Mushrooms and Marsala

My mom made this soup the other day, and we liked it so much we took a picture of it.
(By "it" I mean the recipe. Who writes things down anymore?)

I took the day off of work today, sort of a "personal regeneration" kind of day, and I'm spending it making a double batch of this soup to put up. Variations from the recipe: using chicken broth instead of beef broth, and not putting in the cream (see "Dairy is Taboo") - we can add the cream when we heat up the soup.

Soaking the mushrooms - because I had to take a child to day care, they soaked longer than 30 minutes. Not a problem.
Chopping the shallots and garlic gave me an excuse to use the ulu. Why I need an excuse to use the ulu, I do not know.
Straining the mushroom liquid took a long time. That was unexpected. I finally had to force the liquid through the filter because I was getting impatient.
Everything simmered on the stove, as I do not have a slow cooker large enough for a double batch of anything. I think, by the time everything got going, it simmered for 2 hours. I decided not to let the mushrooms get really tender because I was just going to can the soup anyway, so the time in the pressure canner would likely make the mushrooms softer. I ended up with 12 pints and a little bit for lunch. I'll be giving some of this away shortly (see "Helping Hand").

(10 lbs, 75 minutes in the canner.)