White Bean Chowder Mix in a Jar

Wow, 9 days since my last post. That has to be a record on this blog. I'll make up for it today though.  I've been busy practicing choir music and crocheting.  I'd forgotten how much I like to crochet.  Anyway, on to the recipes.
This recipe is from a really old little booklet that I have on soup mixes to make and put in quart jars.  (I can't believe they had it on amazon - I looked out of curiosity fully expecting it not to be there.  Anyway, that is the book to the side there.  Published in '99 - just a pamphlet really.)  So, I like these jar gifts at Christmas, but I hate to give something away if I don't know if it tasted any good, so every once in a while I decide to try something out of this book. This week it was white bean chowder.  It was relatively easy to put together, and really cooked up well.  I will write the directions as given in the book - as far as cooking times, but I'm writing how to make it for dinner.  I will also add notes as I go along.  I will write out the jar directions at the end of the recipe.
This was pretty good.  I actually liked it.  Ours was a bit thick, but I boiled it at too high of heat, and I'm pretty sure I forgot to cover it so I was low on liquid at the end.  I added some, but probably not enough.  The flavor was great though.  We didn't add the bacon until the very end (I was out and DH picked it up on the way home from work.) Probably would have been even better if I had added it earlier.   I served it with some 30 minutes rolls and it was tasty.  It simmered while I taught my piano lessons, so that was convenient.  This picture isn't the best.  I took it, then decided to thin this with more water.  Looked better then.

Yield:  9 cups of soup
Ingredients

• 2 cups dried Great Northern beans
• 2 cups instant potato flakes
• 1 14 oz. can diced or crushed tomatoes.  (I used diced with added celery, bell pepper and something)
• 1/3 cup imitation bacon bits (we used real)
• 1/3 cup dried minced onion
• 2 Tablespoons chicken bouillon granules
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon sage
• 1/2 teaspoon celery powder (no idea what this was.  I didn't know if it wanted celery seed or celery salt.  I ended up finding a dried celery and I used 1 Tablespoon)

Directions

1. Rinse beans.  Place beans in a large microwave safe dish.  Cover with 1 - 2 inches of water.  Cover dish loosely with plastic wrap.  Microwave on high 15 minutes.  (I did 20 - was slow starting this meal and had to pick up a kid from school and go to the pharmacy and pick up a prescrip - I let this cook while I was out.)
2. Rinse and drain beans.  Place in a large pot.  Add 8 cups of water, diced tomatoes and seasonings.  (everything else except the potato flakes.)
3. Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer 1 hour and 45 minutes (I forgot to cover mine and had to add water later.)
4. Stir in potato flakes.  Turn off heat.  Cover and let stand 5 minutes.  Serve immediately.  If not serving immediately, wait until ready to serve to add the potato flakes.

To make in a quart jar.

1. Place beans in the jar first.
2. Mix seasonings (bacon bits, minced onion, bouillon, pepper, sage, celery) together and place in a thin zip top bag.  Place it in the jar and gently flatten so it is visible from all sides of the jar.
3. Place potato flakes in another zip top bag.  Add to jar.  Place lid on jar and attach recipe.

Recipe should read as the directions, possibly adding - remove bag of potato flakes, set aside, remove seasoning packet, set aside.  at the beginning.