Suppa Club's Beef Barley Soup

The Suppa Club current recipe is Mom's Italian Beef Barley Soup from allrecipes.com. The original recipe is very basic and perfect for changing up every time you make it.



INGREDIENTS

2 pounds cubed beef chuck roast
5 cups water
4 cubes beef bouillon, crumbled
1/2 onion, chopped
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
3/4 cup uncooked pearl barley
salt and pepper to taste



And the directions are even easier:



DIRECTIONS
In a slow cooker, combine beef, water, bouillon, onion, tomato sauce, barley, salt and pepper. Cover, and cook on Low for 5 hours.



This recipe came at a perfect time as I had just picked up a beef roast on sale and was wondering what I was going to do with it. I read Siri and Molly's posts about the soup and got a few ideas from them as well. I started with all the ingredients from the original recipe except salt. In the end, I decided my modifications were based on "let's use this stuff up". So here's what was in my pantry or fridge that needed using up:

• Pearl Barley (yes it's in the original recipe but I only had a bit left in the bag after I added the 3/4 cup so I used it up-maybe about 1 cup total)



• Italian Seasoning Blend (about 1 1/2 tablespoons left in the jar)



• marjoram (maybe 1/2 teaspoon left in the jar)



• garlic (a bunch of smaller cloves left in the middle of the head which probably equalled about 4 large cloves)



• carrots (2 large carrots)

My kids and I threw this together in the morning in about 15 minutes. It was in the crock pot all day on low (more like 8-9 hours than 5). My husband picked up a lovely loaf of 5 grain bread with a crunchy crust and soft interior that was perfect with this soup. This was a great meal and the leftovers are even better. I need to remember to put pearl barley back on my grocery list so that I can make this again someday.

And in case anyone wants to know what my kids favorite recent dish was (so very gourmet)...

A New Chicken Chili

The Suppa Club is back again and this time with White Bean Chicken Chili. I have a stand-by chicken chili recipe that I use on many occasions and love. This one is just as good and different enough that I'll add it as one of my favorites. I followed the recipe pretty closely, except that I add green pepper and omitted the cumin (not because I don't like it but because I was all out). If I make it again, I'll add the cumin but it was still delicious with out it.

Other Suppa Club participants liked it too.

Molly at Batter Splattered
Siri from The Transplanted Baker
Nicole from The Artic Garden
Ingrid from The 3 B's-Baseball, Baking and Books

It took me forever to post after making this. Sorry everyone. My computer was sick and then family. Now we are all on the mend (or at least limping along in the case of my computer).

Doodle - Is it Done Yet?

Or do I add color. Wasn't meant to be anything, but it's taken me a couple of days of waiting at basketball practice to finish.

Feb 2009 Calendar Ready to Go

While I haven't been posting to my blog, I have been creating. I've probably been more productive that way this month. Less computer time, more art time. This month's calendar page was done with acrylic and sponge. The sponge is actually from a trip 13 years ago to Taropon Springs, Florida and I'm just now getting around to using it. The acrylics aren't new to me either but this is their first use by me. I really liked them and I plan to actually paint with them soon.

Feb 2009
Originally uploaded by ktes750

More Calendar Pages

Jan 2009
Originally uploaded by ktes750

January's finished and February's ready to go. I'm just behind in taking photos of them. This one is watercolor pencil. No doodles, stickers, labels or stamps but I had fun coloring each of the days.