On a rainy day

There is nothing like a fresh baked loaf of bread and homemade soup. Since I made up my dough yesterday, the bread part was easy. I cut off a piece, shaped it and let it rest. Then I had to find a soup recipe that I could make with ingredients we had on hand, which was no easy task since we just got back from vacation. I knew I had seen a cream of vegetable soup in one of my books that I wanted to try, but I didn't have all the ingredients on hand, so I improvised and came up with:

Potato Carrot soup:

1/4 cup butter
1 cup carrots, chopped
3 baking potatoes, cut in to pieces (leave skins on, that is where most of the nutrition is)
6 cups chicken broth (I think it needed a little milk to make it more creamy, next time I want to try 3 cups milk, 3 cups broth)
a few sprigs of tarragon or thyme
8 oz. sour cream

Melt the butter over low heat and cook the carrots in the butter until soft, about 30 minutes (if you like onion, you can chop up an onion and cook it with the carrots), add potatoes and broth (or milk) and turn up the heat to high and bring to a rapid boil, skim the foam off the top, add your sprigs of fresh herbs, put the lid on the pot and lower the heat to low. Simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 15-20 minutes. Remove the herb sprigs and blend soup with an immersion blender, or in batches in a blender. Stir sour cream in off of the heat and serve with grated cheddar cheese to taste.