Aunt Buzz’s Vichyssoise

This is one of those classic (to me) summer recipes – enjoying a very cold bowl of potato soup in the dining room of Aunt Buzz’s bright yellow house; second down from the top of the mountain.

Aunt Buzz loved to entertain, but, as I am pretty sure I have mentioned before, she did not love to cook, so, as with any decent mid-century hostess, she found shortcuts.

And this shortcut – cream of potato soup, sour cream, milk, and garlic powder, all

whirled together in the blender, then thoroughly chilled, is one for the ages.

INGREDIENTS
•2 cans condensed cream of potato soup
•1 cup sour cream
•1-1/2 soup cans of milk
•1/2 tsp garlic powder
•1/4 tsp white pepper*
•Chives (for a garnish)

*Aunt Buzz did not add freshly ground white pepper to hers, and I am pretty certain she will be making arrangements to haunt me for “gorping this up,” but we love pepper, and white pepper keeps the soup that lovely, silky cream color.

Combine all of the ingredients – except for the chives – in a blender container and process until nicely combined.

Transfer to a container and chill for at least a few hours.

Note: one of the keys to this soup is that it be served ice cold (I once had it in a (kinda nice) restaurant where they served it in a cut glass bowl suspended over another cut glass bowl filled with ice), and so, I think that it needs to be chilled in a glass container.

Serve with cut chives scattered over the top.