Beer!

I don't drink beer because I think it's gross, but I do love to cook with it because it makes yummy bread and soup.  I have this app on my iPad called Food Holiday, where it tells you what each day is in the food world.  Today is "National Drink Beer Day."  I came close enough -- I ate beer today.
Not so long ago, I was a consultant for Tastefully Simple.  I recently became inactive due to my inability to retain parties....that's a whole other story for a rainy day.  I had a leftover sample of the potato soup and a brand new box of the multi-grain beer bread.  Sure, I could have made it from scratch, but I had the mix, and it's Sunday, so that's all the excuse to be lazy I need. 
After stocking up on some cream cheese, bacon bits, and potatoes, I decided to add a package of Bear Creek potato soup mix to it all, just to have a big pot's worth. 

 Here's the trick to tasty taters:  After you peel them, soak them in salt water for a while. 

I probably soaked mine for a good 30 minutes.  Then I diced them up and stuck them on the stove top to boil for about 25 minutes.  Nobody wants crunchy potatoes in their potato soup!

Guess what?  I used my bread to time my taters.  When the bread dinged, the taters dinged.  Drain the potatoes and set them aside for now.

**Side note:  I used Sam Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale for this bread.  Ohhhhhh yum.

This is where it gets FUN!!  When you make a creamy soup, you can mix just about anything milk, broth, or water-related you want.  I had some leftover chicken broth (about 2 cups,) some leftover half & half (about 2 cups), and some leftover heavy cream (about 1 cup.)  Both soup mixes together called for 11 cups of water.  ELEVEN CUPS?!  That's waaaaay too watery for me.  To that 5ish cups of stuff, I added about 3-4 cups of water.  I always, always, always cut my liquid in soups by about 2 cups. 
Let the liquid heat up a little bit, then add in the soup mix.  Whisk it in slowly.  Yeah, yeah...one day I'll get around to doing it actually homemade...but not today.  Like I said, it's Sunday.  Let it all simmer for a while until it thickens up, stirring it so it doesn't stick to the bottom, then add the best ingredient of all:  cream cheese!  Swirl it around until it gets all melty and creamy, turn the heat off, then dump in the drained potatoes and the bacon bits.  I use bacon pieces because they're bigger.  And besides, everything's better with bacon. 

 Stir it all together and ladle it out.  I had some leftover Kraft Triple Cheddar shredded cheese, so I tossed some on top along with a piece of the beer bread.

It's creamy, cheesy, potatoey, and has just the right mix of salt and seasoning.  Talk about YUMMO.  Sure, this meal is full of carbs and fatty dairy, and beer -- but oh well.  It's all about moderation, people.  Actually, that kind of goes out the window with this dish, too....it's really tough to have just one bowl.  Just make sure not to try on clothes right after you finish eating.  You'll be really disappointed.