It is cold today and tonight is supposed to be very cold, so at my house there will definitely be a pot of soup being served.

I recently gave you my recipe for my family’s favorite — beef vegetable soup. Here are two more. My children have never asked what barley is so I guess they have no idea they eat it.

Chicken and barley soup

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast and thighs, cut into 2 inch cubes

10 cups of water

1 large onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 teaspoons dried thyme

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

8 cups chicken stock or broth

1 cup uncooked pearl barley

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Heat the oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add the chicken pieces and brown on all sides. Remove the chicken from the pan with a slotted spoon, reserving the oil in the pan. Add the onion, celery and carrots to the pan and cook over medium heat until tender, about four minutes. Add the thyme, bay leaves, salt and pepper and stir to coat the vegetables. Return the chicken to the pan and the chicken broth and barley. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat, partially cover and simmer for about an hour or until the barley is tender. Remove the bay leaves, and ladle into bowls and top with the chopped fresh parsley.

Do not put mushrooms under running water to clean them.They are like sponges and will soak up more water. Use a damp paper towel to wipe them with.

Cream of Mushroom

1 ounce dry mushrooms, (I use a mixture of porcini, and morels or shitake)

1 cup warm water

1/2 cup olive oil

2 sprigs of rosemary

2 sprigs of sage or several leaves

1 large yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper (original recipe called for white pepper for the color)

1 pound white button mushrooms, cleaned, and thinly sliced

1 pound shitake mushrooms, stemmed, cleaned and thinly sliced

6 cups of chicken stock or broth

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons butter

Soak the dry mushrooms in the cup of warm water for 20 to 30 minutes, until they are plump. Strain the soaking liquid through a coffee filter or fine mesh strainer to remove any grit and reserve.

Heat the olive oil in large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary and sage and cook for about five minutes or until the onion is soft and translucent, not browned. Turn the flame to high and add the white mushroom and the shitakes. Cook for 10 minutes, during this time the mushrooms will give off a lot of liquid but due to the high heat it should evaporate quickly. Stir occasionally.

Add the chicken broth, the dried mushrooms and their soaking liquid that you strained. Simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the herbs, and then add the cream and the butter. In the original recipe at this point it called for you to work in batches and puree the soup in a blender until smooth. If you do this, you have to work in small batches, because hot liquid in a blender will expand quickly and you can get burned. I used to do it in small batches in my food processor; the steam had a more room to escape. Now, I use my immersion blender in the pot and I don’t do it completely smooth, because I like some texture in my soups.

Christina Hall writes a weekly column for The Democrat. She can be reached at christina.hall@natchezdemocrat.com