"Potato Soup" or "How I Was Eaten By Polar Bears (and survived!)"

As I promised my very weepy dutch oven last week, I have returned with another soup.8 feet of snow was dumped  on Nashville today *cough*more like 4 inches*cough* which is way too much for us wimpy southerners and everybody's freaking out. I however don't mind too much because 1) I'm off work today anyway, 2) everywhere I need to go is withing walking distance, and 3) right before we got "snowed in" I begged my mother to give me her potato soup recipe which is basically the best thing ever to come in a bowl and a magnificent compliment to a snowy day.

Happy dutch oven. It's smiling!

The only change I made to the recipe was that I used 1% milk because that was what I had in the house,  I think  it made the soup come out a little less decadent then I'm used to but  even so it was still delicious.

1% Milk? WHAT?!

Potato Soup

6 Medium Potatoes peeled and sliced

2 carrots, diced

6 celery stalks, diced

2 quarts(8 cups) water 

1 onion chopped

6 tablespoons butter

6 tbsp ap flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1-1/2 cups milk

In a large kettle cook potatoes carrots and celery in water until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain, reserving liquid and setting vegetables aside. In the same kettle, saute onion in butter until soft. Stir in flour, salt and pepper; gradially add milk stirring constantly until thickened.  Gently stir in cooked vegetables. Add 1 cup or more of reserved cooking liquid until soup is desired consistency. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Yeild: 8-10 servings ( about 2-1/2 quarts).

Cornbread Muffins

Muffins

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 12 regular (1/3-cup) muffin cups. Sift cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Whisk buttermilk and egg in another medium bowl; whisk in melted butter. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients; stir just until incorporated (do not overmix). Divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups. Bake muffins until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 15 minutes (muffins will be pale). Cool on rack 10 minutes.