Livingroom Bowling and Beercheese Soup

Nintendo Wii rocks. So does Beer cheese soup.










Last night my buddies Sam and Dennis and I got together to play Wii and make some amazing beer cheese soup. Both were considered by all to be a great success.

If you have yet to hear about the Nintendo Wii - you do not need to hear about it on my page. Suffice to say that it is awesome, and bowling, golfing, boxing (among other things) in the living room is very cool.


The beer cheese soup was also an excellent addition to a cold evening in November. Here is the recipe for all of you who would like to try it in your own homes. Please keep in mind, however, that when I'm cooking, there's a lot of approximate amounts going on - a lot of "season to taste" - so I'll give you what I can, and the rest is up to you.







So without further ado, here it is:

"Livingroom-Bowling Beer Cheese Soup"
-1/2 cup celery (chopped)
-1/2 cup carrots (chopped)
-1/2 cup onions (chopped)
-3 big cloves of garlic (if you like garlic add more, if not add less)
-5 cups vegetable stock
-3/4 cup butter
-1/2 cup barley flour (I'm sure regular flour would work, but this is what I had and it was awesome)
-6 oz Cheddar cheese
-2 big table spoons Parmesan cheese
-about four shakes of dry Chinese mustard
-5 or 6 shakes of Worcester Sauce
-1 pint of Odell's 5 Barrel Pale ale (you can use a different beer, but it should probably be not to malty, a little hoppy, but nothing as lacking in flavor as your regular Bud or Miller. Good beers will give you a good soup.)

Directions:
Chop up the celery, carrots, onions and garlic. Melt the butter in a pan and add the veggies to saute them. Make sure too cook them, but not to brown them. Next blend in the flour and the mustard. Slowly add the chicken stock and bring the mix to a boil. Cook at the boil and stir for five minutes. Then mix in the cheese and beer. Simmer for half an hour and continue to stir every now and then to make sure nothing is settling on the bottom and cooking to the bottom of the pan.

And there you go! Works really well with a good sourdough bread and a full red wine (or the beer you used to make it of course, if you hadn't finished that during the making of the soup).

Hope you enjoy!
Dave