That sounds like a great place, and very nice people, Beachlily. I bet they'd love to hear from you. There's a couple of videos out there (at least) showing some techniques to making risotto. One is by Mario Batali, (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/dining/02mini.html?_r=1) and he's making asparagus risotto. He doesn't actually stir all that much. The other is Tom Colicceo, making roasted tomato risotto. I made that the other night, and it was quite good. In this video he shows his way of telling when the risotto is done. The only change I made to his recipe was to use vegetable broth. I'll put a link to that video below, but I don't know how to do more than one link, so I just included the address for the Batali video above. ) (By the way, I stumbled across that website when I did a search for tomato risotto [I have an abundance of tomatoes right now]. It looks like a pretty cool website, but I haven't had or taken the time to explore it further.) Sally

Let me think. How does one get " excessive stink from the stink pipe?" I guess it is a matter of degree. There is a substantial difference between the constructions  beyond the house  of a septic system and a municipal drain. First, think of a municipal type, where a system of low running sewage pipes traverse a district, creating a virtually cesspool. Into this system, all building drains are poured via gravity. And the building sewer and the drain lines to it are completely ventilated to the atmosphere  open on both ends. This line receives sewage from trapped water fixtures, making it a Âone-way street. But there is a certain amount of Âair (which is the whole amount of gases in the open atmosphere) which Ârespires. Like animal respiration, air moves in both directions in a sewer vent. The ordinary vented line will not produce enough malodorous gas to detect in most cases. Even when a person works near a roof vent, the gases are low-grade and intermittent. But you donÂt have that. It follows that the vent is providing a direct output of gases produced by the septic process. And whether in a municipal or private system, it indicates that the sewage is not flowing into the proper receptor, but staying close-in. If you also have problems with flow rate, it would indicate possible structural problems, which might mean repair. As a first step, a standard drain-cleaning is a fairly affordable expense. Pinoke

if you use a screwdriver or something.. you will probably find a white bulb like thing underground.. remove that also.. rather than just shaving it with the wedge.. lol ... https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Stinkhorn+underground&t=ffcm&iar=images&iax=1&ia=images btw.. its 'using' your mulch ... as a food source ... and you will probably have them.. as long as you have that mulch ... or any rotting wood source .... i kinda have accepted them for where they are .. never did beat them ... until the mulch thinned .... taking a drop.. i see what you did there ... ken

Heh, I use tinned condensed soups sometimes. Sometimes I make my own. It can depend on the dish and what I feel like cooking at the time. Sometimes depends on what i have on hand at the time. If you want and have a lot of mushrooms, you can do a duxelles to freeze off in portions to finish off with your thickening and liquid agents later. You can sort of skip a step in the OP's process if you cook the mushrooms on low till they become self-retained and straight flour toast the mix before adding your liquid. Instead of making a separate roux and adding it to the mix. Kick-ups to cream of celery are be sure to use the leaves and ribs. Add in minced fresh parsley stems and also leaves. Use leeks instead of shallots. Add some celery seed if you can. Lovage and celeriac are good to use if you can get them. For intensity in onion and meat soups- caramelize you onions, take time to reduce your stock and make demiglace. And food safety of Maw-Maw's Chicken- yes, since it's a short marinade time in the fridge, and also cooked along with the meat to safe eating (temp check your sauce if you need to). Boneless pork chops or loins work well for this recipe too. Growing up it was Mom's pork chops in mushroom gravy :) If you feeling beefy, use beef tips, loins, medallions..., and instead of 1c buttermilk, use 1/2 c red wine and 1/2 cup beef stock, omit the hot sauce, but add a bit of mustard. Finish it off with a nice bit of sour cream to the liquid after baking if you are so inclined, and serve over noodles for a nice stroganoff. bbstx's OP mushroom soup base is a rather good one. The use of bacon grease as the browning agent for the chicken is spot on- great flavor.