Potato Wild Rice Soup

By Jennifer Poenix

Today we celebrated Heidi Holtan's birthday with delicious potluck lunch. As you may have read previously on this blog, I love potlucks.

Stephanie made pasta and sauce, Penny made a white cake with strawberries and wonderful cream cheese frosting, Mark brought bread, Katie brought a pistachio salad, Dan provided beverages, and Scott brought ice cream. I made soup. It seems to be the theme of this blog lately (because January is National Soup Month), so I hope you don't mind if I continue the theme.

I've made this soup quite a lot at home and a few times for KAXE stuff. People tell me they like it, but I can't take much credit for it. It's so simple. Some might say it's cheating, but not me! Here is what you need:

4 cans of cream of potato soup
1 or 2 cans of wild rice (I use the Canoe brand. It's the only brand I know of.)
Approx. 1 quart of half and half
Bacon (optional - I buy Hormel bacon pieces that come in a jar)
Shredded cheese (also optional, but seriously, you should use it)

Drain the rice. Mix it with the soup. Add enough half and half to get the consistency that you want. You can add the bacon if you want, however, if you are serving vegetarians, leave it out, and it can be added as a topping. I think the cheese works better as a topping too.

You can cook this on the stove until it gets hot, or use a crock pot. You'll want to heat for about 3 hours on low, or about 1 hour on high. Enjoy!