Mom's Cream of Mushroom Soup

I was looking through my soup recipes the other day and came across this hand scribbled piece of crumpled up paper with lots of smeared ink.  It was my Mom's recipe for Cream of Mushroom soup...yes...JACKPOT!!!  We are finally getting some cold weather here in Texas so it's time to start making my favorite soups.  My family doesn't like mushrooms so I don't usually put them in many of my dishes.  This is an exception!  It's all about the beautiful button mushroom and it's all mine.  I make a big pot of this for me, and me alone.  I like to make this for lunch and I can eat on it for a couple of days.  If your family likes mushrooms, this is a very quick soup you can make for dinner too.  Just add a side salad and a piece of buttered French Bread and you've got a great family dinner.

The only change that I made to my Mom's recipe is that I doubled the mushrooms...it is "Mushroom" soup so you should be able to get a few in every single bite.  I usually eat some good 'ol saltine crackers on the side, but I couldn't find any in the pantry.  They're probably in there somewhere, but with all this baking I've started doing, my pantry is on overload.  So instead of the saltines, I floated some salad croutons on top.  It was so good!  The bottom of the crouton absorbs some of the soup and the top is still nice and crunchy.  It's my new favorite soup topping.  

By the way, my little Jordyn DID like this soup.  She kept asking me for more bites.  Hey, at least I converted 1 out of 3 kids...that's not too bad in my book!

Ingredients:

16 oz. fresh button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced (optional)
4 T butter
1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 can (2 Cups) low sodium chicken broth
1 C half 'n half
garlic powder (optional)

In a large soup pot, melt the butter over medium heat.  Add the mushrooms and onions and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.  Add the flour, salt, and pepper.  Cook over low heat for 1 minute while stirring.  Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat and simmer for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.  Turn off the heat and stir in the half and half.  Taste and adjust the seasonings.  I added some garlic powder to mine!  Enjoy!

Linked up at Tasty Tuesdays - A Beautiful Mess