piles and piles of snow all over the ground, the sound of soup simmering all day long sounded even better. So, on today's menu is Potato Chowder with Bacon. You can find the original recipe at Mrs. Wilt's site, The Sparrow's Nest, or read below for her recipe with a few changes that I made.

Potato Chowder

1 box scalloped potatoes
1/2 cup bacon, cooked and crumbled (the original recipe called for ham, but I didn't have any on hand)
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 stalk celery, finely chopped
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
4 cups milk
1/3 cup flour
Salt & Pepper or House Seasoning, to taste
Additional milk for thinning

Add scalloped potatoes, sauce packet, chicken broth, bacon or ham, onion, celery, salt & pepper to crock pot. Mix together milk and flour, and add to crock pot. Stir well. Cook on Low for 6 hours. Add additional milk throughout the cooking process to thin the soup to your liking. Garnish with green onions, shredded cheese, crumbled bacon, diced ham, or whatever you like.

My Notes:

• This is a crock pot recipe, and it couldn't be any easier to make.
• The first time I made this recipe I subsituted "Manda" sausage for the ham... I rarely have ham on hand, but I have a freezer full of Manda sausage "imported" from Louisiana (thank you, Mama). The sausage was okay, but I think the flavor of the sausage was a little too overbearing for the soup. Plus, my husband was shocked that I had not saved the sausage for Gumbo or Red Beans --- his favorites. This time I am using bacon in lieu of the ham... it's very good, more traditional. One of these days I'll actually have ham ready to use in this recipe.
• Even though this is a crock pot recipe, I don't like to leave it alone for the day. I find myself stirring it pretty frequently and adding milk to thin it out as it cooks. Neglecting it just seems to create a crusty top that should not be stirred into the soup and will have to be removed later.
• I also prefer to cook this on Low rather than on High. I prefer the texture after a long, slow cook.

Oh, the smell is wonderful. I think I'll add a baguette from the french bakery in town, a salad, some homemade cookies and call that a meal!