Cream of Mushroom Soup

For some reason I went nuts last week and bought three 8-ounce packages of Baby Bella mushrooms. This is why I'm often banned from the grocery store--to me, it's like Disneyland and I tend to overdo it. Anyhow, I needed to use my shrooms and came up with this recipe, simplified from a few online. It's a one-pot soup, which is nice, and it's so, so creamy and delicious.

Ingredients
1 medium yellow onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
6 TBS butter
2 TBS flour
2 sprigs of fresh thyme, stripped from stem
8 oz package of Baby Bella Mushrooms (by all means, substitute better shrooms if you have them, but the Baby Bellas worked just fine)
1 C White wine
1 package Pacific Organic Mushroom Broth (1 Quart)
Parmesan rind (optional)
1 C Cream
1/4 C milk
2 more TBS flour
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1. Coarsely chop onion and mince garlic. Clean mushrooms by rubbing with a lightly damp paper towel. Cut off bad spots and remove stems. Coarsely chop the stems, and thinly slice the tops.

2. Set mushrooms aside. Add onion and garlic to your soup pot with about half of the butter and cook 5 minutes, or until onion is starting to get tender.

3. Strip the thyme leaves from their stem. Add thyme and mushrooms and cook until they begin to release their juices, about 3-4 mins. Do not salt yet, as it dries out the shrooms.

4. Add the rest of the butter in the middle of the pan with the mushrooms and onions on the side. As it melts, make a quick roux with the 2 TBS flour, then mix in with the mushrooms and onions. Cook for another 2 minutes or so.

5. Measure 1 C of white wine (cheap stuff from the liquor store is way better AND less expensive than "cooking" wine). Add to pot, cooking for 1 minute.

6. Add Parmesan rind and 1 quart of mushroom broth, heat through. The high-quality broth here makes up for the fact that I didn't have wild mushrooms on hand. The rind deepens the flavors and adds that extra je ne sais quoi.

7. Mix the 1/4 C of milk and the remaining 2 TBS butter to make a thickener. Yeah, you could have used more butter and made it part of the roux in the beginning, but I thought I'd save you a few hundred calories.

8. Add the thickener and the 1 C cream and bring the mix just barely to a boil before lowering the heat and letting it thicken for a few minutes.

9. Remove Parmesan rind. Season generously with salt and fresh ground pepper and serve.

TIPS:

* Parmesan rind. It is the best secret ingredient a girl could ask for. I always buy huge bricks of Parmesano Reggiano from Costco and cut them into big chunks for easier use. I cut off the rind in big chunks and save it in a separate bag to add to soups and sauces that are simmered for a long time. It goes in just about everything and makes you feel cool that you are using the entire cheese. Parm without a rind is packaged lies.