Sausage and Potato Stew

I made this last night. It's from the crock pot cookbook my mom got me for Christmas. This is the 2nd recipe I have made from it. I usually think about crock pot meals being quick and easy. This hasn't really been true thus far for these recipes. There is a LOT of prep work to get them into the crockpot BUT they have been very flavorful and tasty. Also, this is the first recipe I have made using my own homemade chicken stock! Woot! I am very pleased with how this second batch turned out, after having thrown away my first batch (see a previous post). Overall this was a good soup. My Grampie came over to eat with us, spontaneously, and even though he is a more traditional type of guy, he said a few times how much he liked the soup. So he got most of the leftovers since Steve isn't crazy about soup, really. We had this soup with homemade bread.

Sausage and Potato Stew
4 slices bacon
1 pound polish sausage
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 32 oz box chicken broth (or 4 cups homemade stock woot woot)
2 cups water
2 cups frozen corn
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 13 oz can evaporated milk (I could only find 12 oz cans...weird)
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 15 oz can creamed corn
1/4 cup chopped chives

In large skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Drain on paper towels, crumble, and refrigerate. Cut sausage into 1 inch pieces and cook for 2-3 minutes in bacon drippings. Remove and place in 4-quart slow cooker. Add onion and garlic to skillet; cook and stir for 4 minutes. Pour all ingredients from skillet into slow cooker. Add potatoes, chicken broth, water, and frozen corn. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Add red pepper and evaporated milk to slow cooker. In small bowl, combine creamed corn and cornstarch; mix well. Add to slow cooker along with reserved bacon. Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes or until soup is thickened. Sprinkle with chives. Serve.

So this soup never really thickened up. Well, I shouldn't say never, but after 30 minutes it seemed to be no thicker. I couldn't wait any longer because everyone was at the table but me! So it really was more like soup than stew. Steve said it was good to have it soupy though because the bread soaked it up really good. It did seem like the sausage lost a lot of its flavor after being cooked all day. But I am very pleased about using my chicken stock! It smelled so good and I was like, oh yeah, I made all that. Woot.