mmmm mmmmm sorta okay

For the last several days I've attempted more than a few recipes in the hopes of finding a soup to bring to our ladies event tomorrow.

I enjoy cooking. I just don't do a lot of it because it takes to darn long to cook something that by the time I'm done cooking I just simply do not feel like eating it.

So soup should be easy. My godfather worked at Campbell's soup for umpteen years - that shoulda rubbed off somehow right?

My first batch of soup sunday afternoon was a cream of mushroom soup. I didn't exactly have a recipe but I had the idea of one in my head...chicken stock, celery carrots onions, a few types of mushrooms...and some half and half.

I'm one of those frustrated chefs that taste and think - hmmm what else do I have that would make this better...and I think that was my first problem (well aside from not starting with a recipe in the first place.) So I had some brandy (that I bought because America's Test Kitchen made this super-easy and delicious beef stroganoff dish the other day that I someday want to try but havent. And anyhow I've had brandy cream with mushroom sauce chicken that was rather tasty so why not a splash of brandy?)

I realized that I don't really have a good blender, nor do I have one of those nifty induction blenders (which would be a handy thing to put on my christmas list).

And so I cooked it, blended it as best as I could and um, it just was sorta...blah. Also as I have a crummy blender it really was an odd consistency and even after sitting in the fridge for a day it just didn't get better.

Monday night I tried chicken tortellini soup. I didn't like the tortellini and the chicken soup was not good at all (mostly because I just relied on broth and veggies and no additional boullion or chicken to enchance it.

Last night I took a break from soup. And I got home late this evening and only just now (at 9 p.m.) finished making a pot of beef barley and vegetable soup. It's edible. But it's late and I'm just too tired to really eat a whole bowl. The barley is actually quite tasty and the beef is very tender. It's the rest of the veggies and the soup that just ah...is lacking something. I'm hoping that mellowing together in the fridge might help...if not...

I may give up as soup novice and just stick to what I know....dessert.