Creamy Potato And Bacon Soup (Kartoffelsuppe mit Speck und Sahne)

According to the cookbook listed below, this recipe was developed in Westphalia (Westfalen) in Germany. While the recipe I have here is not exactly the same, the general pattern of the recipe is from, "Germany, a Culinary Tour," by Wolfgang W. Reichert, Sigloch Edition, 1986, republished 1994, Künzelsau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Ingredients

1 lb. potatoes, peeled and diced
2 cups water, salted mildly
1 medium onion, diced
2/3 cup smoked bacon, diced
1 tablespoon butter + 1 tablespoon bacon rendered bacon fat
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon dried marjoram leaves
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt (can be cut or even omitted, as potatoes will be cooked in salted water)
6 oz. light cream or sour cream (reduced fat kind is fine)
parsley, chopped

In a skillet, begin to sauté the bacon in the melted butter over medium low heat. Then add the onion and cook until the onion begins to turn light brown. Add the flour and stir to form a roux, cooking for a couple of minutes, but do not allow the roux to really brown much. While this is all going on, heat the salted water and diced potatoes until the potatoes just begin to soften. Drain the potatoes, but save the water. Add the roux and skillet contents to the pan, keeping the pan on medium low heat. Gradually add the potato water, stirring and keeping the water very hot until it return to a low boil, to allow the roux to thicken the starchy potato water. Once the liquid as all been added and is boiling, return the potatoes to the pan, along with the marjoram, pepper, and any salt, if using. Simmer until the potatoes are done. Stir in the bacon, then add the cream or sour cream, stirring well to mix it in thoroughly. Just before serving add the parsley and stir a bit.

WORD HISTORY:
Garnish-The overall history of this word is hard to put together, and this is currently the best I have on it. "Garnish" is related to a number of English words, for example: "weir," the "ware" part of "beware," "wary," "warn," and "ward." It goes back to Indo European "wer," which had the notion of, "to cover, to protect, to shut," and then all of the extended meanings from these basic meanings. The Indo European root seemingly spawned variant forms in its Old Germanic offspring, with  "warnonan," being one of those, or "perhaps" the original Old Germanic source of the variant forms?  It had the meaning "to pay heed, to be cautious, to prepare for a threat, beware." This gave the Germanic dialect of Frankish "warnjan," with those same meanings, as well as the extended notion of "equip or supply to meet a threat or prepare to meet a threat." Old French absorbed the word from Frankish as "guarnir/garnir," the meaning of which emphasized the "supply, equip" notion of the Frankish meaning, but also retained the "pay heed" meaning as secondary. The "supply, equip" idea later expanded to also mean "to adorn," as well as, "to take up arms." The derived French form "garniss" was borrowed into English, seemingly as "garnischen/garnishen," and with the same meanings "take up arms, to adorn, to beautify." Later, the idea of "adorn" led to the meaning of "making the appearance of food more appealing with colorful additions, to decorate food." The other meaning of "garnish," having to do with putting a claim against a person's income, comes from the "pay heed" idea (a warning), as a notice was given, that funds would be withheld.