Yesterday morning as I was making my (now weekend ritual) oatmeal, I thought about what to make for supper. I hadn’t brought out my slow cooker in a while, and although we didn’t have our plans for the day set in stone, I knew a trip to the swimming pool in the afternoon was probably part of it. Being able to come home to an already prepared meal is perhaps one of my favourite things in the world.
I walked into the pantry and the pearl barley that I had bought a couple of weeks ago was staring me down, time for some beef barley soup! I grabbed my favourite slow cooker recipe book to see what else I needed. (Note, the recipe linked isn’t the exact one that I used, the one I used is in the picture below, but that one is close, also, of course I modified my soup to fit our families tastes, I recommend you do the same!).
One of my favourite things about the slow cooker is that it does all the hard work for me, beef not thawed, no problem, I throw it in frozen! Beef stock (that I had left over in my freezer from a past cooked roast), thrown in frozen! I chopped up the onion, carrots, and garlic, added some more beef stock to make the liquid the level I wanted, and just a few spices. Generally I spice my soups in the same way I’d spice a roast. Because I was using left over beef stock, it already was flavoured pretty closely to what I wanted my soup to taste like, so in the end I added very little “extra”.
After a couple of hours (when I knew the frozen stock and the frozen beef would be thawed) I stirred the soup up a little, just so the chunks of beef spread out a bit, and then left it. We went to my parents house, we went to the pool, and we picked up some groceries. When we got home, the house smelled amazing.
We sat on the couch, and I said, “Hey, do you want some biscuits to go with the soup?”
Of course as soon as the words had escaped my mouth I knew there was no turning back, once biscuits are mentioned, you must have them.
Donovan was just waking from his “post swimming nap” (sorry Morgan’s mom, I had to mention, he fell asleep on the way home again!) so he and daddy came into the kitchen to help me with the biscuits.
I brought out my most treasured recipe collection, the one my mom started for me when I went away to university, it’s filled with classics from her kitchen, as well as Jamie’s mom’s kitchen and a few other favourites I’ve picked up along the way. The recipe I used was from Jamie’s mom, and is very similar to this one.
We had a great time making the biscuits together! It’s also nice to have a few extra hands in the kitchen.
When everything was finished (biscuits are so quick and easy to make, I had to ask myself why I don’t make them more often? Oh ya, my waist line!) we sat down to eat.
When are you accepting applicants for sister wives? My skill include unlimited sewing, babysitting, and excellent tidying up skills
I would gladly move in with your family!
I am always willing to work on a food-for-services exchange program
I don’t think I qualify as a sister-wife, but I do know how to work a slow-cooker! Sadly, biscuits are on my forbidden list, so I use cornbread instead.
what spices do you use for the soup and your roasts? You mentioned garlic, but no others. I go for basil in the soup, especially if there’s tomato in it.
I do like basel, but usually I use a “spice blend” which is mostly, whatever I feel like at the time (I know, so very un-helpful!) next time I’m in the kitchen I will make better notes and update accordingly.