Wisconsin Beer Cheddar Soup & Pretzels

This week our good friends Ryan and Leah brought their son Arlo over to be our first soup-tasters! And watch some football, which I would have been more excited about if I hadn'tbeen ousted from our FFL the week before, ending up 7th and missing the playoffs by one slot. But that aside...I wanted to make beer cheese soup. Recipe courtesy of recent Madison transplant Molly Norris. Paired that with some homemade soft pretzels.

First up, I prepared the dough for the pretzels. I'm not a baker, and I think it was prettyeasy to tell. Didn't love the pretzels, though everyone seemed to think they were ok, and Arlo ate Leah's, so, there you go. Then again, he also ate peas, carrots, rice, cheerios, yogurt and blueberries, so he's definitely a good eater. :) Here's the pretzel making process, which took about 2 hours (between the dough and then the cooking).Make the dough, let it rise, shape the pretzels,boil them, then bake them.

On to the soup making. This is a soup blog after all. Simple ingredients. Everyone's favorite - onions, celery and carrots. Lots of bock beer. Cream. Cheese. 2.5 pounds of cheese. It has to be good, right? I learned how to use the grating attachment for my Cuisinart today - that was fun! I used a combination of aged and white cheddar, all from Wisconsin.

Simmered the veggies in the beer and some water, then strained the veggies out. Added 2 quarts, yes 2 quarts!, of cream. Simmered some more, then added in the cheese. Ahandful at a time. Thanks to guest stirrer Pete and guest photographer Ryan. That was it! Soup's on!