Recipe #1: Crockpot Potato Soup

I do quite a bit of cooking / baking. But I have a few recipes I make a lot, and then I typically just kind of put things together.

One of my cooking specialties is to look over a few recipes and pull my favorite parts (or what I happen to already have on hand!) together to make the dish. This is especially true for soups.

So, when I had some extra potatoes and the weather was perfect for warm, comforting soup, I decided to kick off my new goal to make 40 new recipes before I turn 40.

True to form, I pulled up a few options and immediately was inclined to combine them.

"No, the point is to follow recipes and hopefully find new ones to add to my frequently made list as well as learn some new things about how to better combine recipes in the future." I mentally scolded myself.

And then made a list of items to get before snow started falling.

Ultimately I went with a recipe from Gimme Some Oven posted in Dec 2015 - Slow Cooker Potato Soup

Here is a picture of what it looked like when I started the crockpot simmering:

Potatoes, onions, bacon, vegetable broth in crockpot

It took quite a bit longer for the potatoes to get soft than the recipe indicated. But once they were nice and tender, I made the rue on the stove top.

This is another moment I was tempted to adjust the recipe - especially after one of my roommates commented "That is a lot of bacon grease!"

"You're right, I think I'll not add all of it - wait, I said I was going to just follow the recipes as written for this project, I am going to stick with that!"

Here is how it turned out:

Completed potato soup in crockpot

I did smash some of the potatoes to thicken it even more. And really enjoyed the optional addition of green onions.

Here is the plated, or rather bowled ;) soup wich I served with one of my most made recipes, Sugar Spun Run's biscuits:

Potato soup in a bowl topped with sliced green onions with biscuit to the side

Verdict?

Both my roommates who tried it really liked it. I would make it again (maybe with a little less bacon grease, after reading up on making rues more)