Summer is Soup Season--isn't it?

These last few weeks have been crazy busy and hot. Heat means I can't bake and I miss it. It happened to cool down over the weekend--and rain finally! Oh how I love cool, rainy days. They remind me of fall and I love fall, in all its dreary, drab, cold and wet wonder. Cool weather makes me crave soup!

I have been on what I affectionately call a "Soup Kick" for several years now. I eat soup year-round as opposed to those who only eat it when there's snow on the ground. What could be better than a piping hot bowl of soup in the middle of July?! Maybe a frosty bowl of ice cream... In all seriousness, I love soup. It's like a liquid hotdish and I so enjoy a good hotdish. And bonus: My husband will eat soup while he mostly whines about having hotdish.

If you want to think in terms of weight loss, soup is great! A good veggie soup with 99% fat free broth and lean chicken--it's perfect. It's hearty, filling and good for you. And since you cook all those veggies in the soup, and don't drain out the nutrients, you reap all the goodness those vegetables carry. Add a little barley, which is gluten free, fat free and a whole grain, and you have a one pot meal. That's the other beauty of soup--you typically cook it all in one pot or throw the ingredients into a crock pot, start it to simmer and WALK AWAY. What could be easier?!

Yes, soup is wonderful. Soup is also good to soothe the soul and is often a comfort food for me. It's been a stressful few days here, a stressful few weeks--months--heck, years! And being as food is my coping mechanism, it's not hard to see why I turn to such a comfort food as soup when I'm feeling stressed out and lonely.

So tonight I'm making soup. I cannot lay much claim to this recipe as I found it on the back of the Quaker Barley box, but it's really very tasty and will likely make you feel like a warm hug has embraced you. I usually have all these ingredients on hand, or some form of them, so it's easy to toss together and let simmer away. It will also freeze wonderfully, so you can plunk some in the back of your freezer for when the days are short, the air is icy, and you need a burst of warmth from within.

Quaker Hearty Vegetable Barley Soup
1/2 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
7 cups water
1 (14.5 oz) can unsalted whole tomatoes, undrained, cut into pieces (or run through blender to puree)
1/2 cup Quaker Medium Barley, uncooked
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/2 cup sliced carrots
2 beef bouillon cubes, or 2 tsp. beef bouillon granules
1/2 tsp dried basil, crushed
1 bay leaf
1 (9 oz) pkg frozen mixed vegetables or equivalent in fresh veggies

In 4 qt saucepan or Dutch oven, brown hamburger. Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is tender. Drain off fat. Stir in remaining ingredients except frozen vegetables. Cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 50-60 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add frozen vegetables and cook about 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Additional water may be added if soup becomes too thick upon standing. Makes 12 (1 cup) servings.

Try this with my Whole Wheat Beer Bread and you'll be slumped over in your recliner, lids heavy, fighting off that post dinner nap before the 6 o'clock news is over!

Sweet End to Bitter Week

Tonight I have been sitting here, the 2012 London Olympics on in the background, trying to find inspiration for a post. You might think with all the talent coming over the air-waves I could find some inspiration, but when the majority of my thoughts are consumed by food--good food--it's hard to find inspiration watching so many phenominal physical specimans. My husband and I have been joking about what our Olympic talent might be. We have decided he could be an Olympic truck driver and I would be an Olympic pee'er. I admire these athletes--the drive and ambition and hard work it takes to accomplish their dreams it's absolutely amazing to me, because I am nothing like that!

My thoughts in recent days have been consumed by the fact that our humble abode has been invaded by mice. A whole variety of mice. We hear them scurrying overhead at all hours of the day and night. We even here them forging new paths in the wee hours of the morning. Bonus: I have been lucky enough to have them invade my car! This means WAR! I have stocked up on sticky traps and snap traps and I am ready for battle! Time to take back the quiet of the night and quiet my mind.

We have also run into a hiccup in our house building project with the ceiling paint, which has mysteriously developed a perfect crackle finish over what is supposed to be a lovely, clean, smooth finish. Now we have to decide if we want to texture it to cover it up and keep the project going, or sand it and re-do it. I do not like textured ceilings or walls, but I can't hardly stand the thought of dealing with these mice much longer.  I have not had a good week, which means I have been craving chocolate and sweets.

You might well wonder how in the world am I going to relate Olympics, rodent invasions and crackled ceilings to cooking or baking, but stay with me here.

So I decided to make some Reese's Peanut Butter Bars because they satisfy a variety of cravings. I broke up some graham crackers and plunked them into the food processor, clicked it into place, pressed start and...nothing. Damn thing broke for the third time. But I was not to be deterred by this fact. A few choice words as I stomped over to grab a bag and rolling pin was enough to keep me forging ahead. I melted the butter and mixed in the peanut butter and thought about the first time I made that recipe, which was many years ago on a visit to Appleton, MN. A cousin and I were bored so her mother suggested we make some bars, and this was the recipe we made. I remember thinking how foreign it was that her mother would leave us to that task unattended.

Here's my recipe, tried and true!

Reese's Peanut Butter Bars
1 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter, creamy or crunchy
2 - 2 1/2 cups crushed graham crackers
2 cups powdered sugar
1 bag chocolate chips (I prefer milk or a combo of milk & semi-sweet)

Melt butter in microwave safe bowl. Stir in peanut butter. Add graham crackers and powdered sugar. Mix well. Spread in lightly greased 9x13 pan. Melt chocolate and spread over top. Cool. Cut. Enjoy!

Tomorrow is Monday...yuck. Back to the grind!