Helen's Potato Chowder

This morning, I told Wayne I planned to make Helen's Potato Chowder.  He said, "Well, don't make too much-- there's only two of us here." (In unspoken words, that meant I shouldn't double the recipe as I like to do.) Then, he continued with, "I realize it might be good to have enough left over so that you don't have to cook for a while, but you're cooking every day, anyhow."   Well,... I do...al-most... 'every day'.   Truthfully, soups/chowders like this could replace desserts for me!

I've changed a few things 'just a little' from the basic recipe I was given-- for example, cooking the celery and onion together; decreasing milk from 4 cups to 3; changing amount of potatoes from 2-4 cups of diced potatoes to 4 whole potatoes, etc.
 
You will need: 

• *3 slices lean bacon (snip into small pieces and fry until crisp; then set aside)
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• 1/2 cups finely diced celery
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 3 cups boiling water
• 4 med. to lge. potatoes, peeled and diced
• 3 cups milk (this could be cream, or it could be low-fat milk)
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Dash of black pepper

** See note at bottom
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DIRECTIONS:

Cut bacon into small pieces and fry until crisp-- remove from pan, and saute the onions and celery in the bacon fat. After onions start looking transparent, add 2 tablespoons flour to the pan with the onions and stir (whisk) until smooth.  Slowly add 3 cups boiling water, whisk until smoothly blended.  Add the salt, pepper, and the potatoes; add 1 cup of the milk and simmer until vegetables are nearly soft.  Now, add remaining 2 cups milk.  Simmer over very low heat until served.  Sprinkle bacon on top of each serving, OR mix into the soup.  As written, this recipe makes about 7 cups of chowder.

*Sometimes, in place of the bacon, I've used browned and drained lean ground beef.  Heck, I sometimes even 'rinse' the browned hamburger after I drain any fat off-- I do that by slowly pouring a cup of very hot water over it.  When I do that, I use a little mix of olive oil/butter to cook the onion-- over low heat, it can be done quite easily.

**The 'oink/oink' in me can see adding some beautiful yellow kernels of sweet corn to this chowder.