Country Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 bay leaves
2/3 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped onion
3 Tablespoons oil
4-5 cups mushrooms
2/3 cup half and half, cream, or milk

In a 2 quart pot, melt butter; stir in flour until smooth. Gradually stir in broth until smooth.  Add salt, pepper and bay leaves. Simmer, uncovered, for 15 mins, stirring occasionally.  Meanwhile, in another saucepan, saute the celery and onion in the oil until tender.  Add the mushrooms and stir until tender.  Add to the broth mixture; bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, simmer uncovered for 15 mins, stirring occasionally.  Add cream/milk and heat through.  Discard bay leaves.

The key to liking this recipe is liking mushrooms.  However, my mom isn't a big mushroom eater and she still likes this a lot.  The thing about this recipe is that it doesn't make very much it seems, so if your going to feed a lot of people with it, maybe double it. When my mom would make it growing up it would serve 4.