Brrrrrr.....

We have kept ourselves bundled up the last few days as temperatures hovered around 18 degrees practically freezing everything in sight. Montana has four distinct seasons--they just don't always come in the same order. One day its fall, the next winter, and so forth. In the spirit of cold days, we decided to cheer ourselves up with some holiday cheer (albeit, premature) by roasting a turkey, soaking up some mushroom barley soup (recipe to follow) and hosting an apple-cider pressing party. The warm kitchen kept us distracted from not only the cold weather but also from our quickly approaching due date!



First, we prepared the apples for the apple press by coring the apples and removing any wormy bits.



Then, we put the apples through the masher, which mashed them into smaller chunks.



Then, we pressed the apples, extracting as much liquid as possible. Our 40 lbs of apples yielded about 2 gallons of juice.



Finally, we activated some champagne yeast and added it to the juice to be capped. We will let this ferment, checking on the activity daily, until its developed good head and flavor (most likely by Christmas!)



Exhausted from our coring, mashing, pressing party, we enjoyed some cheese and warmed ourselves with some hearty soup.

Mushroom-Barley Soup

Ingredients

• 1 c Uncooked pearl barley
• 7 c Stock (chicken or veggie, or more depending on how thick you like soup)
• 2 tb Butter
• 2 med carrots, diced
• 2 med celery stalks, thinly sliced
  
• 1 md Onion; diced
• 2 md Clove garlic; crushed
• 1-1/2 lb thinly slice FRESH mushrooms (I used Crimini)
• 1/2 ts Salt; (up to 1)
• 1 tsp of pepper
• 1-2 tsp of dried thyme
  
• 3 tb Soy sauce
• A few glugs of red wine
• ****Optional, if you like creamy soup
  
• 2 tbl butter
• 2 tbl flour
• 2 cups of milk
  

Preparation

Bring a saucepan with 3 cups of stock to a boil. Add the barley, reduce heat and let simmer covered for 20-30 minutes (or until cooked).

Meanwhile, melt 1 tbl butter in a skillet. Add the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic, salt and pepper and saute until softened. Add veggies to the barley, along with a couple glugs of stock, cover and continue to simmer.

Melt another tbl of butter in a skillet over med-high heat and add the mushrooms. Give 'em a minute to brown and soften and then add the soy sauce and red wine, and salt/pepper and thyme. When the mushrooms are softened and slightly darkened, add them with all its liquid to the cooked barley, along with the remaining stock (depending on how thick you like your soup, you may need to add more stock or more water.) Bring to a boil and let simmer, covered for 20-30 minutes. From here, the soup is cooked and you can adjust any seasonings you might like, but if you like creamy soup, continue.

**If you like creamy soups, which I do, mix 2 tbls of softened butter with 2 tbl of flour until a paste is formed. Drop the paste into the soup and stir it up. Then stir in the 2 cups of milk. Let simmer until thickened (about 5-10 minutes) and serve with a nice crusty bread!

This makes a big batch of soup, which you can freeze or enjoy with lots of guests!