Potage Veloute aux Champignons (Cream of Mushroom Soup)

Maybe death and taxes are the only sure things in life ... but it often seems to me that Julia's recipes are also pretty sure things ... reliably delicious and almost always a learning experience.

After spending the morning immersed in Child's letters to Avis De Voto**, I just felt like trying something from Mastering -- fortunately, I had everything I needed to make this velvety mushroom soup. It was just lovely and I was pretty dedicated about following her directions exactly -- with two exceptions: (1) I used half-and-half rather than whipping cream since that is what I had on hand, and (2) rather than pour all the hot soup into a fresh pot with the egg/cream mixture, I tempered the latter with a ladle of the hot soup and then poured the cream/egg mix back into the soup. I just felt that four pots was a lot to dirty for one soup. You need one pot for the soup base, a second for warming the stock prior to adding it to the base, and a saute pan for the mushroom caps. It's all worth it ... you could skip the finishing butter ... but if you are treating yourself to Julia, why would you?

** These letters, published under the title As Ever, Julia (ed. by Joan Reardon) are a fascinating look into Child's work process while writing Mastering I, as well as something of history lesson on both politics and grocery shopping in 1950s America. I had no idea how little my mom had to work with...