Vegetable Beef & Barley Soup with Whole Wheat Bread

For the past two weeks or so we have pretty much had one type of weather here in Ohio and that has been rain.  What is better to have on a cold, rainy day than homemade soup?  And what is better to accompany soup than homemade bread? The plan was actually to make the soup and bread yesterday, but due to my last minute Mardi Gras dinner party, the soup got pushed back a day.  No biggie.  Usually I plan my dinners out a whole month in advance, which takes a lot of work, but is well worth the time.  It never fails that this month of menus actually turns into a month and a few weeks because I'll have an extra leftover to use or my husband will offer to cook (aka order a pizza). 

I love making soup. It's so easy....you can really just throw anything in a pot and TA DA...a delicious meal. When I say anything, I mean anything.  Any combination of  meat, vegetables, grains, beans, babies (not really babies...just making sure you're actually reading!!!) can be added to a liquid/broth base with whatever spices you like.  It's so amazingly versatile!  Soup has this magic quality to make your stomach and heart happy at the same time.  It warms you from the inside out and just makes you feel content.  Why do you think it's what people eat when they are sick?  It's comforting!!  Soups are great especially when you have small children because you can really cook it anytime of the day and just reheat it later.  You can cook your soup when the baby is napping at 10:00 am, that way when 5:00 pm rolls around and the baby inevitably starts crying you don't have to frantically try throwing a meal together with one hand.  Trust me, I've tried and it's no easy task!!  There is always a ton leftover (usually enough to eat for lunches the next couple days plus enough to freeze for a second meal) and soups are almost always guaranteed to taste better on day 2, or 3 or 4 in my house!!  I really do believe anyone can make a good pot of soup.

A friend of mine was over the other day and she told me she wasn't a "soup person".  What?!?  Who isn't a "soup person"?!?  Lucky for her I was making a pork and vegetable soup and I was determined to change her opinion of soups.  After the meal she happily declared that the soup was quite tasty and that she probably just didn't like soup because growing up all she had was soup from a can.  Ding, ding, ding....we have a winner.  Soup from scratch will always, I repeat ALWAYS, trump the pretend soup that comes in a can.  So, as promised I am including the recipe for the soup I made tonight.  I normally don't measure things and just throw stuff in as I go, but just for her, my very first soup convert, I will try to so she can duplicate it and pass on her new found love of soup to other naysayers who may be in doubt.  I'll just consider this my small gift to the world without the bows and wrapping paper.  The one note I will make is that usually you can never duplicate a good soup recipe because they always taste slightly different.  That is the beauty of good soup!

Vegetable Beef & Barley Soup

1 c. yellow onion, diced

3 stalks of celery, diced

4 carrots, peeled and diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

Leftover crock pot beef** 

1 small can diced tomatoes

32 oz. beef broth

46 oz can tomato juice plus 1/2 can water.

1 c. barley

3-4 potatoes, diced

1 can green beans

1 can great northern beans

1/2 c. frozen corn

1/2 c. frozen peas

Whatever spices you want to taste.  Tonight I used parsley, basil, oregano and black pepper...and no, sorry I didn't measure these.  I would never add salt since I think a lot of the canned stuff has plenty of salt for my liking.  If you are in love with salt though, add away...I'm not going to judge!!

**I almost always use the last of whatever leftover crock pot meat I have.  The night I cook the roast, I always strain the broth the meat has been cooking in all day through a fine mesh strainer and skim the fat off the top.  I then put it in a container and save it for my soup.  Once it cools in the fridge it turns into this scary looking, almost Jello consistency semi solid.  I'm sure there is a technical name for this, but I just call it Meat Jello and chase my kids around with it to gross them out.  I think it gives the soup a delicious flavor...plus I hate throwing ANYTHING away!!

Place the first 9 ingredients plus spices in a pot and bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer 25 mins.  Add potatoes, return to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer another 25 mins.  Add the last 4 ingredients, return to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer another 15 mins.  Taste soup and add any additional spices you might need.  That's it.  Eat and enjoy!!

I was cooking solo today since my Assistant Chef decided she would rather watch some ballet thing on TV than dump stuff into a pot.  I guess at 4 years old I really can't blame her!  So I approved her a vacation day.

Diced onion, carrots and celery are a MUST in all my soups!!

Cold leftover meat and the "Meat Jello".  Scary!

I love barley!

Normally I go with the russet potato in soups, but I had nothing better to do with the last 4 red potatoes.

Soup in the pot pre-cooked.

Cooked Soup.  Very tasty!  Thanks for the ladle again Mom!

My dinner (and my lunch for tomorrow).

Good for the soul! =)

I'm not sure there are many smells in the world that can fill your home like that of fresh baked bread right out of the oven or bread machine. My Uncle Billy will contest that making bread with your hands and baking it in the oven is the best way to go and honestly I can't argue this.  I can argue, however, that with 4 children I don't have an extra set of hands to spare or the time to knead the dough, let it rise, punch it down, knead some more, etc, etc, etc...especially when the bread machine can do it for me.  Bread machine...much like Charlie Sheen right now...is the WINNER!!  I bought my bread machine off Craigs List a few months ago for $10 and to date, I have only used it for dough and the french bread recipe that came in the manual.  No offense to the kind person who was willing to part from their machine at such a reasonable cost to me, but it is clearly obvious from the huge gouges in the Teflon coating they left by using a knife to pry their bread out, that they didn't really love the machine all that much.  I really do love the machine so I'm glad I could give it a second loving home.  I do have to admit that every time I have made the french bread it has stuck to the sides resulting in a complete massacre of the bread when removing the loaf.  This is okay though because when serving it with soup I don't really need slices.  Chunks work just fine!  Since the first of the year I have really been trying to switch over all white flour products we eat to whole wheat.  So I tried the whole wheat recipe and wouldn't you know, to my delight, the loaf popped right out.  After 15 mins of cooling I was even able to slice it.  I was so excited I had to do a small victory dance right there in the kitchen while holding my plate of sliced bread.  I love you bread machine!!

Whole wheat bread fresh from the "oven".

Trying to steal a piece before dinner.  Sneaky Tyler!!  You wouldn't blame him though if you were here to smell it.

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT CAME OUT WHOLE!!

This is what made me happy the rest of the evening! 

I love to put Parmesan cheese on my soup.  Usually I use a generic store brand because it's cheapest.  I could buy the Kraft brand for a few dollars more, but who am I kidding?  It doesn't taste a few dollars worth better.  I will save my money for the King of all cheeses which can only be obtained by making a 6 and 1/2 hour drive all the way to a little store called Latinas in the thriving metropolis of Niagara Falls, NY.  Lucky for me, my grandparents live there so the drive isn't JUST for the cheese.  That would be silly.  They have THE best cheese...I am sure my readers from NF will vouch for me!  It's actually Pecorino Romano cheese imported from Italy, which up until about 2 years ago I had no clue was actually made from sheep's milk.  Once I got over the initial shock, I realized this cheese is what makes all my grandma's food taste so amazing.  It's that special ingredient that makes your own food have the label "It's not like Grandma makes".  And all these years I thought the special ingredient was love!!  So, if you are ever traveling to Niagara Falls, hunt down Latina's and get some cheese.  Then do yourself a favor since you're already there, walk next door to DiCamillo's Bakery and get some of the best Italian bread anywhere in the world.  This last paragraph was brought to you by the Council to Revive Pine Ave. Economy. Thank you. =)