Feel-good food

Last week I was sick. Fevers, aches, stuffed up head, headache, no energy, etc. I won't go into details because if you're halfway smart, you really don't want to know. On Thursday, though, I started to feel a little better. Well enough, anyway, to start craving lots of good-tasting, healthy-making food. So I dragged myself off of the couch and made for the Crock Pot. Potato Soup it would be.

Now, let me explain to you, I have a long standing and pretty intense love affair with potato soup. From the Baked Potato Soup cups of O'Charley's meals past to similar, bacon-heavy potato soup at Sunday lunch at Rafferty's to my mom's lighter, more delicious version that I usually beefed up with a couple of generous handfuls of cheese and oyster crackers. I've made a number of attempts in the past to make delicious potato soup, but somehow they've always fallen a little short.

This time, though, I just threw a little of everything that we had in the house into a big steaming vat of chicken stock and let it be for a few hours. The result? Tasty enough to make me feel better. Here's what I did.

Crock-Pot Potato Soup
Ingredients

• 5-8 potatoes, depending on size
• 3 small carrots
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 onions
• Bunch thyme, rosemary, couple of sage leaves
• 1 bay leaf
• Stick butter
• Pepper
• salt
• 6 c chicken broth
• Dollop Sour Cream
• Couple of glugs of half and half

Preparation

1. Peel and cut the potatoes into 1" chunks.
2. Peel and thickly slice the carrots.
3. Peel and smash garlic cloves.
4. Peel and chop the onions.
5. Place all these things with herbs (remove woody stems from herbs) and bay leaves into a Large Crock Pot. Pour chicken (or veggie) broth over the veg, cover, and cook on high for about 5 hours.
6. When potatoes and carrots are tender, fish out the bay leaves, and puree the soup in batches. I used a blender, but you can also use a food processor or one of those wand things.
7. Return soup to the crock pot, add the sour cream and half and half (basically until it's as creamy as you like).
8. Pepper and Salt GENEROUSLY to taste.
9. Serve with cheddar cheese on top and oyster crackers on the side.

Note: This soup is much much better if you either 1. cook it longer or 2. wait a day to eat it. The second day is peak, taste-wise. Of course, it's tasty when you first make it, too, but don't you DARE throw away the leftovers. Also, in the future, I think I'll cook the onions down a bit first to release some sweetness.

ALSO, if you don't have a crock pot, you can do this on the stove as well. Just keep an eye on it, that the liquid doesn't all disappear and that it doesn't burn. Otherwise, everything's the same.