The Soups

In other, completely unrelated news, I'm posting the recipes for the two potato soups I made for the Chaplains' Wives Christmas party on Tuesday.  A couple of you asked on Facebook, and I for one am not opposed to spreading the Carb Love so that I'm not the only one with a potato soup groan when I try to zip my jeans.

The first recipe is my grandma's and is a favorite in our family.  The second one is a complete mystery and oh I cannot even describe how delicious the delicious was.  Here's the short version of the story:  I was searching through my recipe files, and I came across two bright yellow sheets of a notepad from Turner's Auto Glass in Myrtle Beach, with this recipe scrawled in a man's printing I didn't recognize.  Which means that at some point in the last 30 years, I was getting my windshield fixed and ran into a chef of some sort in the waiting room who out of the goodness of his heart decided to share his potato soup recipe with me, and I have NO RECOLLECTION OF THIS.  Like how did I know he was a chef?  And where was he a chef?  And how did we get on the subject of potato soup?  And when did this happen?  Clearly, I am, in the words of many generations of my grandmothers, SLIPPING.

Grandma's Version

6 cups cubed potatoes.  She always used OreIda frozen southern style, and we do too.
2 cups water, with 3 buillon cubes dissolved in it
2 1/2 cups chopped celery
2 1/2 cups chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 T parsley flakes
dashes of salt and pepper (I always forget these and it makes no difference)
3 cups milk
4 T flour
1 pound Velveeta cheese, cubed

Combine water and all vegetables; simmer till tender (about 30 minutes does it - you may have to add a bit more water.  Mix flour with milk till smooth; pour into soup till thickened.  Add cheese, stir and simmer till all is melted.

The Mystery Chef's Version

2 sticks butter
1 large onion, diced
1 quart strong chicken stock (I used a quart of College Inn broth and a tablespoon or two of granulated buillon)
1 T black pepper
1 1/2 T hot sauce (like tabasco or texas pete - I used Frank's)
1 quart heavy cream  (not for the faint of heart)
Flour (he didn't specify but I estimate I used at least 1/3 cup, gradually.)
8 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 T dried basil (didn't have it, didn't use it, didn't miss it.)
4-6 large red potatoes, boiled, then chilled, then cubed with skin left on.

In your favorite heavy soup pot,
Saute onion in butter.
Add flour to make a heavy roux
Add stock, hot sauce, spices.  Simmer till thick and gravylike.   Add cream, then potatoes, simmer till thick and add bacon bits on top.  Be prepared to do unladylike things like lapping up every drop.


I have no photographic evidence of these soups because they were gone in an instant.  Next time!