Fully-Loaded Cheesey Potato Soup

Have you ever had one of those days where you get home and all you want is a big steamy bowl of That Soup.  So you go to your pantry, only to discover you don't have enough of That Star Ingredient to pull of That Soup?  Yeah, even with as much as I try to plan, this happens to me.  When it does, I figure I have two options:

1) Pick up your car keys and drive the 3 minutes to the grocery store, wait 10 minutes in line to check out and grumble to yourself about how you could have possibly miscalculated your ingredients for the week.

OR

2) Live on the edge.  Take a look at what else you've got in the house and see what other kind of soup you can make instead.

 Look what goodies I found!

Normally, I go with option 1.  I'm a planner and I have a set plan to make That Dish so I'm going to get the stuff for That Dish, like it or not.  However the other day I decided to throw caution to the wind and go with option 2.  I mean, really, how hard can it be, right?  I have butter/oil, onions, chicken stock, various frozen vegetables,...plenty of ingredients to come up with an alternative soup!  And so I quickly dug through my soup recipes and found one I'd filed away to try but have never gotten around to making.  Now was the time!

And boy, oh boy, I totally need to forget about ingredients more often!

Fully Loaded Cheesey Potato Soup
Recipe adapted from the Neely's

4 tablespoons butter
1 onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup milk
12 oz beer (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 large russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 cups grated extra-sharp Cheddar (about 8 ounces)
Dash hot sauce
Dash Worcestershire

1.  In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic and saute in butter until the vegetables begin to soften, about 4 minutes. Sprinkle the flour into the pan and continue to stir for 2 minutes to toast the flour. Add salt and pepper, to taste. 

2.  Gradually whisk in the stock, then the milk and the beer. Stir in the potatoes and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the soup until the potato is tender, about 20 to 30 minutes. Try not to drool too much at the AMAZING smells that will begin to permeate your house.

3.  Remove the pan from the heat and using an immersion blender, puree the soup until smooth. [Note: Don't have an immersion blender?  Ladle soup into a regular blender or food processor instead.  Return soup to pot when smooth.]  Return the soup to low heat. Add the cheese a handful at a time, stirring until melted and smooth after each addition (if you add it all at once, you get cheese glops; trust me on this one). Season the soup, to taste, with hot sauce, Worcestershire, and salt and pepper. 

 Have I mentioned before that we like cheese?  Because we do.

To make this "Fully Loaded" top with any fixings you like on your baked potato.  We agreed that crispy bacon and some fresh chives would be awesome on this.  I also liked it with just some extra hot sauce on top (I like spicy).