[Hannah]: Autumn is Coming - I Must Make Soup

I woke up this morning and it felt like fall. It was Saturday, 8 in the morning. I had the overwhelming urge to get up and make soup. I guess I was getting ready for winter. It's very comforting to have a lot of extra soup in your freezer. You just never know when you'd want a lot of soup. I haven't done much soup before, so I tried to call Ma, but she didn't answer, and I had to make soup THAT VERY MINUTE, it was an emergency, so I was working mostly on guess work... luckily soup is extremely forgiving.

CHICKEN BARLEY SOUP

Chop a few carrots, a few celery sticks, and an onion. Put in a big pot with some minced garlic, two chicken backs and a chicken breast. Fill pot with water and add a little bit of chicken stock powder cause why not, there's no cheating in cooking. I put in maybe 5 teaspoons of powder for 8 cups of water, and some black pepper and some parsley. Boil for an hour plus. Take out and discard chicken backs. Shred chicken breast. Return to pot, add 1/2 cup barley,* and boil for another hour. Voila! Soup!

*Ma says: you will be tempted to add more barley, because it doesn't look like a lot, but it really turns into a lot. Don't be fooled or you will be eating chicken-flavored barley. Which is not bad, but, if you wanted soup, you should try to get soup.

SERVE WITH... COOK'S "ALMOST NO KNEAD" BREAD

Mix 3 cups flour, 1/4 teaspoon instant dry yeast, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1/2 cup beer, and enough water to make it all glom together. Of course you don't need the beer but it is very tasty. Beer and bread are long lost cousins and they really like hanging out together. Form into a ball, oil, and let it sit on the counter for 18 hours or so. Make sure it's covered so the cat doesn't put her hairs in it. Form into loaf, put in loaf pan (unless you have a dutch oven, which is better. I used to do it on a pizza stone but my pizza stone cracked. Tragedy!), spritz with water, and let it rise for another hour or two. Bake at 400 until top is browned.