Canadia Cheese Soup

ever been to Epcot and watched the gripping 360 degree surround movie they play in Canada?  Well, the music goes something like Canadaaaaa, oooooh Canadaaaa…. CANADA, OHHHH Canadaaaaaaaa and is one of those things that randomly wanders through your mind.  OFTEN.
Now, I love Canada, which I fondly call Canadia.  Growing up in Seattle we often went north to Victoria visiting the wax museum, Butchart Gardens, the rainforest, etc.  We went to the world expo in 86 in Vancouver.   A good friend Linda and I went to Canada on the Victoria Clipper the weekend I decided food and cooking would be my hobby.  Shout out to La to because she is having a baby any day now which will be her new hobby.
All that said, we had this great cheddar beer soup while we were at Epcot on Friday and bought the cookbook to recreate it at home.  I can’t find a link for purchase.
Wycliffe is home to a couple of voting precincts so yesterday I worked a little bit of a weird schedule, 10:30-8 or so and when I got home, about 8:30, Z had a pot of soup sitting on the stove waiting for me to spoon it up!  He is a great cook and so good to make me supper after a long day of crowds at work.
This recipe makes a massive pot. He made a couple small changes from the Le Cellier Canada area recipe, including a bit of extra cooking for the bacon and extra chicken stock as the thick factor kind of nerved him up but they were good changes This is a pretty easy soup to made and so great.

1/2# of bacon, cut into lardons
1 medium onion, 1/4″ dice
3 ribs of celery, 1/4″ dice
4 T butter
1 cup flour
4 cups chicken stock
4 cups milk
1# grated white cheddar cheese
1 T Tabasco
1 T Worcestershire Sauce
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup Moosehead Lager

serves 10
1.  Cook the bacon, stirring until crisp in a 4 or 5 quart pot.
2.  Add the onion, celery and butter, saute until veg are soft – about 5 minutes.
3.  Add the flour, whisking constantly for about 5 minutes over medium.  Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil for about 1 minute.  Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
4.  Add the milk and continue to simmer for 15 minutes.  Do not boil after you add the milk.
5.  Remove from heat and stir in the cheese, Tabasco, Worcestershire, salt and pepper.  Stir in the beer.
6.  Garnish as you wish.  Serve with some toasty rolls.
The festival cookbook adds that you can add some extra milk if it is too thick but the addition of extra stock seemed to alleviate this problem.