Potato Soup

I first made this soup last year around the holidays.  We had a ham with lots of leftovers, and I figured I would give it a try.  It needed to be used up anyway, and if it flopped, then there was always hamburgers from the bar.

No flopping.  This soup was a MAJOR success.

This is one of my favorite soups to make.  It is ridiculously easy and absolutely delicious.  It reheats well, and it's great to make and leave in a crockpot to eat on all day long.

Just as a reminder--I don't really use measurements.  Sorry guys, I fly by the seat of my pants.  On the bright side, this lets you experiment and make it all your own!  And this way, if it flops, you can't blame me...

April's Amazing and Delicious Potato Soup

1) Start with HAM.  I almost always use a ham bone that has been cooked.  I buy them extra big so I have extra ham for this soup.  Cut off as much of the meat as you can.  If you want to save some meat for other stuff, put that to the side.  I recently made this with bacon ends that I had cooked up and it turned out absolutely delicious.  It didn't have quite as much of a hammy taste, and was a little saltier, but it was very good.  So that is also an option.

2) Combine equal amounts of chicken broth and half-n-half.  You can use milk if you prefer, but I like the thickness the half-n-half provides.  You can also use water and add bouillon if you'd like--I've done it both ways, and it works either way.  Generally, if I am using chicken broth, I end up adding a little extra bouillon anyway.  Toss in some pepper (or a lot...) and some Alpine Touch (you haven't bought any yet?  What is wrong with you?!?)  I usually don't add any salt, as the pork will add a lot of saltiness.  Put in a massive pot on medium heat, or a crock pot for all day long cooking goodness.  Toss the ham bone and your meat in.  

3) Cook for 45 minutes to an hour.  Keep an eye on it so it doesn't boil over, because it like will try to do that.  You may want to add more bouillon and water, but that will just be to your personal taste preferences. If you wanted to add onions or other veggies, I suppose you could do that here too...but why ruin a perfectly good soup with green things?!?

4) Give the broth a taste, add more spices if needed.  Pull out the ham bone.  Chop up potatoes, roughly the same amount of meat that you put in.  If you want, you can peel them, but I never do.  I just scrub them up really well and toss the whole thing in.  The best potatoes for this are red or yukon gold, but plain old spuds will work just fine as well!  These will usually take 10-15 minutes to cook until they are soft.

5) This is completely optional, but this is how we like it.  At this point, we add a small amount of instant mashed potatoes to the broth.  This thickens the broth slightly and makes it a bit hardier.  My favorite potatoes to use for this are the Four-Cheese Instant potatoes.  Thicken and give it a faint cheesy taste, but you can use anything really.  You could also take a potato masher and mash the potatoes in the soup slightly.  Add the instant potatoes slowly, because they will thicken the broth quickly.  

6) Serve with a healthy handful of cheddar cheese and some delicious crusty bread!

This soup is super easy and delicious.  It reheats really well and it sticks with you.  I've made it before with the hams that you get that are perfectly oblong (you know the ones...) and it just doesn't quite have the same flavor to it.  You could use that, but you'd want to maybe add some ham base to it.  The bacon ends were a huge hit, and they were plenty fatty enough to add some really good flavor to the soup.  My favorite though is using the ham bone.