[JustAmy]

Hard Rock Cafe Potato Soup

Ingredients:
8 Slices Bacon fried crisp
1 C. diced yellow onion
2/3 C. Flour
6 C. chicken broth
4 C. diced peeled baked potato
2 C. heavy cream
1/4 C. chopped fresh parsley
1 1/2 Tsp. Granulated garlic
1 1/2 Tsp. Dried basil
1 1/2 Tsp. Tabasco
1 1/2 Tsp. coarse black pepper
1 C. grated cheddar cheese
1/4 C. Diced green onion

Preparation:
Chop bacon. Set aside. Cook onions in drippings over medium high heat until transparent.
Add flour stirring to prevent lumps. Cook for 3-5 minutes until mixture just begins to turn golden.
Add broth (it helps if it is warm) gradually, stirring constantly with whisk until thickened.
Reduce heat to simmer and add potatoes, cream, bacon, parsley, garlic, basil, Tabasco, and black pepper.
Simmer 10 minutes. DO NOT BOIL. Add cheese and green onion.
Stir until cheese melts.

This can be made ahead up to the point of adding the cheese and onion. Reheat the soup very slowly and gently. Be careful that it does not boil. Then add the cheese and green onion.
Of course if there is any leftover it reheats beautifully. I have never tried freezing it.


**I have not tried this recipe, therefore the comments are not mine. : )

[JustAmy]

This isn't really Texas, but the poem is by my great-half-aunt.

Miracle Of Snow

Today I saw a wondrous sight,
My cedar trees bloomed out in white!

Forsythia too, instead of gold,
In gleaming silver I behold.

Down through the air their petals fall
Making a silent coverall,

Even the lilac's purple frond
A garb of filmy white has donned.

Its pointed tapers are aglow
With God's sweet miracle of snow.

By Laressa Cox McBurney
Published in Prairie Panorama in 1938