{"id":1620,"date":"2010-09-26T17:58:27","date_gmt":"2010-09-27T01:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/?p=1620"},"modified":"2010-09-26T20:07:33","modified_gmt":"2010-09-27T04:07:33","slug":"fully-loaded-cheesy-potato-soup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/?p=1620","title":{"rendered":"Fully Loaded Cheesy Potato Soup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The weather was in the 90’s this weekend and I desperately wanted to wave a magic wand to change that. I am ready for fall weather. I want to dig out my hoodies, blankets and soup recipes. I compromised by closing the shudders to make the house appear to be darker. I turned on the TV to clear the DVR of new fall shows while I got to making some yummy comfort soup. I came across a recipe for Fully Loaded Cheesy Potato Soup<\/a><\/strong> when I was looking on the Food Network website for something else. It was featured on Down Home with the Neelys<\/em>. I don’t watch that show, but the recipe looked perfect for my pretend overcast\/fall day.<\/p>\n

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The Ingredients:<\/strong><\/p>\n

4 Tablespoons Butter
\n1 Onion – finely chopped
\n1 Carrot – finely chopped
\n1 Rib Celery – finely chopped
\n2 Cloves Garlic – finely chopped
\n1\/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour
\nSalt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper
\n3 Cups Chicken Stock
\n1 Cup Whole Milk – thankfully Dan uses this on his cereal, ewww…
\n1 (12-Ounce) bottle of light-bodied beer – we only had Sierra Nevada Pale Ale – definitely not light, more of a\u00a0full-bodied beer – \u00a0it worked fine.
\n2 Large Russet Potatoes
\n2 Cups Grated Extra-Sharp Cheddar – had that leftover from the Cheesesteak Kabobs
\nDash of Hot Sauce – Could not find the bottle for the life of me – skipped that
\nDash Worcestershire Sauce
\nSour Cream for Topping
\n4 Slices of Bacon – cooked crisp for topping
\n2 Tablespoons Chopped Fresh Chives – for topping<\/p>\n

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I got everything chopped and measured out.<\/p>\n

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My liquids were ready to go and the dutch oven was heating up on the stove.<\/p>\n

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I was supposed to melt the butter first – whoops. Melt the butter over medium heat, add the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic and saute until the vegetables begin to soften – mine took about 5 minutes.<\/p>\n

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Sprinkle (in my case, dump) the flour into the pan and continue to stir for 2 minutes to toast the flour. I dumped because I was holding the camera in one hand and trying to get a mid sprinkle shot . That was a bad idea, almost dropped the camera into the pot, hah! The consistency will become stuffing like. Add salt and pepper to taste.<\/p>\n

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Gradually whisk in the stock and milk…<\/p>\n

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…and then the beer. Mm-mm beer!<\/p>\n

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Stir in the potatoes and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the soup until the potato is tender, about 20-30 minutes. Mine took 25 minutes.<\/p>\n

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Remove the pot from the heat and use your make believe immersion blender to puree the soup until smooth. I don’t have an immersion blender and I know what a pain it is to pour hot soup into a blender – I’ve done it and also seen Top Chef and Chopped catastrophes… so I chose to use my potato masher for a more rustic texture. I was afraid of scratching the enamel on my dutch oven, so I switched to mashing with a ladle.<\/p>\n

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Return the soup to a low heat and add the cheese a handful at a time, stirring until melted and smooth after each addition. Season the soup to taste with hot sauce, Worcestershire, salt and pepper. I chose to skip the hot sauce. I swirled some of\u00a0the Worcestershire on top and then added my sour cream, crisp bacon and fresh chives.<\/p>\n

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The soup was amazing. The flavor was awesome and the combination of the sharp cheddar, potato and bacon…out of this world.<\/p>\n

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It\u00a0really did look and taste\u00a0like a fully loaded baked potato – super sinful and probably the reason I only ate a cup. The bowl in the photos is very small, it doesn’t even hold a full cup, but it was plenty.<\/p>\n

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I grabbed different placemats and had my little photo shoot and then made my way to the couch where I finished up clearing off the DVR. So far I’m already dumping Running Wilde, Hawaii 5.0 and Detroit 187 – might give Detroit 187 another chance. I did like Chase and I have a few more to go.<\/p>\n

I portioned out 6 containers of soup and they are in the freezer waiting for the colder days. Hurry up fall, I need you!
\n\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The weather was in the 90’s this weekend and I desperately wanted to wave a magic wand to change that. I am ready for fall weather. I want to dig out my hoodies, blankets and soup recipes. I compromised by closing the shudders to make the house appear to be darker. I turned on the … <\/p>\n

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