Oh my Goodness. I've been looking for a Cheesy Hash Brown Potato Soup recipe like this for a long time! Imagine my great excitement now that I've finally found it. I'm so happy that I want to share it, so today is your lucky day because I want to share it with YOU!

I simply adore potatoes. Some might even say I have one heck of a serious addiction. Potatoes are the ultimate when it comes to comfort food, especially in the winter time � but year-round will do, too. Maybe it's in my Irish genes. Maybe it even goes back even farther! I love all kinds of potatoes: baked, mashed, whipped, boiled, scalloped, French-fried and roasted. I love potato chips, latkes, tater tots, and gnocchi too. But most of all, I love hash browns and potato soup!

And that's why I'm loving this double potato soup recipe so much. And you wanna know why I love it even more? Because it's got cheese in it! OMG. Just when you think you have Heaven in a bowl, someone comes along and puts cheese on it. It just can't get any better than that!

Potatoes are so amazing, and they have such a fascinating history. I'd always thought they originated in the United Kingdom because they've been such a staple there for so long, and everyone's heard of the great potato famine in Ireland, right? But, as it turns out, they actually date back much farther to the ancient Andes regions of South America. Cool, huh? It was the Inca who first started planting potato crops, and for them it was not only a staple, but it was a very sacred food.

The Spaniards discovered potatoes when they first arrived in South America, and they brought them back to Europe. Funnily enough, Europeans didn't like potatoes very much at first. They thought potatoes were dirty as they came up from under the earth. There were all kinds of superstitions associated with potatoes, including that they were of the devil!

Thanks to a few British nobles who eventually endorsed potato crops by growing them, the masses soon started to follow suit. And the rest, as they say is history. Now, potatoes are everywhere, including my oven!

So, now, back to this amazing recipe for hash brown potato soup � with CHEESE!

As far as the hash browns are concerned, it's totally acceptable if you want to use the frozen kind but if you would like something a bit healthier you could try making your very own organic hash browns. How? Just get yourself a few organic Russet potatoes and peel them. Wash them real good! Then get out the cheese grater and shred them up, one by one. When you're done, wrap them in a nice clean dish cloth and give them a light squeeze. This will help you drain out the excess moisture so they will cook perfectly. True, this sounds like a lot of extra preparation, but if you have the time � it's totally worth it!

Another way to make your own hash browns is to bake the potatoes first, then shred them. That way they'll be pre-cooked and ready to go into your next potato recipe. You could even make a whole lot of extra hash browns in advance, then freeze them. That way, you'll have an ample supply for next time!

Also, as far as the cheese goes, this recipe calls for cheddar and cream cheese. The cream cheese is pretty important, so you should probably stick with it, but you can substitute just about any other kind of cheese for the cheddar � or perhaps add a blend of two or three different kinds of cheeses. (Imagine! Three-Cheese Hash Brown Potato Soup! Yum!) Feel free to experiment and come up with your own special combinations.

That's it, I'm off to make this delicious cheesy potato soup recipe right now. Good luck with your own cooking adventures!