Cheeseburger Soup

I haven't posted about any cooking adventures - or triumphs - lately.  You might think it's because I haven't been cooking.  You'd be a little right.

But I did just make cheeseburger soup.  We had it at my parents' house over Thanksgiving weekend.  My mom, who is an excellent cook, served it, and J looooved it.  I knew because he had several bowlfuls and even stood over the stove to stir it while we reheated it (because the microwave broke, but that's another story).

So when I was going to be out of town for a couple days this last week, I decided to make it for him so he'd have a good, homemade dinner even while his ever-loving wife was gone.  I knew it was risky, coming so close on the heels of my mom's delicious batch.  But I did it anyway, because it was pretty easy to make and very easy to heat up.

Argh...

I got lazy and didn't drain the ground beef after I browned it, so the whole thing was swimming in a fine layer of oil, some of it deeper puddles than others.  You can scoop chunks of congealed fat off after it's been refrigerated for a while.

Despite that, it tasted good (especially when you add lots of Saltines to soak up the oil) and most of it was gone when I got back home.  The good man that he is, J did not complain.  Did I mention he's also rather wise?

Here's the recipe.  Learn from my lazy-rookie mistake, and please drain your beef.  The ingredients are a little do-what-you-want because the recipe originally came from my Grandma, and I don't think she followed the recipe very closely.

Cheeseburger Soup

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1/2 c. chopped onion (or 1 whole)
3/4 c. diced celery (or 1 bunch)
3/4 c. shredded carrots (or more)
4 c. cubed potatoes (I used frozen Southern-style hash browns, and they worked fine)
4 c. chicken broth
1 tsp. basil
1 tsp. parsley
1/4 c. flour
1 1/2 c. milk
8 oz. Velveeta, cubed
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 c. sour cream

Brown beef.  Drain.  Saute onions, celery and carrots (separately from beef).  Add to beef.  Add potatoes through parsley to beef, and bring to a boil, then simmer.
Shake together (or whisk) flour and milk.  Stir into soup.  Add cheese, salt and pepper.  Be careful not to scorch!
Just before serving, stir in sour cream.

*To avoid scorching, you can put everything in a crockpot before the flour and milk step.

**This is better the next day, so make the night before you want to serve, and reheat.