Christmas Eve Soup

Our tradition for as long as I can remember is to have soup and sandwiches for christmas eve dinner. We have always opened our christmas presents on christmas eve with my grandparents after the candle light service at church. I think the tradition started because as kids we couldn't wait to open our presents, so soup and sandwiches were the fastest meal to eat. The tradition lives on, even though were not quite as excited to get to our presents as we used to be. For a while we've been getting Marie Calendar's Cheesy Potato Soup. This year I had a recipe for potato soup that I wanted to try instead. It turned out great and it was super easy. My grandpa loved it and requested that I come over and make it again before I head back to Boston.

Potato Soup

Modified recipe from Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour

Yields: 6-8 Servings

Time: 6-8 hours in low heat crock-pot 

Ingredients

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1 cup celery, thinly chopped

1 30oz. bag of frozen, shredded hash browns (***can use "southern style" hash browns, see below)

3 14oz. cans of chicken broth

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1/4 tsp. ground pepper

1 pkg. cream cheese (do not use fat-free or reduce fat, it will not melt)

Toppings:

green onions, chopped

cheddar cheese, shredded

bacon bits

sour cream

Saute onions and celery in a tbsp or so of butter until onions and celery are slightly tender (they will cook more while in crock-pot). Mix cooked celery and onions, hash browns, chicken broth, cream of chicken soup and pepper in crock-pot. Cook for 6-8 hour on low heat. One hour before serving add cream cheese. Mix well before serving (a whisk works best to really mix the cream cheese in). Serve with topping options. Enjoy!

*** Update: Today I used "southern style" hash browns or cubed hash browns instead of shredded. I liked it better, it was so good. Loved the chunks of potato. Try it this way, I promise you'll love it! ***

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