Cream of Celery Soup

I'm still here just way busy with a full-time job and three teenagers.  Oldest monkey is now a college freshman.  Can you believe it? 

I still have my garden, but don't grow as much as I did before going back to work full-time.  Now, I am concentrating on growing things that are hard to come by at the grocery store or farmers' market.  We receive a produce share every two weeks for the regular vegetables.  I currently grow edemama, swiss chard, herbs and other things that are either very expensive or hard to find fresh.  Heirloom tomatoes can break the bank, so I have at least 10 of those plants each spring and fall. 

The produce share is pretty amazing.  It is about 40 pounds or more of fresh often local produce for $25.  Only problem is sometimes it is hard to use it all up.  We don't always eat meals together every evening and I certainly don't have time to cook every day.  We end up with extra stuff that either gets fed to the rabbits or composted.  I'm trying to stop that.  Soup uses up a bunch of veggies.  Today I made cream of celery soup and I will never buy canned stuff again. Our broccoli cheese casserole will be made with homemade cream of celery this year.  

While the recipe is super easy you will need a wand blender or a standing blender that can handle hot stuff.  Also, you have to make a roux.  I know some people struggle with that, but it is really just a matter of patience and heat control. 

4 ribs of celery (break them a few times crosswise and strip out some of the strings)
1 onion
1 tablespoon of butter
1/8 cup of olive oil
1 tablespoon of ham or chicken base or a cube of bouillon.
Roux
1/2 cup of milk

Chop the celery and onion up into small pieces and sauté in the oil and butter until tender.  Cover with water and cook until very soft.  Add the ham base (or chicken base or chicken bouillon) and blend until smoothish.  I like a little texture.  Make the roux.  Stir the milk into the roux and heat until slightly thickened.  Add the milk/roux to the celery and onions and mix well.  Eat.

Roux
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
handful of bread flour

Over medium heat stir together until it turns a little brown and feels creamy = roux.