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Loaded Potato Soup with a Side Salad
by Jes Mostek 		 

Recipes:
Green Salad
by Tina Howell
serves: 6
  The quintessential green salad.
Ingredients:
  1 head   lettuce
  3   tomatoes, sliced
  5   baby carrots, chopped
  1   cucumber, peeled and sliced
  1   green pepper, diced
  1 c.   croutons, optional
Directions:
  Toss to combine. Serve with your favorite salad dressing.
Loaded Potato Soup
by Jes Mostek
serves: 10
  This delicious soup featuring skin-on potatoes, celery, carrots, onions, sour cream, and of course BACON will warm you heart, soul, and tummy! Dare your family to eat just one bowl.
Ingredients:
  1 lb.   bacon
  6 c.   chicken stock
  2 1/2 lb.   Yukon Gold potatoes
  2 cloves   garlic, minced
  1 lg.   onion, chopped
    freshly ground black pepper to taste
  1 c.   celery, sliced
    salt (optional)
  1 1/2 c.   carrots, sliced
  1 qt.   sour cream (not low-fat)
  1/2 c.   chives or green onion, snipped
  2 c.   cheddar cheese, grated
Directions:
  Fry bacon. Crumble and set aside. Use about half of the bacon drippings to saute onion until golden brown and translucent. When the onions are done add the garlic and cook on low for an additional 2 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent the garlic from burning.

Meanwhile, scrub potatoes and cut into 1-2" chunks. Pour chicken stock and potatoes into large pot. Bring to a boil. Add the celery, onion, and garlic. Add freshly ground black pepper, and optional salt (I usually don't add much salt to this soup, since the bacon and cheese add so much salt).

Fill a small sauce pan with 2-3 c. water and place over high heat. Peel and slice the carrots. Boil the carrots until crisp-tender (the slices of carrots can be pierced with a fork, but don't break apart). Drain off the orange water and add the carrots to the soup.

Remove pot of soup from heat. In the small (empty) sauce-pan that you used to cook the carrots, combine a cup of stock with a cup of sour cream. Whisk until smooth. Add mixture back to soup. Repeat until all of the sour cream has been added to the soup. Stir gently until well-combined.

Serve hot. Top each bowl of soup with desired amount of grated cheese, chopped green onions or chives and crumbled cooked bacon.