Wild Mushroom-Barley Soup

Neither Josh nor I was feeling well on Saturday. We both went to bed sure that we were at the beginning of a cold. So I decided I would make mushroom barley soup on Sunday afternoon. (I began this post on Mon or Tues. It's Friday now. A lot of cooking has happened since then.) This was not a random selection...my latest Martha Stewart Everyday Foods had a recipe for this. Here it is:

1 T olive oil 1.25 lbs of white mushrooms trimmed and sliced 1 med red onion chopped. 2 garlic cloves, minced .5 tsp dried thyme coarse salt and ground pepper 4.5 c canned reduced-sodium chicken or vegetable stock 1 c quick cooking barley .25 c fresh parsley 1 T fresh lemon juice 1 chunk Parmesan cheese In a large saucepan, heat oil over med-high. Add mushrooms, onion, garlic and thyme; season with salt and pepper until veg. have softened--6-8 mins. Add broth and 2 c water to pan; bring to boil over high. Reduce heat to a simmer; and barley and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in parsley and lemon juice. Garnish with Parmesan.

Kristen's version
I just don't believe in cooking with white mushrooms when cremini, shitake and oyster mushrooms are available. I also chopped them in an effort to make them of a uniform size with the barley. I also don't believe in making soup (or boiling potatoes for mashing) with water. I always use stock or broth. This time I used a combo of beef and chicken stock. I couldn't find the quick cooking barley (of course, I've found it now) so I had to use the regular stuff. It certainly smelled very good for a long time. I use fresh thyme because my herb garden is lousy it. My last changes were just because I forgot. No parsley, no lemon juice, no Parmesan. Even with the omissions, it was darn tasty.

The rest of the weeks cooking was pretty ho-hum. Even tonight's date night meal. Quick run down of the menu:

Appetizer: bruschetta on panettini rounds (thank you, Leggy, for the reminder of the burschetta recipe)--I used heirloom tomatos, red onion, garlic, red wine vinegar and EVOO

Main Course: Flank steak marinated in EVOO, red wine vinegar, red onion, garlic, fresh basil and fresh oregano.

Sides: Brocolli with EVOO, garlic, red onion, and pancetta. Also mashed tators with mozzarella and parmesan. The potatoes were not as good as they sound like they should be. I didn't even like them well enough to want to play with them. I don't know...Giada DeLaurentis just loved them.

The high light though of my date night preparations had nothing to do with cooking. Mom sent me a check to use on some makeup brushes. I got them on Monday and I love them. I decided, however, that I needed one more eye shadow brush, so off I went to Ulta. I found the girl that helped me with my original selection and she helped me with this last brush. Then I asked her if she could show/tell me how to do a smokey eye. She explained how, basically, but then sent me over to a couple of the product reps who gave me a makeover. At Allegras's request I took a picture of myself. Here 'tis.



Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about tonight's dessert! I made milk shakes. Boy were they yummy!

Okay, that's it for tonight. Peter and Eileen are taking us out for our anniversary tomorrow. Catch you later.