Potato Soup

It's a snowy day - not a snow day.  Those of us involved in education must make the distinction.   School is out today anyway - for the mid-year teacher inservice and for Martin Luther King Day.  I spoke to the teachers at 7:30 this morning and returned home in the midst of lots of snowflakes.  We're supposed to get about five inches, but it sure seems like we'll get more by the look of things.  Anyway, lines are softening, sounds are muffled, and the world is white. 

Time to make soup!

On our last trip out west,

we stayed in a hotel that served some kind of sausage in their breakfast buffet.

I'm not much of a sausage connoisseur, but it was very good.  

I asked the hostess what it was and found out it was some sort of a kielbasa.  Now that's really out of my vocabulary, but I know it's popular up here in the Milwaukee area with all the German and Polish heritage we have.  So, I looked up recipes using kielbasa on allrecipes.com and found a potato soup recipe submitted by "Deirdre Dee" that eventually turned into this one... which I absolutely love, love, love!

Ingredients

2 red onions, diced

3/4 cup butter

8 cups diced potatos

12 oz. package of baby carrots, chopped

14-16 oz. Beef Polska Kielbasa

4 1/2 cups water

5 cups milk

2 teaspoons salt

3/4 teaspoon pepper

1 1/2 cups dry potato flakes

Using a large sauce pan or soup pot...

sauté your chopped onion in butter.

 Chop potatoes.

 Chop carrots.

 Chop the kielbasa.

 Add all three to your translucent onions.

Add water, salt and pepper.

 Cook on low for about 45 minutes or until potatoes are creamy.

 Add milk and cook until heated through.

 Add instant potato flakes.

Cook and stir for 5-10 minutes to let flakes thicken.

 OMG!!!  So yummy!  Perfect for a snowy day!

(Not to be confused with a snow day... 

but it would be great on a snow day, too)