Celery Potato Soup

I can't really dig on celery's stringyness all the time. However, if you puree it in a soup you only get the flavor and I think most people who "don't like celery" will disagree after having this. Also, the pureed potatoes really give this a nice rich creamy texture without being loaded with cream (this is actually suuuper nutrish). Meegy said this was like a clam chowder without the clams. I agreed.

3 stalks of celery
4-5 medium Yukon Gold potatoes
1/2 a yellow onion
4 cloves garlic
1 C chicken stock (please make your own... so damn good!)
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried thyme
2 dried bay leaves
Hot pepper flakes (pinch - 1 tsp)
Pinch of rosemary (per Meegy)
1/4 skim milk
Olive Oil
Salt/pep
Blue cheese (optional)

The gist is as follows: roughly chop the onions and celery and saute in oil for a few minutes until tender (do not let this brown). Add the potatoes, garlic and dried herbs and continue to saute for just a few minutes. Add the chicken stock and let everything get warmed through for about 5 minutes. Next, add enough water so just the top of the veggies are covered. Cover with a tight fitting lid and boil, on medium, for 45 minutes.

After 45 mins, remove the lid, kill the heat and let the mixture cool for 10 minutes before transferring to the blender. Once in the blender, add milk and puree until soup is very smooth. We served this with crumbled blue cheese (since we had it anyways and we thought celery... blue cheese... like hot wings always come w celery...) I don't know - it's cheese so it worked. Doesn't cheese work with everything?? If you wanted to jazz this up a bit you could garnish with some fresh parsley and olive oil. The olive oil makes cool patterns.