The soup! The soup! The soup!

I am trying out Mary's idea.

This is the third day that I have managed to take all my pill medication.  The past two nights I have taken the next day's box out and put it by the knife block just to be sure to remember the first dose when I am feeding Amos in the early morning before we both go back to bed for more nightmares (sleep).

In case you are wondering, I took this on Saturday after I made a recipe that used eight cups of milk.  And, now, that front glass pitcher is already empty.  Do you think I need to find a Milkaholic Anonymous meeting??

"What recipe did you make, Myrtle?"  Ah, my! I'm happy to report that I finally got around to making Roasted Rutabaga and Parsnips Beer Cheese Soup!

My neighbor went with me to Walmart before I started cooking.  You see, I had only a partially filled glass jar and a plastic gallon jug of milk.  I had started to panic thinking about just how much less milk that I would have after making the soup.  So, we fetched a few more gallons.  And some extra cheese.  And grapes.  [I think that I somehow made a mistake weighing those first grapes and greatly overcharged myself at the self-checkout.]  The grapes sure do refresh my mouth after taking the less-than-pleasant-tasting erythromycin solution.

Because I am a wretched sinner, I also stopped by Panera and used a gift card to get some crusty bread to serve with the soup since my neighbor agreed to join me for dinner.  I did not want to share the sourdough loaf I picked up on the way home from the doctor's office on Friday from that bloody fantastic Fresh Market store that also carries the wondrous European Butter that I managed to keep out of my shopping cart.

Actually, my neighbor asked if her autistic son could come and we could practice his shopping at Meier first. We did that.  Then Walmart.  Then Panera.  I was exhausted.  But there was no stopping me from making that soup.  I needed culinary soothing.

Now, if you were making the soup, I am most certain that you would have understand the gross error in the yield section.  You would note the vast quantity of liquids and have made changes before you began.  But I am not you.  I did not notice.  And I struggled with the very real fear that I was going to flood my kitchen again, only with cheese soup this time.

At one point, I called Mary in a panic because my soup was less than two inches from the top of my large stock pot and I still had four of the six cups of stock to put in the pot and there was not enough room!  It was also already thin for cheese soup ... or so I thought.  I've never actually had a beer cheese soup.  Mary gave me the freedom of the kitchen to choose to not put in any more stock.  With my loins girded by my friend, I finished up.

Of course, the cheese flood panic led to the largest mess in the kitchen to date.  I was so culinarily stressed that I kept putting my stirring spoon straight down on the stovetop.  By the time the dish was actually finished, my stove top was yellow, rather than black.  SIGH.

But.
But it was really, really, really tasty.
My neighbor is still texting me about just how good last night's dinner was!

So, about that gross error?  The original recipe reads 4 servings.  Even without out adding the last four cups of stock, I had EIGHTEEN servings of Roasted Rutabaga and Parsnips Beer Cheese Soup! Yes, you read that correctly:  EIGHTEEN SERVINGS!  Needless to say, when I wrote up the recipe, I halved it.  Of course, it was many, many, many hours of wondering how I was going to avoid having EIGHTEEN SERVINGS again before I figured out that I could just halve the recipe as I typed it up so that I would not be actually making a full batch.

It was my neighbor who came up with the much, much, much better garnish than the original recipe.  I mean, who actually uses parsley?  Crumbled applewood smoked bacon is a most brilliant idea for a garnish.  And we both agreed that in halving the recipe I should not halve the vegetables because it would have been nice to have more of the roasted rutabaga and parsnips in the bowl.  So, I did not.  Among the other changes that I made was how I roasted the vegetables had been roasted.  With this recipe, I also decided that I would start straining the puréed onions before I cooked them.  I think that, if you are like me and wish not for the onion texture, but want to keep the flavor, draining off the liquid that comes from puréeing onions makes for a better sautéed result later.

I started the roux base in my large sauteuse pan, even though the directions said to make the whole thing in a stock pot.  With the recipe halved, I should be able to make the whole thing in the large sauteuse pot next time.  But I started in the sauteuse pot because I think you need a wide, wide expanse of cooking area to make a roux.  The bottom of a stock pot is not wide enough and doesn't allow for the flat whisking that you need to do.  But starting with the sauteuse pot just made for a greater mess.  SIGH.

Well ... uhm ... about those photos.  I forgot to take them.  Making this was such an effort.  The original recipe's cooking and prep time was off, too.  For example, it took me FORTY-FIVE MINUTES just to grate the three and a half pounds of cheese.  That was bloody exhausting.  It took me over three hours to make the soup.  Halving it, next time, maybe in 2015 when all those servings in my freezer are gone, should take a shorter amount of time.

My neighbor and I were so eager to start chowing down, that even though I had asked her to help me remember to take a photo once we set the table, we forgot.  So, here is my very lame photo:

We will not discuss the fact that this was my second bowl, which was why I could not fill another bowl and take a photo.  Both of us were nearly finished with our second bowls.  All the bread might have been gone at this point, too.  You'll just have to use your imagination that this looked as good as it tasted.

The recipe says it freezes well.  All the other jars are in the basement, but I left one upstairs to have later this week.  I am anxious to know how this rather tasty dish does all thawed out, heated up, and served again.

Amos liked it.  A lot.

I just might be at the end of my rutabaga exploration for now.  I do have a basil cream parsnip recipe that needs making.  After that, I have not figured out another vegetable I might could possibly consider tasty.

There is all that mulch that is still sitting in my garage.
Maybe I can distract myself that way.