Keeping Those pesky Vampires away

Recipe for the brisk autumn days:
Roasted Garlic Soup (AKA 40 Cloves of Garlic Soup)
2 lg. garlic heads, plus 1 clove, minced
2 bay leaves
2 cups minced onion
1 lg. potato peeled and cubed
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 tsp. pepper
3 tbls. olive oil
1 tbls. butter
1 cup minced carrots
4 cups chicken stock
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Roast the garlic: Preheat oven or toaster oven to 350 degrees. Using a serrated knife, cut the top off each garlic head so that the tip of each clove is exposed. Place the garlic heads on a large piece of aluminum foil and drizzle with 2 tbls. olive oil. Add the bay leaves and fold the foil to form a packet. Place the packet in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. Cool slightly. In a small bowl, squeeze the garlic head until all the roasted flesh is released. Discard the outer husks and bay leaves.
2. Make the soup: In a large heavy duty saucepan, heat the remaining olive oil and butter, add onions and cook over medium heat until translucent-about 4 minutes. Add the carrots and continue to cook for 4 minutes more. Add the minced garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the potato, chicken stock, white wine, roasted garlic, salt, and pepper. Cover and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and continue to cook for 35 minutes.
3. Finish the soup: Using a blender or stick blender, puree the soup until smooth. If using a regular blender, do this in small batches. Return the soup to the saucepan over medium heat and whisk in the heavy cream. Heat until warmed. Do not boil. Keep warm until ready to serve.

Makes 8 average servings
Garlic cook time: 45 minutes
Soup prep time: 14 minutes
Soup cook time: 55 minutes

On what I know about this: I found this recipe a few years ago in Country Living (January 2002) and thought it sounded good. It was and I've made it regularly since then, even serving it for Thanksgiving last year to my dying mother who, hard up to ever compliment my cooking because I use strange exotic spices like thyme and tarragon, actually thought it was amazing. I’ve had trouble and almost burned hands trying to squeeze the roasted garlic out of their husks so now I just let them cool down and then pop them out of the head one by one into the soup which then gets pureed at the end. I recommend the stick blender…it’s soooo much easier then transferring portions of the soup to the blender and back again: it shaves at least a good 10 minutes off prep. For the vegetarian folk, I suspect you can exchange the chicken stock for vegetable stock without much difference and for garlic lovers, just so you know, I usually roast and use three heads of garlic instead of the garlic-lite two. Of course, your pores seep garlic for the next three days but then that's the magic of the stuff now isn't it?