I have found in quarantine that the ONE thing that always gives me peace is being in the kitchen. I have enjoyed having the time to explore recipes, try them out, and serve them to our family. When we were on our honeymoon, we went to the Canadian Steakhouse at Epcot, Le Cellier, for our first celebratory dinner. It was SO GOOD.
We enjoyed our three course dinner in the basement or cellar, of the candlelit steakhouse. That meal was special for so many reasons, but I will never forget the appetizer we had that night, beer cheese soup served with pretzel bread.
Since we live VERY far north (not really that far from Canada) we enjoy some of the same cuisine. Beer cheese soup is also a Wisconsin standard. I have tried many kinds, but this one from Le Cellier is my all time favorite. I was thrilled to discover that the Disney parks released this recipe from their kitchens last week. I immediately knew I wanted to try it at home. It honestly made the perfect Saturday night dinner and everyone in our family loved it.
Here is the official recipe from Disney below...I loved that I didn't have to search for crazy or expensive ingredients. Almost everything we needed was already in our pantry! (Other than some Canadian lager I purchased at the grocery store).
My husband and I enjoyed working on this together. For pretzels, I simply went to Aldi and bought these amazing little Pretzel balls that came with a salt packet. All I had to was spritz them with water, salt, and stick them in the oven for three minutes. They were SO good and perfect with this hearty soup.
I started by cooking bacon (that I cut up with kitchen shears) because chopping is one of my LEAST favorite things to do in the kitchen. You can read the simple directions above and note that you are basically taking onions, celery, butter (the base for SO MANY good recipes), and then adding flour and chicken stock to create a roux.
In the picture above, you can see the ingredients for the roux, and those yummy pretzel bites I mentioned...the best part of this recipe? THE ENTIRE POUND OF FRESH GRATED WHITE CHEDDAR CHEESE!
After creating the roux, we simply added milk and let science do the work of simmering. Once the soup had simmered to perfection, we added all that delicious cheese and some flavored seasonings. We used an immersion blender to combine everything into velvety goodness.
Everyone LOVED this dinner. It brought so much Disney magic into our home. I cannot wait to try lots more copycat recipes in the future. I only hope they are all as fun, frugal, and simple as this one!
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