Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Fall... I love Autumn

We have been super busy. Wait, no, I have been super busy.  Everything falls apart around here when I get super busy.  We have been having some amazing fall weather.  It has been GORGEOUS, just beautiful.
Yes, it is getting chilly, we fired up the gas on the fireplace and nudged up the thermostats to hover around 15* but the skies have been blue and clear!
We try to get out in it daily but we haven't been successful in getting in our runs for a week! Tried yesterday but only did two intervals, it was much more fun watching the floatplanes come in and take off again!
What's that?  You didn't know?  Oh, sorry about that. 
I will explain.

I am a homeschooling mommy, so I get to teach PE which is great because one of the hats I wore in my past was one of drill seargent  group fitness instructor! 

My nine year old and I have started a running program to get us out and me fitter, since CD and a malfunctioning system has my body thinking it's starving, I have put on a bit of weight.  Considering though, that I was very underweight most of my life, I am not worried about losing the sixty pounds I have gained.  I will be happy with about half that.  That will put me in a size 6 - 8 petite and that will be nice and healthy, not the stick with spine showing that I once was.  And no, wasn't anorexic~ was CD all along.  Crazy.

Anyway it is soup season in our house and I have always, always, always loved making and eating soups.  I could live on them alone. 

Last week I made a lovely side dish of creamed tomato's, baking the tomatos in cream in the oven. They were very nice but the leftovers made a great soup, with the addition of some seasonings and chicken broth.

I have used the same method to make today's soup.  I had one pound of slice mushrooms that I put in my baker and covered with cream and let go for a couple hours in the oven.  It was SOO hard to stay out of them, I love mushrooms.
I didn't have time to do anything else with them, when I did this so I stuck 'em in the fridge.

Today, they are simmering away on the stove with a whole liter of chicken broth added, a pinch of poultry seasoning, some herbamare, and pepper.  The texture isn't quite what I want so I added about 1/2 cup of leftover mashed potatos and gave them a whir with the stick blender.

The flavor is very deep and mushroomy.  I could add some sherry for a hint of sweetness and it would be very good.  I added instead a pinch of hot mustard powder and it was very very good.

I have made mushroom soup before and it always turns out good.  Next time I may steam some cauliflower to blend in for that creamy, rich texture that I used to get using roux.  I don't always want to use roux though. 

So a recipe format

1 pound dark mushrooms
1/2 liter of whip cream
1 liter of chicken stock
pinch poultry seasoning
pinch Colhmans hot mustard powder
salt and pepper to taste

Bake mushrooms and cream together 2 hours in a 350 oven, until reduced by half.

Scrape into saucepan and add chicken stock and seasonings.  Heat through. Add puree'd vegetables for thicker texture. 
Optional *  add 1/2 ounce good sherry wine

Lovely.  Smells grand!

And it's Naturally, Gluten Free!

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