Shockingly seasonal

I keep wanting to make foods that have absolutely no place being served during this particularly scorching Massachusetts summer. Take, for instance, this soup. It, along with a very similar mushroom, kale, and barley soup from the New York Times, embodies that tonic quality that's welcome during the winter months. It's full-bodied, warming, and, while not a heavy meal, not cool and light summer fare, either. Still, I was craving the stuff, and Whole Foods just expanded its bulk section in all sorts of wonderful ways, so I got to pick up some dried porcini mushrooms for only 70 cents.

And then this afternoon, the weather decided to cooperate with my dietary choices. It poured, as in flash-floods-in-Somerville poured. Unfortunately, the heavens opened just when Andy and I were walking to MIT with nary an umbrella in sight. I usually don't post pictures of myself, but this was the particularly unflattering result of our walk in the driving rain:



Here's the view from where I stood taking shelter under the overhang of the Green Building in MIT's McDermott Court:



And here's the view from where I stood over my plate:



Andy and I collaborated on his bread (the recipe calls it Jo's Rosemary Bread, but it's all lies, since Andy has added the crucial ingredient [garlic] and the crucial baking step [not using a freaking bread machine]), and I made a little green salad to go with the soup. The rosemary in the bread was a great complement to the soup; herbs in the soup itself would detract from the rich mushroom broth, but alongside the soup, they're perfect.

I still haven't been able to buy chives once this summer though (they're supposed to top the soup). Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Shaw's have all failed me continually.