Cheese Soup

I don't remember when I first had cheese soup, but for some reason, I think it was in Victor, SD at a restaurant my grandparents used to take us to when we'd visit. Though I don't remember the time, I do recall that it was a life changing experience. Ever since that day, I've had cheese soup whenever I've had the opportunity.

One thing I had never done was attempt to make cheese soup because I didn't cook. Well, now I'm cooking, so I decided to make a cheese soup. I found a recipe at allrecipes.com and went with it. I did modify slightly (who doesn't) but only very slightly.

Creamy Cheddar Cheese Soup (serves 6):

6 strips bacon
1/4 cup butter
1 onion, chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken broth
3 cups milk
1 pound shredded Cheddar cheese (recommend 1/2 lb. mild and 1/2 lb. sharp)

Directions
1. Cook the bacon, chop and set aside.
2. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, melt butter. Add onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour and cook until flour has blended with onion mixture.
3. Add chicken broth and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is slightly thickened. Add milk and heat just to boiling, stirring constantly.
4. In covered blender at medium speed, blend about 1/4 of soup mixture at a time until smooth. Return to saucepan and, over medium heat, heat just to boiling. Remove from heat.
5. With wire whisk or slotted spoon, stir in cheese until melted. If cheese does not melt completely, cook over very low heat about 1 minute, stirring constantly.
6. Add bacon and keep over low heat for 1 minute.

Add pepper to taste at the table.

This soup was outstanding. Very creamy, very rich and the bacon just adds a little something extra. It was even better the 2nd day. I ate mine with oyster crackers. We had some mixed veggies with it, and my wife dumper her veggies into her soup and she said that was really good. Veggies in cheese soup just seems wrong to me, but I guess, to each his/her own.

The best thing was, this wasn't a hard soup to make. I was really concerned that the cheese would get clumpy, but it didn't. What I'm finding is that cooking, in most cases, isn't nearly as hard as I used to think it was. Knock on wood that this will continue. We will make this one again.