Loaded Baked Potato Soup

With Fall weather comes Fall meals.  We have been having some incredible weather lately and I have been inspired.  I finally got my groove back in the kitchen and have been on a cooking craze these days.  I have so many new things that I want to try and most of them are perfect Fall and Winter meals. 

I definitely want to add more soups to my repertoire and believe it or not, Loaded Baked Potato Soup was on that list.  I can't believe I've never made it, especially given how much we love loaded baked potatoes!  I've made Potato Soup plenty of times but I've never taken it a step further by loading it up...silly me.  What was I thinking?!

I had several potatoes that I had to use up before they went bad and what better way to do than by combining them in a creamy mixture with bacon, cheese, and green onions?!  Sounds like heaven to me!  I actually had a recipe picked out from none other than my favorite cookbook in the whole wide world,Grand Temptations, but at the last minute, I decided to change it up a bit and ended up altering another recipe I found online - normally, I'll change up a few things to accommodate our tastes more, but shamefully, it happened this time because I read the directions wrong and somehow saw things on there that weren't really there and also got it mixed up with another recipe I had been eyeing.  But all is well that ends well because this soup ended up turning out perfectly!  It was so, so good.  Ridiculously good.  And it was all by mistake!

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Ingredients
5 Lg. Potatoes (Baking, Idaho, Russet, etc.), peeled and cubed
2 cups Chicken Stock
1 cup Water
6 Strips Bacon, chopped
1 Sm. Onion, diced
3 Stalks Celery, diced
3 Tbsp. Butter
3 Tbsp. Flour
1 cup Milk
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1 cup Cheddar Cheese, shredded
3 Green Onions, diced

Directions
In a large pot, add the potatoes, chicken stock and water; bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

In a large pan, cook the bacon over med-high heat until crisp.  With a slotted spoon, remove bacon pieces and let cool on a paper towel covered plate.  Meanwhile, add the onion and celery to the pan and cook in the reserved bacon grease until tender.

Once the potatoes have cooked, place a few spoonfuls of potatoes into a separate bowl and begin mashing with a potato masher; set aside.

Meanwhile, combine the milk and heavy cream; set aside.  In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.  Add in the flour and whisk constantly for 2 minutes.  Gradually whisk in the milk/cream mixture and let come to a boil over medium heat until thickened. 

Add in the mashed potatoes to the remaining cooked potatoes and carefully stir in the butter/milk mixture.  Add in the cheese, bacon, green onions and celery/onion mixture; stir to combine.  Let simmer until heated through.  Season to taste with pepper.  **If it becomes too thick, you can think it out a bit with chicken stock**

Serve warm and top with shredded cheese, bacon, green onion and/or sour cream.

Yield: 4-6 Servings
Source: Adapted From Cooking During Stolen Moments