Loaded Potato Soup Anyone?

Mmm this soup was delicious & so simple to make. I baked fresh loaves of bread to go along with it, my house smelled delicious :o) Now for those of you neurotics out there who must have a specific recipe, you're gonna be disappointed. My soup does not require a recipe. It's simply a list of ingredients that you throw together & taste test until you have it how you like it. But here are the basics:

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  Potatoes - cubed, you can peel them if you like, I normally don't
  
  
  
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  Water & Chicken Broth - half of each to boil your taters in, if you don't have the broth no biggie
  
  
  
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  Butter - half a stick to a whole stick depending on how many taters you have
  
  
  
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  Green Onions - chop how much you wanna use in your soup & pop it in with the boiling taters
  
  
  

When the taters are tender, start here:

*Keep them in the water you boiled them in, it's your starter water. Turn your heat down to a medium simmer. You can mash the taters or leave them as is, trust me, once you start stirring & adding the next bit of ingredients they're gonna fall apart a bit anyway. I like mine chunkier so I don't mash them.*

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  Cream of Ckn Soup - 1 can or 2 - I use the large Family size cans b/c I have a bigger family, Duh!
  
  
  
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  Milk - It just depends on how thick or thin you want your soup as to how much you use
  
  
  
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  Sour Cream - may sound weird but it'll help thicken up your soup a bit & gives it a good Baked Potato flavor - I think I used a lil more than a cup
  
  
  
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  Ranch Dip Seasoning - the kind in the packets. Now you have to be careful here b/c the sodium content will make your soup very salty. I only used about half a packet for my LARGE pot of soup.
  
  
  
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  Bacon- fry some up to either garnish with or throw it in the soup :o)
  
  
  
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  Shredded cheese - garnish, makes your soup LOOK a lil less bland, all that white bothers me so I always add a lil orange cheddar cheese to purdy it up lol!
  
  
  

That's all there is to it. The rest is up to you & your preferences. & if you have any other suggestions and/or adds for potato soup I'd love to hear them!