Baked Potato Soup

I told you every once in a while I will sneak in a recipe or something that readers might actually USE, since I am mostly on hear to talk about my "Amazing Offspring" as the blog is titled.

I got this recipe from http://www.allrecipes.com/ where people can submit recipes and then others can review them after they have made them.  I usually find one that looks good and that I have the ingredients for and I quickly read the reviews to see any changes other people made.  The original recipe was for 4 people, but the great thing about allrecipes is that you can change the serving size and the ingredients will be changed for you.  I wanted 8 servings so that we could have leftovers!  Plus I had a 3 lb bag of potatoes I needed to use!

Prep time:  10 minutes  Cook time:  20 minutes  Servings:  8

Ingredients
6 bacon strips (I used 8 because my husband is a bacon fiend)
2 small onions, chopped (I used 1 b/c my kids don't like onions)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup and 2 TBS all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp pepper
6 cups chicken broth (you can buy carton broth, use boullion cubes or the powdered stuff that you add to water-I used cubes)
4 large baked potatoes, cubed (I used a 3 lb bag and I boiled them with the skins on)
2 cups half-and-half cream (I used whole milk because I had it on hand)
1 tsp hot pepper sauce
Shredded Cheddar cheese
Any other topping you might like (chives, sour cream, etc.)

Prepare the potatoes so they are cooked and ready to use (either boil or bake them).  In a large saucepan, cook bacon until crisp.  Drain bacon but keep 2 TBS drippings.  Set bacon aside b/c this will be used as a topping.  Saute onion and garlic in the drippings until tender.  Stin in flour, salt, basil and pepper and mix well.  Add chicken broth and bring to a boil.  Boil for 2 minutes.  Then add the potatoes, cream and hot pepper sauce.  Heat through but do not boil.  Add toppings as desired:  bacon, cheese and anything else you may want.

As I was typing this I realized I changed quite a bit of this recipe in small amounts.  We really enjoyed this soup and it was so filling we were able to eat only the soup and sliced fruit for dinner and were not hungry later.  I had enough left over to have for a couple of lunches but if you are a smaller family you can eat half and freeze half and when you are ready to eat it simply put it in your crockpot or microwave it to defrost and then cook!  Enjoy!