Baked Potato Soup

Brigham has been heard to say that I only cook a real dinner if I'm doing it for somebody besides our family and I'm sad to say that this is most definitely true. I find it way too time consuming and most of the time I'm disappointed with the results. I have however, come to the conclusion that this is because I lack basic cooking skills. To fix this problem I call my mom whenever I have a cooking question no matter how stupid it is. This seems to help. The last call resulted in her running over to see what the heck I could have possible done to the simplest potato soup recipe in the world. I'm proud to say that she found everything was fine. I just needed a little positive reinforcement. I do have to admit that I did not make this delicious soup just for my family. But if it takes making dinner for someone else to entice me to break out my mad cooking skills, so be it.

Baked Potato Soup

4 large baking potatoes
2/3 cup butter
2/3 cup flour
6 cups milk
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
4 green onion chopped
12 slices of bacon cooked and crumbled
1-1/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 heaping Tbs. chicken base

Wash potatoes and prick several times with a fork. Bake in a 400 deg. oven for 1 hour until done. Let cool. Cut potatoes into half inch cubes. You could leave the skin. I didn't. Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Add flour stirring until smooth. Cook on medium for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Gradually add milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and is bubbly. Add potato cubes, salt, pepper, green onions, crumbled bacon, cheddar cheese and chicken base. Cook until thoroughly heated. Add extra milk if necessary, for desired thickness.