Soup season

We had chili last weekend; I'll bet if a person knew, half the households around here were having soup of some kind.  I just wish I had some beets, because from the first year I met a friend from Ukraine, I've made borscht at least once a year using his recipe.  

But today I'm making hamburger soup:  It's my favorite to make because it's fun to decide what things to put in it (besides hamburger).  I still had some garden tomatoes, so I skinned three of them, cut them up, and tossed them in the pot.  Carrots and celery and plenty of diced onion are always part of it.  I usually add a can of any kind of beans and sometimes some corn from the freezer.   Oh yes, and I happened to remember the okra I froze this summer!  That's a great addition, but I can't add too much or it'll taste "slick".  I'm not adding any potatoes this time.  I always put a handful of barley in, and that's about it except for the seasoning:  Cumin, pepper, black pepper, and whatever else I feel like, and salt.  I've been taste-testing it for an hour now, and I can't wait!  

Now to make a skillet of cornbread to go with it.  Very few people I know make cornbread from scratch; they buy those little boxes of fake corn bread.  I say fake because there's more flour than cornmeal in it, and so much sugar it's like you're eating something that's trying to pass for bad cake.  Cliff likes it fine, but he doesn't get it at home, because I want real corn bread like I grew up with... although if I'm eating somewhere and that's what they're serving, I won't say a word.  I think it's the only cornbread some people know about.

I did not realize until I'd finished eating that I forgot to add cabbage to the soup.  Cliff said, "I noticed it, but I  didn't want to make you mad, so I didn't say anything."  Yeah, he's really scared of me.  Ha!