FAIRMONT — On a cold winter day, what is more satisfying than a steaming bowl of soup?

You could go for tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

“The old standby,” says Pat Swisher.

Or you could go for something a little more exotic, a little more sophisticated ... like her homemade cream of mushroom soup.

Unlike anything from a can, her soup is rich, thick and packed with many large slices of many different kinds of mushrooms.

She and her husband Chuck hunt for the fungi in the spring near their home in Taylor County.

“I read up on cream of mushroom soup recipes and I didn’t like it. So I started messing with it,” she said.

“It’s so rich, it’s unbelievable.”

She developed the recipe for morels, she said.

“Other mushrooms will work, but the flavor and heartiness of the morels make this a special treat for the palate.

“They’re unique. They have that really earthy flavor. There is no other mushroom shaped like them. I usually get enough to make one batch of soup. Some years, I get more so I’ll freeze them. But you never rinse them until you’re ready to use them.

“I’ve been told my morel mushroom soup is better than that served by the Greenbrier!”

No morels? No problem. She uses a mixture of shiitake, moonlight, crimini, oyster and other ‘shrooms.

“After boiling the basic mushrooms to give them flavor, I don’t like to cook then very long.”

She uses canned milk and half-and-half for thickness and richness.

She serves it in small dishes before the main course.

“You won’t want to serve it as a main course. It’s too rich.

“I never use fat-free anything,” she said.

You can always thin it down with milk, she said.

She’ll add half-and-half, milk, tarragon, and salt and pepper. She could always add any of the arsenal of spices lined up neatly in a drawer by the stove.

Thicker, thinner, more mushrooms, not as much ... It’s all up to you and your taste buds.

“I like a lot of mushrooms. A lot of people don’t. So you just use less. You can adjust the recipe to your tastes. That’s why I like it.

“Now this batch, because it’s so rich, serves eight people. It has about five cups of liquid in it, and probably four cups of mushrooms.”

She uses a heat diffuser to slow down the cooking and keep the soup from sticking to the pan.

She sautées onions, celery and the mushrooms, then adds two cups of chicken broth.

“I use three cubes of bouillon to two cups water. I microwave, let it boil for 10 minutes and thicken it.

“You can’t get simpler than that. This is really easy and really rich.

“My husband loves this recipe,” she said. “It’s so special because I usually only make it in the spring. Isn’t that crazy?” she said, laughing.

“You can find mushrooms in the store 52 weeks a year.”

For fresh, down-on-the-farm mushrooms, she could always buy a mushroom growing kit. But that’s too easy. She’d rather cultivate them from spores taken from mushrooms they’ve picked.

Cooking, baking, stirring, sifting ... that’s the life for Pat Swisher.

“I’m as happy as a clam when I’m cooking,” she said.

She’s been queen of the kitchen since she was 8.

“I baked a cake all from scratch. And I have no idea what it was!” she said, laughing. Her mom baked every weekend, so it was only natural she don an apron and pick up a measuring cup, too.

But she’s not shy about sharing her recipes, even her prized ones.

“This is such a great recipe. A lot of people won’t share theirs. But if you’ve got something, share it. Why keep it? I figured I could submit this and many people could enjoy it.”

You don’t have to be an Emeril Lagasse to make this soup.

“You have to have a little cooking skills, like blending flour and stuff like that. But you don’t have to have any great ability to cook this.

“Oh, my gosh, I love to cook! And I’m told I’m fairly good. This recipe is to die for.

“Now, I’ve not tasted this batch yet, so if I’ve messed up ... ,” she said with a laugh.

Like many good home cooks, she gets ideas and inspiration from cookbooks and cooking magazines.

And like any good cook, she’ll put her own spin and taste on what she finds.

“I look at them and decide what I’m going to do next. But I’ll make something really good and try to do it again in a couple of weeks, or somebody will want the recipe, and I will have no idea how to do it. No idea.”

Come Sunday, she and Chuck and little Maggie the West Highland White terrier — normally ardent Steelers fans — will be urging on the New Orleans Saints.

And they won’t be watching on empty tummies.

She’s already made her chili.

“Usually I like the chili with no beans, but this one will have beans in it,” she said.

“And this is something that’s really good for an appetizer for the Super Bowl. Get a dish and cover the bottom with softened cream cheese. Then put a layer of chili, the a layer of cheese ... cheddar, jack ... then microwave.

“And get out the crackers. It’s unbelievably good!”

E-mail Debra Minor Wilson at dwilson@timeswv.com.