Christi's Cheesy Potato Soup

Potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

Carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

Celery, cut up

Onion, cut up

Canned corn

Bacon

Butter

Flour

Milk

Sharp cheddar cheese

Seasonings: chicken boullion, salt, pepper, and parsley

Boil a large pot ¾ full of water and add chicken boullion (usually 1 cube per cup of water). When it is boiling add the vegetables (minus the corn) and salt and pepper to taste and let them cook until they are starting to soften (I pretty much have the vegetables fill the pot until they are just below the water level). Cook the bacon while the veggies soften

When the veggies start to get soft, start the white sauce. Use whatever bacon grease is left from cooking the bacon and add butter to it (for the amount I made at the Halloween party I used two sticks of butter) and melt the butter over medium heat. Then add the flour- generally it is the same amount of flour as butter, so two sticks of butter and one cup of flour, but if you like it thick, add more flour, I added one and a half cups to mine, but when there are leftovers they aren’t very soupy, more solid, so you end up adding water to the leftovers, so if you don’t like how thick that is, then only do 1 to1 ratio of butter and flour. Using a whisk mix together the flour and butter until it is almost a paste. Then add milk, I used about 1/3 of a gallon. Add a few cubes of boullion to this as well (I love the chicken stock base flavoring…) and grate cheddar into it- the amount on this depends on how cheesy you like it- I used a little more than half of a 8oz block…- mix on medium until cheese is all melted and there are no clumps to be seen anywhere.

Pour the vegetables into a large crock pot, then add the white sauce mix and the bacon broken into pieces and canned corn. Then sprinkle on some parsley and, if needed, more salt and pepper. Stir until well mixed and you are pretty much ready to go! This, like most of the stuff out of my head, is a very to-taste kind of recipe- sorry that there aren’t many measurements, but if you like a certain thing more than another, it is easy to tweak!

I made this recipe for a family Halloween party a couple of weeks ago and my Aunt asked for the recipe, so I wrote it up for her and thought I might as well just post it on here as well! Enjoy!