Jenny's Cream of Mushroom Soup

This is the real deal, gentlebeings. Real cream. Real butter. Fresh mushrooms. No canned stuff here. If you like Cream of Mushroom soup, you'll love this. If you don't like Cream of Mushroom soup, try it anyway. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

4 tbsp Butter

1 lb Button Mushrooms, thinly sliced

½ medium Onion, thinly sliced

Salt and black Pepper, to taste

3 C Chicken Stock (homemade, preferably)

1 ¼ C Heavy Cream

1 tbsp fresh Thyme, chopped

Fresh Lemon Juice - none of those plastic lemons, please!

Melt butter in a large stockpot over medium heat. Sauté mushrooms and onions with salt and pepper until liquid forms and is subsequently cooked away... approximately 10 minutes.

Add chicken stock, cream and thyme. Bring just to the boil and remove from heat.

For smooth soup, puree with immersion blender or in batches in blender/food processor and return to pot. For chunky soup, like we like it, just leave in pot and add the juice of one lemon. Adjust salt and pepper to taste and serve with hot, fresh bread and a salad. This soup really warms you up from the inside out. And, as with most soups and stews, it's better the second day... and the third, if it lasts that long!

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"As with most fine things, chocolate has its season. There

is a simple memory aid that you can use to determine

whether it is the correct time to order chocolate dishes:

any month whose name contains the letter A, E, or U

is the proper time for chocolate. "

~Sandra Boynton 'Chocolate: The Consuming Passion'

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Mable's Beans

Brown or white, pinto or navy, the humble bean likely kept the Robbins Family from starving. And while they're considered to be the food of 'poor folk', I'd take a pot of Mama's brown beans and some of her fried potatoes over a sirloin any day of the week.

1 lb dried Beans (Navy, Great Northern, Pinto)

Ham hock or, better still, leftover ham bone from a baked ham

Water, Salt and pepper

Dump beans slowly into colander and look for rocks, dirt clods and other detritus. Wash thoroughly. Put in big pot and add water to cover. Bring to a boil and boil furiously for about an hour, then reduce heat and simmer anywhere from two hours to all day, depending on how long you want to baby-sit the pot to make sure it has enough water to keep from burning the beans - trust me. You don't want to burn the beans. Not only is that a cardinal sin, it stinks... and just about ruins your pot. Check periodically and add water as necessary. And if by accident you get them too salty, drop in a peeled potato cut in quarters. It'll soak up some of the salt and it's good to eat, too.

That's Mama's recipe, such as it was. Nowadays, I use all of the above, plus I add:

2-3 Cloves of Garlic, or equivalent in Garlic powder

½ medium onion, roughly chopped

Liquid Smoke, Worcestershire Sauce, and Soy Sauce to taste

If I'm feeling particularly adventurous, I'll turn the beans into:

Jenny's Boracho Beans

Once the beans have cooked for awhile and are within an hour or so of serving, I add:

1 pint home-canned summer tomatoes, roughly crushed, or a 14.5 oz can of store bought tomatoes

1-2 Jalapeno peppers, sliced

Crumbled bacon

Parsley

1-2 Bottles of Beer

Let simmer until alcohol is cooked off and peppers are tender.