Soup & Census

I was originally going to call this post "What's for Dinner?", but the alliteration of "Soup & Census" struck me as a good title. It was a busy weekend, even though we specifically made no plans. Sunday evening snuck up on me, so as I usually do when it's dinner time and I have no dinner plans, I make soup from what's available in the house. Tonight it's red lentil soup with barley:

It came out very nice. The variety of textures is wonderful: the lentils are broken down, a little gritty and earthy, the barley is springy and I threw in a handful of flax (because why not?) which stayed crispy-crunchy. It's a thing of beauty. I can't give you a proper recipe because I rarely use one unless I'm baking. But I can tell you what I put in it and how it was prepared.

One slice bacon and 1/4 pound breakfast sausage**, reserved for this purpose
One bunch green onions
Fresh marjoram leaves, left over from making herb butter
One can diced tomatoes
3 cups red lentils, picked over
1 cup barley, picked over
About 2 1/2 qts water
3 chicken bullion cubes
Salt & pepper
Cumin
Red pepper
Shot of olive oil

**Note: When I refer to cooking any kind of meat, be assured that we use only free-range, vegetable- and grass-fed, antibiotic and hormone-free animals from our local butcher. It's the right thing to do.

I broke up the bacon and sausage into tiny pieces and browned them in a stockpot. When they were just done, I added the green onion that I ran in the food processor and the olive oil. While that was softening, I whirled the marjoram and flax in the processor with a cup or so of water. This didn't actually grind the flax, but busted them enough to release their oils (rich in Omegas!) in the abbreviated cooking time the lentils require. Once the onions were soft, I stirred the barley into the oil for a minute. I don't know why, but this rice technique I learned from a Mexican mama keeps the barley happy during it's simmer. Add the water, tomatoes, spices and lentils and you're on the way. Lentils and barley take about the same amount of time to cook (approx. 45 minutes) and combine to form a complete protein. Plus that yummy texture attribute I mentioned.

So as that was bubbling merrily, I opened yesterday's neglected mail and found this:


Sorry about the crap cropping job, but this "American Community Survey" is, in fact, the new 28-page census. Now normally I wouldn't mind filling this out, civic duty and all that. Plus I'm one of those weird people who truly enjoy filling out surveys and regularly get several of them in the mail. But the second I saw the big print (in bold and italics) informing me that I am required by federal law to complete and return this form ASAP, the Taurus in me rocked back on my heels and said "Oh, yeah?"

I'm resistant.