Browny's Clam Chowder (revisited)

Ingredients
1 T olive oil
1 C chopped onion
1/2 C chopped celery
1/2 C chopped carrot
1 tsp minced garlic
4 strips bacon, chopped
1/4 C flour
3 C low-far (1%) milk
1 1/2 lbs red thin-skinned potatoes, cut into 1-in chunks
4 cans (6.5 oz each) chopped clams, drained
2 bottles (8 oz each) clam juice
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 to 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/4 C half-and-half

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a 5- to 6-qt pot over medium heat. Cook onion, celery, carrot and garlic until softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer vegetables to a plate.
2. Cook bacon in pan, stirring, until crisp. Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain; discard all but 1 Tbsp drippings.
3. Add flour and cook, whisking constantly, until slightly browned, about 1 minutes. Slowly add milk, whisking constantly and letting mixture bubble between additions. Add potatoes, clams, juice, salt, pepper and reserved vegetables.
4. Simmer until potatoes are tender when pierced, about 25 minutes. Add thyme and half-and-half. Sprinkle with bacon.

Serves 6-8

My notes:
This was so good!  My mom made this for us tonight and it was very tasty.  The only bad thing about this was that we finally realized that all that clam chowder we had consumed over the years during Lent actually contained bacon...not really a good thing, haha.