1.  We’re heading toward fall weather. Kind of. It’s North Carolina so “fall weather” means anything from 70-something to 50-something. It’s a bit of a mixed bag.

2.  So when I say we’re entering soup season – say it with me: aaahhhhh – I really mean something like we’re entering soup season as long as I check the seven day forecast and look for cooler days then hope the weather systems don’t do something weird midweek.

3.  I was feeling spunky so we tried two new soups. Last Thursday I made this Chicken, White Bean, and Green Chile Corn Chowder.

4.  Thursday was supposed to be cool and rainy, perfect soup weather, but in a cosmic flip off it turned out to be 80° and sunny. Yes. eighty degrees. In OCTOBER. North Carolina is unpredictable, man, but the chicken had an expiration date so soup it was.

5.  Footnote: Liking sour cream seems to be crucial to enjoying this one. I loved it, T-man was distinctly meh, and BrightSide couldn’t even finish his bowl. So if you like a creamy chowder and don’t mind sour cream then this is definitely worth trying. Otherwise you might want to pass.

6.  Fast forward to Sunday. Now there’s a day that delivered on the weather. High of 60° with cold rain all day long. It was practically crying out for warm creamy soup and everybody knows you should never deny a crying day its comfort food.

7.  That’s when I made this Cheesy Pepper Jack Potato Chowder. I was feeling a little iffy about trying another new recipe after Thursday’s disastrous results – well, disastrous for everyone else I guess but now I’ve got four quarts of delicious soup waiting in the freezer for little ol’ me. Silver lining and all that jazz.

8.  I shouldn’t have stressed, though, because this potato chowder is absolutely fan-diddly-tastic. It got an A++ from every single one of us with second helpings all around.

9.  As a plus, as far as my homemade soups go this one is pretty low maintenance. The biggest prep ingredient would have been dicing potatoes but the recipe calls for Southern Style hash browns. So I can use a bag from the freezer section instead of dicing four cups of potatoes? Seriously?? SOLD.

10.  Which leaves us with one freezer stocked with soup only I love and one dinner with no leftovers because everyone gobbled up their share. I’ll call it a win.