February 4. National Homemade Soup day and National Stuffed Mushroom day.

This weather has been weird. Hot-cold-hot-cold-hot-cold-cold-cold. Yeah it's been cold lately..so soup for today totally works out well for me.

My husband has been growing vegetables in the backyard and broccoli is one of them. So I asked him to get me some fresh broccoli and decided to make some Broccoli and cheese soup!

Here's what you'll need to make some good ol' Broccoli and cheese soup:

Broccoli florettes

chicken base or chicken broth

heavy cream

salt and pepper

shredded cheddar cheese

Start by putting your broccoli in a soup pot with some water, enough to cover it, and add some chicken base. You can also just use chicken broth/stock but I personally prefer the water and base. It just has much more flavor than store bought broth.

Let it boil til the broccoli is cooked all the way. Put it in the blender and strain it back into the pot. My blender was acting up so I used my food processor instead. Works just as fine. If it looks like it has too much liquid, take some of the liquid out before blending it all up, and put it in a separate container. You can always just add some back in the pot if the soup looks too thick. You just don't want it to be too thin. 

This is what it should look like. Like I said earlier, if it's too thick, just add some of that liquid you took out before you blended it all up. If it's too thin, you can use cornstarch slurry to thicken it a little bit. Just get a couple tablespoons of cornstarch in a bowl and dissolve it with cold water. Wait til your soup starts boiling and then slowly add your cornstarch slurry while whisking the soup. Just keep adding til you've reached your desired thickness.

Now turn the heat down and add your heavy whipping cream. Let it simmer for a couple minutes and then season with salt and pepper to taste.

Mmmm here comes the best part. The cheese. I had some good smoked cheddar cheese so I just used my grater and got some freshly grated cheese! 

Top your soup with a little bit (or a lot!!) of cheese and grab a piece of roll, and there you go! 

Broccoli and cheese soup! Enjoy!

Now on to the next part... 

The stuffed mushrooms!

There's a lot of different mixtures you can use for stuffed mushrooms. But I had some buffalo chicken dip left from yesterday and it just sounded amazing so yes! I did it! I used it to stuff my mushrooms!

I started by cleaning my button mushrooms and taking the stems out. A lot of people throw the stems away when they do this. I save mine. You can still cook those for something else!

Usually people just keep the mushrooms dry when they stuff them. I like tossing mine in melted butter, salt, and pepper. It seasons the mushrooms and helps with the cooking process too.

I used a piping bag to stuff the mushrooms. It's just easier and cleaner.

I arranged my mushrooms on a greased sheet pan as I was stuffing them.

I then baked them in 375F for 25 minutes. All ovens are different though so just keep an eye on them! Maybe start with 20 and just keep adding 5 more minutes if you think they need more cooking time.

Tadaaaah! My Buffalo Chicken stuffed mushrooms! (plus some more buffalo sauce!)

Happy cooking and happy eating! :)