Soup soothes the soul.

Byline: THE $10 GOURMET By Jim Boyd The Register-Guard

Ann Schar, a cooking instructor for the Pepperberries kitchenware store, adapted one of her class menus for today's edition of The $10 Gourmet. It features a wild rice and mushroom soup, wedges of focaccia still warm from the oven, a salad of mesclun and pear tossed with raspberry vinaigrette and topped with roasted hazelnuts and crumbled blue cheese, and a serving of pear crisp with whipped cream for dessert.

Why did she choose wild rice and mushroom soup?

"I was thinking soup is just feel-good food," Schar said. "And it's simple, but yet I feel that it's gourmet and very tasty. ... At this time of year, soup just feels good. And with Thanksgiving and all the heavy eating, I just thought it might be something people would say, 'Hey, I'm going to try that.' '

Schar used conventional, store-bought button mushrooms in the soup but she said other types of mushrooms could be used.

"Last week I made this recipe with chanterelles which somebody brought me that they had picked in the woods" Schar said. "Oh, my goodness, it was awesome!

"So if someone wants to spend more than what we are doing here, they can use a mix of mushrooms. If I'm making a big batch, not just for two, I like getting all kinds of mushrooms. You know, shiitakes and portabellas. I'll get some of everything and put it in."

Schar prepared the meal in the kitchen of her home, which is built on land that her great-great-grandparents, Palmer and Mary Ayres, homesteaded in 1879 near the confluence of the Willamette and McKenzie rivers.

To stay within the $10 food budget, Schar minded her pennies by purchasing many of the ingredients as bulk foods in exactly the amounts needed. She spent $9.90.

The $10 Gourmet is a feature that allows cooking professionals to give menu ideas to home cooks by preparing a meal for two on a $10 budget. Small amounts of staple ingredients don't have to be included in the accounting.

Schar used the following ingredients from her kitchen: 6 tablespoons butter, salt and pepper, about 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 teaspoon granulated sugar, chopped garlic, grated Parmesan cheese, chopped rosemary and 1/4 cup homemade raspberry-flavored vinegar (also available at grocery stores).

Schar said she really wanted to mix a handful of cranberries with the pears in the crisp she fixed for dessert. "But cranberries were $2.50, and so that didn't fit the budget," she said.

Schar worked hard to keep the meal within budget.

"I looked at all the oranges and I picked out the smallest one," she said as an example of her frugality. "For the soup, I found the smallest onion you can imagine - it cost 7 cents. I just went through everything and weighed stuff. ... And because I had a few extra cents left, I decided to go ahead and make a small, little amount of focaccia."

Although she had ingredients at home that probably would have cost less, she decided, nonetheless, to pay 35 cents for about 3 cups of bulk flour and 5 cents for a tablespoon of bulk yeast.

"I just bought it so we could see how much it was - because it costs nothing to make bread, unless you put a bunch of fancy stuff in it, which we're not," Schar said.

Schar did all of her shopping at the Market of Choice on Green Acres Road near her home. Her recipes follow:

Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup

6 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced (about 2 cups)

1 small onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup flour

2 cups (1 can) chicken broth 

1/2 cup light cream or half and half

3/4 cup cooked wild rice blend

1/2 to 1 teaspoon dry marjoram 

Salt and pepper to taste

In a soup pot, cook mushrooms, onion and celery in butter over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until tender.

Sprinkle flour over the vegetables. Stir to combine.

Add broth. Cook and stir until mixture thickens and bubbles. Cook and stir 1 minute more, reduce heat.

Stir in cream, cooked rice, marjoram, salt and pepper.

Cover and cook over low heat until heated through, about 5 minutes.

Makes 2 servings.

Raspberry Vinaigrette

1/4 cup raspberry vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon orange zest 

Shake ingredients together.

Ann Schar used this to dress a salad of mesclun greens and pear slices that she topped with crumbled blue cheese and roasted hazelnuts.

Pear Crisp for Two

2 pears, peeled and sliced

6 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon orange zest

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup rolled oats 

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Toss pears with sugar, 1 tablespoon flour and orange zest. Put into a 2- to 3-cup baking dish.

Place brown sugar and 1/4 cup flour in a bowl. Cut in the butter. Add the rolled oats and cinnamon. Sprinkle mixture over pears in the baking dish.

Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour. Serve with whipped cream.

Serves 2.

Focaccia

For the dough:

1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon yeast

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups flour

Optional ingredients that can be added to the dough: rosemary, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, oregano, kalamata olives

For the topping:

Olive oil

Crushed garlic

Parmesan cheese

Chopped rosemary (or whatever herb you like)

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add oil, sugar and salt. Add flour about 1 cup at a time and stir until stiff dough is formed. Add your choice of optional ingredients if using. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead, adding more flour as needed, until the dough is soft and pliable, about 5 minutes.

Put dough into an oiled bowl or onto a floured surface and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Pat dough out onto a cooking sheet or stone that has been sprinkled with cornmeal. Let rise about 30 minutes. Poke dough with fingers to make dents.

Mix olive oil and crushed garlic in small bowl, drizzle over top of the dough, then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and rosemary. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.

SETTLING THE BILL

.91 pound unbleached flour: 35 cents

.21 pound brown sugar: 14 cents

.19 pound rolled oats: 9 cents

1 pint whipping cream: $1.29

.17 pound wild rice blend: 40 cents

.25 pound mesclun greens: $1.50

.38 pound mushrooms: $1.14

3 Bartlett pears: $1.39

2 celery stalks: 22 cents

.09 pound hazelnuts: 57 cents

Bulk yeast: 5 cents

Bulk marjoram: 5 cents

1 yellow onion: 7 cents

1 naval orange: 25 cents

4 ounces blue cheese crumbles: $1.89

1 can chicken broth: 50 cents

Total: $9.90

CAPTION(S):

Ann Schar's menu includes (clockwise from bottom right) wild rice and mushroom soup, wedges of focaccia, a pear crisp and a salad. Kevin Clark / The Register-Guard Ann Schar prepares a meal of soup, focaccia and salad.