damn good stuff

I just made the best darn soup of my life! Seriously! And that... is saying a lot, I am a darn good soup maker. I had a bowl of mushroom soup at a castle in Germany one time that would make you get on your knees and beg for more. I always wanted to try to duplicate it, always afraid I would ruin my memories of having had the best ever. Mushrooms were on sale the other day and I for some reason had this thought that I would be cooking with mushrooms every day for the next month. I needed to use the two boxes I had left in the fridge, so this morning I starting pulling things out of the fridge to test my talents and memory. The difference in my soup, I added potatoes to make a larger pot. Since I never measure a thing when it comes to soup, I will never be able to duplicate this. It's all a pinch of this and a handful of that...I added about a 1/4 cup of cream that I had from another recipe and it needed to be used. I don't usually allow my taste buds the luxury of cream in soups. Let me tell you, I do not eat very much but...I could have eaten the entire pot of this stuff. I think I will go to bed dreaming of eating another bowl of this. The only thing that would have added to this was a freshly baked roll. With all the cooking I have to do in the next two days, I wasn't up to making bread today. Over the holidays, it will be happening.

If you would like to try this, here are the ingredients I used:

vegetable stock (1 box)

sauteed onions, celery, and garlic cloves (I used one onion, 4 stalks celery, and five garlic cloves in olive oil)

1 whole box of sliced mushrooms (sauteed in olive oil)

3 bay leaves, oregano, pinch of sage, thyme, rosemary, and parsley (I used fresh because I have them, if you use dried, use a little more sparingly than you do fresh.

4 large potatoes, diced

a little vegetable bullion

I added all the sauteed ingredients and everything else, cooked until potatoes were done.

At the end of cooking, I added about 1/4 cup of cream (because I had some that needed used. Yeah! You could use regular milk, which I usually do, but sometimes...you just have to live a little.)

I topped with freshly grated Parmesan and bacon bits.

I'm telling you, I embarrassed myself eating this stuff!