Soup is Good Food

I don't get sick (insert knocking on wood here). I used to get sick all the time, like pnuemonia 4 times in 4 years sick. Then I got healthy, Step 1, and respected the importance of rest, Step 2 and stopped getting sick. My version of sick is now the throat tickle, followed by 48 hours of a sore throat and about 3 hours worth of aches. When this year's "tickle" began I wondered if I had been tempting fate for too long by going around and saying "I don't get sick." Luckily I remembered my Step 3 - make a big batch of Roasted Garlic Potato soup and eat it until it's gone. It has Potatoes (surprisingly good for you), Carrots (I'm not a big veggie fan so I get them where I can), Roasted Garlic (duh, do I even need to say it), and Bacon (good for my soul.) I promise you that if you get sick or not it's like a bowl of wintery goodness. The recipe is swiped from Cooking Light so you know it's good for you. Curl up with the one you love, or a fire, or a good book, or a flickering tv screen and enjoy.

Roasted Garlic Potato Soup

5 Whole Garlic Heads (ok, the goal is to end up with 1/4 cup of roasted garlic and I've never ever needed the full 5 heads but then I just refrigerate the extra)
3 Bacon Slices, diced
1 Cup Onions, diced
1 Cup Carrots, diced
2 Garlic Cloves, minced or squished
6 Cups diced Baking Potatoes (It usually takes me about 2.5 to 3 lbs.)
4 Cups low-salt Chicken Stock (personally I like the full salt version)
1/4 tsp pepper (does anyone ever measure this, just turn the grinder til it looks as speckily as you'd like)
1 Bay Leaf
1 Cup 2% Milk

Remove the outer papery skin from the garlic heads but don't separate the cloves. Wrap each head individually in foil and bake at 350 for one hour and then let cool. Squish the yummy, garlicky goodness out til you have between 1/4 and 1/3 a cup (go ahead, go a little higher, you know you want to).

Cook bacon in a large soup pan over med. hi. heat til crisp. Add onion, carrot and minced garlic and saute for 5 minutes. Add potato, broth, pepper and bay leaf; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes or until potato is tender. Remove bay leaf.

Combine garlic pulp and 2 cups of the potato mixture in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. I keep doing this til the whole soup is smooth, but that's because I like eating this like it's a giant bowl of liquidy mashed potatoes. Your choice. Another option is to use an immersion blender and save yourself some clean up. Stir in milk and eat.

Personally I always need to add salt to this soup, but then again, I've been known to add salt to every single thing in my universe. To me it rounds flavors out and I'm a big fan of the notion that it really is the most underused spice.

Is this the most exciting soup you'll ever eat, no. Is this warm, yes. Creamy, yes. Healthy, yes. Disease fighting, I think so. Bacony, you bettya.

Happy winter.