Killer Potato Soup

Oh My Holy Cow!!!! I just invented this and cooked it today. It is pretty simple so I thought that I would let others know about it so if they want to try it or improve it go for it!

Killer Potato Soup-you will need:

10 strips of bacon
8-10 med sized potatoes
4 cups water
4 cups chicken broth
1 med onion chopped
4 cloves of garlic (grated)
1/8 cup butter
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 tsp each of thyme, sage, ground yellow mustard, white pepper
1 bay leaf
salt-opt

Save some time clean skins of potatoes and bake half way in microwave/6mins. Work in batches.
Let cool a little and peal off skins. (It helps to cool the potatoes if you cut them in half length wise). Chop the onions while potatoes are baking.
In a large pot cook bacon to render fat with butter until crisp . (The butter is just a bonus, if you are using precooked bacon you need a little extra fat). About med-low heat.
Remove bacon from pot. Add chopped onions and saute for 3mins. (opt. add salt to help sweat out the onions). Add garlic and saute for 1 min more. Add water, broth, potatoes, spices and bay leaf. Simmer for about 20-30 mins. Potatoes will be extremely mushy. Add milk simmer for another 5 min. Fish out bay leaf and with an emulsion blender, blend all the potatoes, onions, etc. Soup will be soupy not creamy like a chowder. Crumble up bacon and add to soup.

You can garnish with cheese/chives/croutons/more bacon/sour cream/whatever you would top on a baked potato. The choices are limitless.

If you want a creamier soup use less water maybe about a cup instead of four. And sub. whole milk or cream to help thicken.

I hope that I explained this well. I don't write out recipes (That's one of Jason's biggest complaints about my cooking, I can't do the same thing twice). But this came together really quick and even I LIKED IT!