Soup's on

Alpine mushroom soup

All of a sudden, it's fall. We went from warm Indian summer (is that still politically correct?) to chilly -- well, chilly if you just moved north from the south -- in about 24 hours. I welcome the change, I really do, as fall means beautiful foliage, hot cider, snuggly sweaters, cowboy boots and the like, but the rapid change in temperature has messed with my menu planning this week.

On tap for last night was a modified caprese salad, pumped up with pesto, white beans, salami and a few other tidbits, leftovers of which were meant to find their way onto a homemade Friday-night pizza. But then I woke to 55 degrees, chilly and overcast -- clearly, this called for soup.

Fortuitously, I happen to be working my way through M.F.K. Fisher's With Bold Knife and Fork and just finished a delightful chapter on soup. So I made a batch of her Alpine Mushroom Soup and it was perfect -- creamy but not thick, full of mushroomy flavor and heartily filling. And easy -- did I mention easy? I served it with freshly baked popovers (more on those later) and fuzzy slippers.

Alpine Mushroom Soup (modified, from M.F.K. Fisher)

Ingredients
1/2 lb. mushrooms, chopped
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups 2 percent milk
5 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons flour
salt & pepper
1/3 cup half-and-half
1/4 cup white wine

Directions
Simmer chopped mushrooms in chicken stock and milk for about 20 minutes. In a separate pot, melt the butter and gradually whisk in the flour. Add the mushroom mixture slowly to the butter mixture and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until thick. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add half-and-half and wine just before serving.