Baked Potato Soup

It wasn’t really a babysitting day.  Josh is in town, so we wanted to come eat with Jami.  He held Harlee while we cooked.  Baked Potato Soup and… you guessed it…. Cornbread!

Harlee fell asleep in Uncle Josh's arms

Jami was in charge of frying up bacon to put in the soup; however, she didn’t watch it well enough and she burned the bacon. 

This turned out to be a great way to test the smoke detectors!  Had to open the window too... whoops...

That wasn’t good, but Josh and I nibbled on it anyway.  So it was up to me to cook bacon, and boy did it turn out good.  Sometimes, nothing beats a greasy, crispy piece of bacon.  MmmmMM!

After the bacon was done, I finished stirring up cornbread and Jami finished the soup.  Just for fun, I sprinkled some bacon pieces into the cornbread.  Didn’t turn out too bad!

Cornbread muffin with bacon drizzled with maple syrup

Dinner was overall terrific and the perfect meal for a chilly winter night.  Harlee fell asleep during preparation and watched Blues Clues during dinner.  What a great boy!

We enjoyed some beer after dinner and Harlee seemed to want to join in on it...

He's happy hanging out with Uncle Josh!

Baked Potato Soup
     (taken from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-potato-soup/detail.aspx)

3 bacon strips, diced
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 cups chicken broth
2 large baked potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup half-and-half cream
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
Shredded Cheddar cheese
Minced fresh parsley

In a large saucepan, cook bacon until crisp, and watch it so it doesn't burn, haha. Drain, reserving 1 tablespoon drippings. Set bacon aside.
Saute onion and garlic in the drippings until tender. Stir in flour, salt, basil and pepper; mix well. 

Gradually add broth. Bring to boil; boil and stir for 2 minutes.

Add the potatoes (we used Yukon Gold potatoes because we had them on hand), cream and hot pepper sauce; heat through but do not boil.  Mash the potatoes and stir until soup reaches desired thickness.

Serve into bowls and garnish with bacon, cheese and parsley.

Cornbread (we've made this quite a bit - it's irresistible!)