Sweet Imaginarium: Cream of Potato Soup

For this house fall and winter mean homemade soup time. You name it, chili, chicken and dumplings, but most of all home made cream of potato soup. So I'm sharing with you my personal recipe passed down to me from my mother-in-law because it was my hubby's favorite growing up. He likes his plain, but I jazz mine up like a loaded baked potato. Anyway you serve it, it's guaranteed to satisfy!
Ingredients
4 tbsp butter
2 stalks of celery chopped
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 medium white onion chopped fine
1 tsp give or take garlic salt
1 tsp onion powder
1-2 tsp dried parsley
8-10 medium red skinned potatoes cubed (I don't peel mine, I just call it "rustic style")
2 cups of milk (and a few tbsp of cream/half & half really makes it)
salt and pepper to taste, I use seasoning salt too.

Directions
saute celery and onions in butter until soft. add potatoes, fill the pot with just enough water to cover the potatoes. I don't drain any water so I don't loose all the delicious onion and celery flavor I just continue to season it. Add the garlic salt, onion powder, parsley, salt and pepper (don't forget that potatoes soak up a lot of salt so be generous with it), seasoning salt. bring to a boil until potatoes are fork tender 10-15 minutes. I smash a few potatoes against the side with a spoon, it helps to thicken and add texture to the soup.when the potatoes are soft enough, add the milk and cream. add more salt and pepper at this point if needed and stir over medium/low heat until thickened. (if your soup needs a bit of help you can mix a tbsp of corn starch with 1/4 cup of milk/half and half and stir into soup). top with cheese, sour cream, and bacon bits and scallions if you like or just eat it plain with grilled cheese sandwich, enjoy!