Guest Blogger - Baked Potato Soup

Hi there!  I'm Hungry Pea's daughter, Katie.  Since my mom lives in the boonies and gets intermittent internet connection, we decided that I would make a guest blogging appearance and share with you my baked potato soup.  If you like what you read here, I'd love for you to check me out on my own blog: www.girlgonenorth.com.

Here in Alaska, the switch from summer to winter is subtle, yet alarming.  It was never that warm over the summer, but the rapidly approaching winter season seems far too abrupt for even the most hardened sourdough.  Before I had a chance to kiss my flip-flops goodbye, the leaves were turning colors and promptly plummeting to the ground.  Fall is a season that nearly doesn’t exist here in the great north. 

The cold weather isn't all bad though, especially here.  The snow brings a whole slew of new activities, and even though every opportunity of skiing culminates in me landing on my ass, I still really look forward to the winter.  One of the best parts of winter doesn't involve any instances of hurtling down the mountain.  It revolves around something that is a bit safer, at least for most people: cooking soups.

I should preface this cooking experience and recipe with a clear warning that I am nothing like my mother in the kitchen.  I am not patient and my only creativity results in concoctions no human would want to eat (I specify human here because my dear dog will eat any shit that comes his way).  I often catch things on fire and regularly drop full bowls of food.  It’s a wonder that anything that makes its way out of my kitchen is edible, but much to my wonder, sometimes I make something that tastes so damn good I wouldn’t believe it was crafted by me if it weren’t for the leftover dishes in the sink and the noxious trash. 

So here, Hungry Pea followers, is what happens when the stars align and I cook an spectacular soup:

First, I’ll give you the recipe.  This is not my usual recipe source, but it was the only one that used the ingredients already in my kitchen, so I went with it.  

Bennigan’s Ultimate Baked Potato Soup

Yield: 8 servings.


3 pounds all-purpose potatoes, scrubbed and pierced in several places


1 tablespoon stick butter or margarine


1 1/2 cup finely chopped onions


2 tablespoons minced garlic


1 can (14 1/2 oz) chicken broth


3 cups milk


1 teaspoons salt


1/4 teaspoons pepper


TOPPINGS: shredded cheddar cheese, crumbled bacon & chopped scallions

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake potatoes 1 hour or until tender when pierced. Peel when cool enough to handle. Melt butter in a 4 to 6 quart pot over medium low heat. Stir in onions and garlic, cover and cook 10 minutes until soft, but not brown. Add 2/3 of the potatoes and mash with a potato masher. Add broth, milk, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Season to taste before serving. Cut remaining potatoes in small cubes. Add to soup and stir gently to reheat. Sprinkle each serving with toppings.

Seems easy enough, right?  Well, things started to go awry right away when I realized that I had no clue how much three pounds of potatoes amounted to.  I’m lucky that my gardening skills are slightly better than my cooking skills, so I had a mass of healthy, home grown potatoes to choose from, but the realization that I had no idea how to weigh them hit me hard, as I had just attempted to convince my fiancé that we needed a food scale.  He insisted that it was a totally useless item and so there I was: weightless.  Or something like that.  I’m not one to let these types of things get me down though, so after some thoughtful consideration, I decided the best way to deduce the weight of my potatoes would be to take them upstairs to the bathroom and stand on the scale, without potatoes and then with potatoes in hand.  DONE.  (note: a food scale has subsequently added to our wedding registry).

I made my way through the ingredient list, pleased that I had all of the ingredients in my fridge/pantry, which is nearly a miracle considering how little I choose to enter a grocery store.  So off I go, cooking away.  Let me tell you right now: it smelled SO good.  And in case you’re getting nervous and you’re starting to wonder why you’re reading this, it tasted really good, too.  I was immediately pleased that the recipe includes an entire stick of butter.  In case you’re new to cooking, anything that involves an entire stick of butter will taste good, no matter what you do to it.  You just need to be ready to look like Paula Deen.  Things continued smoothly until it came time to mash the potatoes.  Of course I don’t have a potato masher.   This was easily solved.  Any kitchen item can take the place of a potato masher, so mash on, as I did with an assortment of large spoons (note: a potato masher has since been added to the wedding registry, as well).

The soup was almost finished when things turned ugly.  I was sure I had a rather large amount of vegetable broth.  Positive.  I actually am still convinced it’s somewhere in the back of that lazy susan taunting me as I write this.  Nonetheless, it was nowhere to be found.  I was caught at a crossroads.  I could peel out of my pajamas after a long day at work, while sick and without a voice, and venture to the store, or I could improvise.  After a few serious minutes of studying the pantry, I made a decision: the other soups would just have to make a few donations.  I pulled out a couple cans of Annie’s No Chicken Noodle Soup and started draining the broth out into a bowl.  It may have not been one of my best moments, but secretly I was pretty damn proud of myself.  That’s some real dedication to cooking.  I’m sure someday, when my meatloaf is moments away from spontaneously catching on fire, the cooking gods will remember my tenacity and cut me just a little slack. 

And so, in the end, I may have used too many or two few potatoes, which may have been a little chunky, and I may have been a little short on broth, but it tasted fantastic and did wonders for my cold weather blues.  Even better, it slightly renewed my faith in my ability to cook and it allowed me to share it all with you! 

Thanks for reading :)

www.girlgonenorth.com