I took a vacation and came home with a recipes!

Dang, its been a little while! A bit has happened, some was good some was not so good....but I went on a mini-vacation and it was fantastic! I had the privilege of spending most of the trip with my best friend and his family. While there, his mom made soup and shared the recipe with me. I decided to make it today. So, here's my adventure making Swiss Onion Soup.

First and slightly important to know: get the right kind of cheese and use whole milk or cream, if you don't it's a little thin.

Swiss Onion Soup

3 cups thinly sliced onion
1 garlic clove, minced
3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tbsp unsalted butter
2 cup chicken stock, vegetable stock or water
3 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp bottled horseradish
1 tbsp dry sherry
1 1/2 cups freshly grated gruyere cheese
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp soy sauce
3 drops tabasco
1/4 tsp worcestershire (you can get vegan in most stores)

In pot, cook onion and garlic with mustard, salt and 2 tbsp butter over moderate heat, stirring for 10-12 minutes or until onions are softened.

Add stock and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.

In sausepan, melt remaining butter over moderate heat.
Add flour and cook the roux, whisking for 3 minutes.
Remove pan from heat, whisk in milk, scalded, and simmer mixture, whisking for 7 minutes. Add horseradish, sherry and cheese.

Add the cheese mixture to onion mixture, stir in pepper, tabasco, soy sauce, and worchestershire and simmer soup, stirring for 10 minutes.

yields 4 servings.

This recipe is from:
Leelanau Country Inn
149 East Harbor Highway
Maple City, Michigan

Now that that's all done, here's a little information about grocery shopping in New Jersey
-There are no Meijer or D&W's here. In fact, until recently there were no liquor stores in the county. Certain items are hard to find, good cheese and cheap cooking wines are two of those items. At Thankggiving last year I went to a liquor store to get sherry for cooking, luckily I remembered they sold cheese and chocolate, too.
-Most stores only stock one kind of vegetable stock, it's in a can and tastes like it. I've resorted to bullion cubes or making my own stock. I don't have time to make my own in most cases.
-The grocery stores are expensive. I'm talking Tiffany's/D&W/Bacchus expensive, but you don't necessarily get what you pay for like in the stores here.
-The roadside stands are amazing for fresh fruits & vegetables, unfortunately the weather this year has made some things a little hard to grow.

I'd really like to thank all the people who made my little trip as wonderful as possible. I'm sorry that I didn't make it back to see everyone, but sometimes I just need to relax and prepare for the next day. Maybe this winter when the holiday shopping rush is over there will be some spare time again.