Cream of Carrot Soup

Let me start by saying that my love for carrots has been a bit overstated. Ever since the whole "I would give anything for a carrot right now" out of context, thats-not-quite-what-I-said comment in the paper, people have offered me carrots left and right.
Let's set the record straight. I really do like carrots.
I would not kill someone for a carrot.

There.

Having gotten that off my chest, I now feel free to tell you how much I like carrot soup. It's an easy, filling soup that looks pretty as well. It's right at home as a starter for a fancy dinner, and equally as appropriate as a main course by itself with some bread when you're shlepping around the house. I've been looking forward to making it ever since carrots came back into season, but we ran out of broth a couple of weeks back, so it's been on hold. We roasted a chicken and got a ton of stock this weekend though, so tonight Sal made the carrot soup.

I originally got this recipe from Cook Your Meals the Lazy Way, a cookbook I got for like, $2.00 after college. Since the lazy way is my preferred method of doing anything, I've used this recipe over and over again. I tweak it ever so slightly so it looks like this:

Cream of Carrot Soup (or any vegetable)

3 cups chopped carrots (or whatever veggie you want)

1 tbs. butter

1 med. onion (or a couple of spring onions, which is what we have now)

2 tbs. flour

4 cups chicken stock

1/2 c. milk or cream (cream is much more delicious in this recipe if you don't care about the fat)

salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat and add the onion and carrots. Stir to combine, cover and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes - until softened but only lightly browned.

Stir in the flour and cook about 3 minutes. Blend in the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 to 10 minutes, until carrots are tender.

Add milk or cream and puree the soup in two or three portions in the blender (filling the blender only half way or less - do not overfill it!) and transfer to a large serving bowl. It's probably best to cover the blender with a towel during this process so you don't have a kitchen covered in cream of carrot soup. Believe me, this advice comes from experience.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

We also made chicken sandwiches with some of the leftover roasted chicken, Great Harvest Honey Whole Wheat bread, lettuce from our yard and my homemade mayonnaise. Yes, I finally figured out how to make mayonnaise. It really wasn't that hard (Stew-you were right) once I used the right equipment. I remembered that we had this tiny little 1 cup attachment for our blender that was perfect to mix everything up to the right consistency. I know that's not the Martha Stewart way of doing it, but it worked, so that's what counts. Next time I'll use canola oil vs. olive oil I think. It came out pretty lovely though, all things considered.