Cream of Mushroom soup (a.k.a. Cooking for kids)

     I just finished making Cream of Mushroom soup for my summer job at Renaissance camp.  Renaissance camp has nothing whatsoever to do with Renaissance faires despite what everybody thinks when they first hear the name.  Instead, it is an art and science summer day camp for 6-10 year olds.  It is super fun and I am lucky enough to be one of the science teachers there along with Scott (I have been trying to get into Ren camp for years).  Those of you who have known me for a while, know that I love to hunt for mushrooms.  Eating mushrooms is growing on me but is still not my favorite thing to eat (still, I love eating what I find!).  So, over the years, I have become something of a minor mycologist (person who studies mushrooms).  I am very excited to be able to share my knowledge with my students tomorrow when I teach a lesson on mushrooms. At the end, I thought it would be a fun reward to let them have some cooked mushrooms.  After realizing how expensive it is to buy "wild" mushrooms in the store (much cheaper and fun to find them in the wild but, alas, I do not have the time), I decided I would make a cream of mushroom soup with mostly white mushrooms and a few "wild."  Here is the recipe (from allrecipe.com)

Ingredients



5 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup half-and-half
1 tablespoon sherry


Directions


1.In a large heavy saucepan, cook mushrooms in the broth with onion and thyme until tender, about 10 to 15 minutes.
2.In blender or food processor, puree the mixture , leaving some chunks of vegetable in it. Set aside.
3.In the saucepan, melt the butter, whisk in the flour until smooth. Add the salt, pepper, half and half and vegetable puree. Stirring constantly, bring soup to a boil and cook until thickened. Adjust seasonings to taste, and add sherry.

     Needless to say, I emitted the sherry.  I was a little nervous when it came to purying the mixture as my blender has a major leak.  I ended up using my food processor as I could not find the top to my blender and found out that it works great!  I had to do it in batches, but it really blends it down well.  And it is a lot easier to do this than to work the food mill.  The results?  Well, I haven't had much (I want to save most of it for the kids), but I surprisingly really like it.  And I don't usually like mushrooms or cream of mushroom soup (unless it is mixed in with something else).  The only thing I did differently was cook the mushrooms and onions in a little butter to soften them and release some flavors before I added the liquid.  I didn't measure the mushrooms or onion, just eyeballed it.  Soup is nice like that.  Plus, I doubled the recipe to hopefully feed 32 kids.  Definitely try it on your own!

(No picture as I left my camera in the car)