Because It's Felt Like 400 Degrees Below Zero Lately

It's been quite a while since I've shared a recipe with y'all, but this one combines two of my favorite things in the world: soup and my slow cooker. It's been frigid lately, which makes my early morning walks with Lucy nippy (PEE, Dog! PEE!), and my afternoon walks just slightly less miserable (weather-wise...love me some doggie walks). This is just the time of year when hibernating and hot soup make sense.

I adore this blog and have run to it for several recipes before. How can you not love coming home after being gone all day to a ready made meal? Especially when that meal is SOUP, and you have icicles melting off your nose as you walk through the door. It's almost as good as having your own cook. Well, not really, but I'm willing to compromise, 'k?

Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours-ish or 8 hours if you are a little more on the ball
Makes: a whole vat of soup - at least enough for two meals

* 5 pounds of potatoes (I used russets), peeled and diced into 1-inch chunks

* 1 teeny onion, diced

* 4 cloves garlic, minced

* 1 teaspoon seasoned salt (whoops - just read the "seasoned" part now - I actually used just regular salt, which turned out fine...use your discretion)

* 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

* 1/2 teaspoon red pepper

* 2 quarts chicken broth

* 2 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese, to be added at the end

Peel (or not...couldn't we all use a little more fiber in our lives? Well, not Lucy, maybe, but the rest of us...I chose to leave the skins on) and dice the potatoes and put them in the stoneware. Add onion and garlic. Sprinkle in the seasonings, and pour in the broth. Cover and cook on low for eight hours or (forget to do that earlier in the day and resort to turning it) on high for four hours. The potatoes should be fork tender. You can use a potato masher to mash the potatoes in the pot or a hand-held immersible blender. Or, skip that step and leave the potatoes chunky (chunky like I am tonight after eating potato chips and brownies for dinner). After smashing the potatoes, crumble in both packages of cream cheese, and put the lid back on. Cook on high for about 30 minutes, or until the cream cheese is completely dissolved. Stir a few times during the 30 minutes. Garnish with crumbled bacon, green onion or chives, or shredded cheddar.

Michael and Alan and I loved this and well, licked our bowls, but our precious son, Picky Pants Matthew, was a bit disturbed by a few small bits of cream cheese that remained. Such that coercion was involved to get him to finish his dinner. Sigh. According to family reports, I am raising the clone of my husband at age 7.