Beef Barley Soup

To say the least the end of summer has been tumultuous. We are in the midst of refinancing our home, trying to keep spending to a bare minimum and Katsu has had a couple of medical issues crop up unexpectedly that we now hope we have under control. Roll all of that in with my daughters impending departure (in three weeks) from the family home for a place of her own, and I am ready for the much needed quieter pace of fall...the serenity of the season so to speak.

My grandmother's husband used to make something called "garbage soup" every week he would collect all the bits and pieces from the weeks meals and dice up the meat and chop the remaining vegetables make a stock depending on what he had on hand and make a delicious soup from scraps and leftovers. It was never the same and it always tasted wonderful.

Salt and pepper up some soup bones. I know they look like short ribs, but where I get my meat they call these soup bones.

Sear them on a med-high heat until browned on all sides. Then remove the meat and set it them in a baking dish.

Turn you oven on to 300 degrees and place foil snugly over the top of the baking dish. Place the soup bones in the oven and let them slow roast for about 3 to 4 hours.

When the meat is tender they are done. Pull them out of the oven and the baking dish set them on a platter to cool.

In the same pan that you seared the meat. Drain off some of the fat or a lot of the fat, whichever, and cook up your carrots, celery and onion. Cook them until they are only about half done, maybe less.

Separate the meat from the fat and dice into small cubes. Roasting the meat this way gives it a wonderful hearty flavor that you just can't beat.

I have everything ready to go into the pot. I also roasted up a Rutabaga for the soup it has a really nice texture and spicy fall flavor.

My stock came from leftovers I had in the freezer. Gravy from other roasts, beef broth from other soups. I love cleaning out the freezer and finding treasures. I added all in the pot along with 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup pearl barley and let it slow simmer for another hour or so until the barley was done.

This soup went nicely with my spicy buttermilk biscuits and the wet and rainy day. I had never made the meat ahead for soup like this and I was so pleased by the results that I seriously doubt I will every do it any other way again. The soup was really flavorful and satisfying.

Sunday Soup

Yes I know it was Super Bowl Sunday yesterday and I should have been somewhere watching the game and stuffing my face with little meatballs cooked in chili sauce and grape jelly and slathering queso on corn chips, but to be perfectly honest...I don't like football, and thankfully the bf doesn't either. Instead we tackled a home project that I have wanted to get done for some time...Hopefully we will get closer to being done tonight. In the midst of trying to get some work accomplished yesterday I had to make dinner and since we had a very hearty dinner the night before I decided to make soup for dinner.

What you need to make this simple soup are 1 pound bulk hot Italian sausage (or sausage of your choice), 1 large onion, diced, 2 garlic cloves, minced, 1 large carton (32 oz. or 48 oz.) chicken broth or stock, Pinch of crushed red pepper (optional), 4-5 small red potatoes skin on, cleaned and cut into cubes 1 cup half and half, 3/4 of a bag of baby spinach, stems removed, 8 oz. of prepackaged sliced mixed mushrooms sauteed before adding to soup. Shredded Parmesan and Romano cheese (optional).

In a large pot, cook the sausage over medium high heat... breaking it up into pieces as it cooks. drain fat.. removing all but about a tablespoon. If your sausage doesn't have much fat add a little olive oil. Dump the onions on top of the sausage and stir... cook until the onions are almost soft ... about 4 minutes or so... add the garlic and stir well.. cook for another couple of minutes. Add the broth and bring to a low boil... add the potatoes and bring to a low boil again... reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are fork tender... about 15-20 minutes. Then add the spinach in handfuls and the mushrooms... stirring gently. When the spinach cooks down. Add the half and half and let soup get hot, but do not boil! Serve immediately with shredded Parmesan and Romano cheese at the table.

I had made a some bread yesterday in anticipation of this dinner along with a mixed baby greens salad with dried cranberries and goat cheese dressed with a light balsamic & honey dressing.

There would have been more photos to go along with this meal, but I was cooking with a little headlight strapped to my head and it just wasn't happening. Hopefully that hole is gone this week...tonight preferably.

Have a great week everyone.

Soup and Sandwich.

There is a lot to be said for the simple soup and sandwich combination. I for one think this is a perfect meal anyway you slice it. The potential pairings of soup to sandwich are endless and it really is all a matter of taste. The other night I made my Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup and served it up with grilled tomato, basil, pesto and fresh mozzarella cheese on sourdough. It was amazing! You can find my prize winning Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup on Paula's website. It is a super easy and super satisfying soup that really warms up a cold day. One of my favorite things about this soup is you can roast the peppers ahead of time and just peel and seed them up and stick them in the freezer. When peppers go on sale I will get a bunch and do just that so when I want this soup I just grab a bag of the roasted peppers from the freezer and I am set.

Peppers getting all roasted in the oven (which I need to clean).

Cooled peppers.

Peeling cooled pepper. I then rinse them to remove all the seeds. Now the sandwich was easy 1. Take two slices of sourdough spread jarred pesto on one piece of the bread. 2. put on an even layer of fresh mozzarella cheese (so yummy). 3. Chiffonade up some leaves of fresh basil and scatter some on top of the fresh mozzarella. 4. put on an even layer of sliced fresh tomatoes. 5. put on the tops slice of bread. 6. spread a little soft butter on the bread. 7. flip sandwich into a heated iron skillet butter side down. 8. Butter the other piece of bread lightly while in pan. 9. weight sandwich down with another smaller iron skillet. Sort of like Panini style without the expensive press. 10. toast both sides to perfection and serve with hot bowl of soup.

This combination beat that ol grilled cheese and canned tomato soup of my childhood hands down. I have plans for other flavor combinations using rye bread fontina cheese and honeycrisp apples or maybe smoked salmon and gruyere cheese...see what I mean the possibilities are endless. Use your imagination and have fun with it. It is like re-inventing the wheel...you just roll with it.