Potato Soup

Last week my mom gave me most of a 10 lb bag of potatoes. I made Crash Hot Potatoes with some of them and decided to make Potato Soup with the rest of it. Here is the recipe I made up with what I had on hand:

~6 lbs of potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
1 T minced garlic
2 T butter
2 cans of evaporated milk
8 oz cheese, shredded
salt and pepper to taste

Cook potatoes in water until tender. Saute onions and celery in the butter just until brown, then add garlic. Heat through until you can really smell the garlic.

Once potatoes are tender, drain off half of the liquid and half of the potatoes. Use your hand mixed (or masher I suppose) to create a puree right in the pan with the remaining water and potatoes. Stir in sauted vegetables, evaporated milk, and cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted then add in the remaining potato cubes.

***
Apart from the time spent peeling and cubing the potatoes, this was very simple to make. If I had it, I would have tossed in crumbled bacon and then topped with green onions. But they weren't on hand today. You could also use heavy cream instead of evaporated milk.

This recipe is one that is hard to mess up though. So, if you have less or more of something it probably wouldn't matter much.

What do you do with extra potatoes?