It was cold last weekend, so my wife asked me to make her favorite winter soup, Beer Cheese. We got the fireplace going and enjoyed the following step by step recipe taken from the 1976 supplement to the What’s Cooking in Walla Walla cookbook. I googled the name to see if I could find current contact information, but having no luck, I give all credit for this great recipe to them, and suggest that if you can find the cookbook it is worth picking up.
EASY RECIPE
BEER CHEESE SOUP
Saute’ in approximately ¾ cup margarine (I prefer butter) the following:
2 cups finely chopped onion
2 cups finely chopped celery
1 cup grated carrots
Add:
7 oz flour (1- 3/4 cups)
2 tsp each dry mustard, oregano, and sweet basil, and ¼ tsp garlic powder.
Cook the above “Roux” slowly for a few minutes to remove raw flavoring.
In a separate pot slowly bring to boil the following: 2 Qts. Chicken broth, and 1 Qt half and half (the “stock”).
When “Roux” is ready, whip into stock.
Add 2 ½ lbs of grated Velveeta cheese, ¼ cup chopped pimento, and 2 bottles of beer.
Bring just to boiling point.
That’s it, you have just made an absolutely killer Beer Cheese Soup. I would serve the soup with a small salad, and some great French bread for dipping.
AND STUFF
I was surfing the satellite channels the other night and came across a hunting and fishing network. That brought back some fun memories from my days on the plains and in the mountains.
Back in the day, all the guys would meet at a friend’s mobile home for the pre-hunt party the night before goose and duck hunting opening day. Since we would be leaving early to get to the secret spot, we crashed in the trailer rather than going home. We got up long before sunrise, piled into a van, and looking somewhat like a plaid-clothed SWAT team, headed out.
On this particular opening day our plan was to pull a sneak along a fence line that was adjacent to a game preserve full of migrating geese. We would get one shot as the flock rose to flight at sunrise and flew away from the safety of the preserve. We parked the van a half mile away and ever so quietly approached the fence line. And then we sat on the cold ground excitedly awaiting sunrise and the anticipated cloud of geese overhead.
At sunrise the geese started honking. It was loud, and getting louder. This was going to be awesome. We lay motionless along the fence line, too excited now to feel the cold. In the early light we could now see that the fence line was probably about 1/8 of a mile from the water, and the adjacent flock. The geese began to rise slowly at first, and then in larger numbers until they almost looked like a swarm. As anticipated, the geese began to fly in our direction, but they were still far out of range.
Who knew that a bunch of yahoos could plan and execute the perfect hunt. All we had to do now was wait for the geese to fly right over us. And then, while the geese were still out of effective range, a shotgun fired three rounds and the cloud of geese gracefully banked away from our position. No one in our group had yet stood to fire as the geese were not in range. We looked down the fence line, and even farther away from the flock than we were, stood one lone moron with his shotgun pointing at the cloud of geese safely flying away.
And just like that it was over. The geese put on oxygen masks and rose to what seemed like an elevation of 100,000 feet on their way to Mexico. Although we did later bag some mallards, it just wasn’t the same.
That’s my story, why not see who has the best ‘one that got away’ story for fun table conversation while you enjoy your Easy Recipe dinner.
Good Eating and Table Talk,
Roger
