Where has Souper Sunday gone???

I don't know. It seems that these few months have been so packed full of long hours at work, social commitments, road trips, etc. that we have had little time to keep up with some of our favorite routines. Brett and i agreed shortly after we got married that Sundays were our favorite day together. It was usually the laziest of the week, neither of us ever felt like working on Sundays and we usually don't have anything that we have to do. Depending on the weather Sundays involve sleeping in or getting up early, church or no church, bike riding, grocery shopping, visits to the dog park, or just being so lazy that we never leave the house. My favorite part of the day is diving into the paper and cutting out the coupons from the inserts. We love Sundays so much that one of the songs on our wedding CD was Sunday Morning by Maroon Five. As I have blogged about before, a few years ago we started Souper Sunday. We both love to watch football and what better way to end the day is with a yummmy soup that simmered in the crock pot all day long.

A few days ago Brett had his wisdom teeth out and is on a soft diet for 5 days. We tried overcooked noodles and even that was a little tough, so basically he has had a lot of scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, soup, jello and pudding. I thought that a nice treat today would be our delicious crock pot potato soup. I made it like we always do except for the bacon - too chunky -and if the potatoes don't cook enough I can always stick it in the blender to make it into cream of potato soup. Well, the crock pot is full and Brett is still sleepy but already the house smells yummy.Here's our recipe, adapted from several in our Fix It And Forget It Cookbook.

The Clancy's Crock Pot Potato Soup

• 8 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 LARGE onion, sliced and diced
• 1 LARGE celery stalks, sliced and diced
• the inside of the celery, maybe called the hearts?, where all the leaves are; pull out the leaves and wash them, then chop as you would fresh parsley; sometimes i don't bother chopping and I throw the whole thing in - if you do this, pull it out when it's done cooking because it turns into this gross limp piece of celery
• 1 12 oz. can evaporated milk
• 1/2 c. milk
• 5 1/2 cups water
• 4 chicken bullion cubes
• 2-3 T. butter or margarine
• 1/2-1 pound bacon, cooked crisply and crumbled
• shredded cheddar cheese

1. Plug crock pot on and turn to high.

2. Add evaporated milk, milk, water, chicken bullion, butter, celery, bacon, and onion to crock pot and put on lid.
3. While your other ingredients are getting hot in the crock pot, microwave you potato cubes in about 4 batches. I put them on a deep plate with a bit of water and stick them in for about 4 minutes. This speeds up your crock pot time and in addition release some yummy starchy water to dump in. After each batch cooks in the microwave, add to crock pot and replace lid.

4. Cooking time? I don't know. Several recipes say to cook on high for 6 hours and then 3 on low. Some say just 6 on high. Basically I turn it on and let it cook. I always make it in the morning and we don't eat until evening so it cooks all day. If it bubbles too much and is making a mess on the counter i turn it down. The longer you cook it, the softer the potatoes get. If you don't care if it all turns to mush, then let it go. If you want chunks that are in tact, check it more often. That's just how we do it :-)

5. About an hour before you are ready to eat, ladle some broth into a bowl and mix with flour or corn starch. The whisk it into the soup to thicken. The thicker you like it, the more you should add. I use a lot!

6.When you are ready to eat, ladle it into your favorite large mug and top with cheese. Yummy!!!!!!