Sissy School Pic and 17 Bean & Barley Soup

Presenting...

Princess Pumpkin Peach's Kindergarten Montessori Portrait :-)
It's a super natural pose. There were two others, but I never see her like those. I see her angled like this all the time. :-D

In completely unrelated food news...

When I was at my beloved Trader's Joes in Charlotte last month, I grabbed a bag of Trader Joe’s 17 Bean & Barley Mix:

I looove barley, and I've become so obsessed with vegetable/bean soups this year, I just thought this would be perfect...and it IS! There's a simple recipe on the bag, but I went even simpler than that. I used the quick-soak method to rehydrate the beans, (cover beans w/ 3 times the water, bring to boil, simmer 2 min, remove from heat, let sit for an hour, drain & rinse.) Soaking removes the indigestible sugars on the coating of the bean, oligosaccharides, which helps reduce the...ummm...gas factor associated with eating beans. The recipe on the bag is lovely, but to be honest, I didn't want to chop & sauté any onion. I also wanted more tomatoes, and I had half a carton of turkey stock that I needed to use, as well. I covered the drained & rinsed beans with the half carton of turkey stock, a full carton of chicken stock, two cans of diced tomatoes, garlic, onion powder, and Mrs. Dash Italian blend. I let it simmer for about an hour, and it is heavenly! Annelise & I can't get enough! (Will hates beans. Whatev.) I'll certainly be getting quite a few more bags when we go back up sometime around Christmas, and I'll be excited to use the drained & rinsed beans as a cold salad when spring rolls around - just tossing with grape tomatoes, cucumber, maybe corn, and balsamic vinaigrette. Mmmmm...