Spinach and Potato Soup

Prep all vegetables first. Finely dice carrots, onion and celery. Peel and diced potatoes and put in water, set aside. Put spinach in colander in sink to thaw slightly while you are cooking. In a large non stick soup pot over medium heat, add olive oil, celery, onion and carrots. Salt veggies to bring out their water while you cook them. Cook until onion is translucent and celery and carrots are tender, about 7 to 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Deglaze the pot by adding the vegetable stock. Add the potatoes next, cooking until tender about 15 minutes or so on medium to medium low heat. There should be enough stock to cover potatoes, if there isn't add just enough hot water to just cover them. Once potatoes are done, add the chicken soup base and 5 cups of hot water. Once the soup comes back up to temperature, add the black eye peas (bacon, onion, pepper juice and all) straight from the fridge. You want them cold. it will only take a few minutes for the peas to warm through. After about 5 minutes, add the semi thawed spinach, allowing the hot soup the thaw it the rest of the way. Just keep stirring until it's thawed. It will take about 7 minutes or so for your spinach to turn bright green. Once it does, turn your heat to low. Do not turn the heat down before this, doing so will make everything take a lot longer to cook. Add half and half cream and butter, stir to incorporate. Turn heat off completely once they are incorporated and serve.