Wisconsin Potato Cheese Soup

To celebrate our arrival this week we made a delicious Wisconsin Potato Cheese Soup...Thanks to my friend Heather for the recipe. It is inexpensive, quick, easy and delicious. That is my kind of recipe!

1/3 cup chopped celery

1/3 cup chopped onion

(I added 1/3 sliced carrots - the soup is orange, so it is easy to "hide" orange veggies in it so that certain members of my family don't know that they are eating it!)

2T butter or margarine

4 cups diced, peeled potatoes

3 cups chicken broth

2 cups milk

1 1/2 t salt

1/4 pepper

Dash paprika

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Chopped fresh parsley

Croutons

In a large saucepan, saute celery and onion in butter until tender. Add potatoes and broth. Cover and simmer until potatoes are tender, 12-15 minutes. Allow mixture to cool. In batches, puree potato mixture in blender or food processor. (That is where I strayed from the recipe a bit. We like to have chunks of potato in our soup, so I just mashed it all by hand with a potato masher leaving some chunks. That way you don't have to wait for it to cool either.) Return to pan. Stir in milk and seasonings. Add the cheese and heat just until melted. Garnish with croutons and parsley.