French Fridays with Dorie - paris mushroom soup

Such a lovely simple soup...so many interesting observations and mishaps!  First, I realize why there is a beautiful, artistic picture of some of the ingredients of Dorie's paris mushroom soup in her book and no picture of the actual soup (did you notice her photograph has fresh thyme in it, but there's no thyme in the recipe?)  This soup doesn't photograph very well.  Although, I did try!  I took about 75 pictures and think I might have gotten one or two good ones.  But they are currently "stuck" on my flash card.  They won't download to my mac and they won't download to my pc.  And, this is all my fault!  At Christmas, I accidentally pulled the flash card out of my sister's computer while it was still active.  It hasn't been the same since.  However, each time I've used it since then, I've been able to coax the pictures off of it.  But I keep forgetting to put a different flash card in my camera.  I shot all my soup pictures yesterday and even had my son get in on the action for the "pouring" pictures.  Then, when I went to download the pictures...no luck!

So, unless I can get the pictures off later today...this is a picture-less post (addendum...see the end...I got some pics!).  Perhaps it's not too tragic.  After all, it's just mushroom soup.  But, oh what a wonderful mushroom soup it is.  It's hard to believe there's no cream in this recipe.  The pureed mushrooms make it very "creamy."  Here's where mishap number two comes in (although it occurred before the flash card revolt)...my blender doesn't like me.  Really, don't laugh.  I have a brand new blender and it works like a charm.  But when Dorie says...puree in small batches...she means it!  I thought I was doing a small batch until my blender EXPLODED!!!  Thank goodness I had my hand on the lid or I'd be writing from the ER room with 2nd degree burns on my face.  As it is, only my floor, counter and clothing got traumatized.  So, heed my warning...only put about 2 cups in your blender at a time.  It will take about 4 times to get it all blended.  But it's worth it in the end.

The soup was a total hit with my son, although he left his "salad" at the bottom of his bowl.  I found the fresh mushrooms slices and green onions a great treat and a perfect complement to the soup.  I made the soup with no alterations and thought it was great.  It would also be great with a dash of cream, which I might add to the bit I've got left.  That's right, my son and I ate almost the entire pot.  But, I didn't feel bad, this soup really doesn't have that many calories...except for the butter!

I also made roast beef paninis to go with the soup and they were super yummy.  If you don't have a panini press, you don't know what you're missing.  If you do have one, you know what I'm talking about!  Paninis are so easy to make.  Butter your bread, put fixings on, put on panini grill.  Watch the magic happen.  I have some nice photos of the paninis too.  On the faulty flash card.  Boo hoo! (addendum...see below)

My third mishap, which is the worst of all, is my hot water heater decided to develop a leak in the connecting pipe...in the wall.  And while I was merrily cooking, leaked inside the wall and under the hardwood floor.  There are no pictures of this because it is too awful!  We are currently without water and hopefully the plumber can come first thing this morning.  The damage is pretty bad and I have a feel it's going to be expensive to repair...two walls and a couple square feet of hard wood floor.  Bummer!

Even though many things went wrong around this soup...none of them were the soup's fault and I'd recommend making it.  You can see how my fellow French Friday participant's fared with the soup here.

And...while I was writing this post...I once again convinced the flash card to give up the images...so here's a couple of pictures of the soup and panini.  Yeah!  Maybe the leaking pipe will be easy too.

The "salad"

Pouring the soup

The panini...I didn't notice the cheese drop when I took the picture...but I kind of like it.

This was so good!

Soup and Panini...perfect, simple winter dinner

Thanks for sharing my soup making adventure!