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This post is about two things: food and music. If I thought I was clever, I might say food for the body and food for the soul (instead I'll just make an oblique reference to the possibility that I think I'm clever). Or maybe it's just about three things I like.

The first: soup. I think I've perfected a warm, vegetable-full soup to rival chicken noodle in comfort. I call it beans & barley, partly because that's precisely what's in it and partly in homage to one of my favorite places in Milwaukee. So here's the recipe--or maybe just the formula (all amounts are approximate--use ingredients in whatever ratio you like):
Soak dry beans (3/4 cup) overnight (I use some heirloom cranberry beans I got at the farmers' market in Madison, which is not to imply any sort of foodie snobbiness. But they are really delicious.).
Chop onions (2), garlic (3 cloves), and ginger-root (1 tablespoon) and saute in butter or olive oil until the onions are translucent. Add chopped carrots (3/4 pound) and celery (about as much in volume as there is carrot), the beans, and some pearl barley (1/2 cup) and chopped cilantro (1 tablespoon), and six or seven cups of water. Salt generously. Bring to a boil, and then let simmer until the beans are cooked through and the barley is tender, about an hour. Add some more chopped cilantro, the juice of one lemon, and some freshly ground pepper, and you're home free. It's nice with bread (I recommend any recipe from the King Arthur Flour website).

Second thing: The not-supergroup Monsters of Folk, specifically, and ushering, in the abstract. Last night I ushered for the Monsters of Folk concert in Chicago, which means I got to see a great show (with pretty prime seats) totally free, in exchange for arriving an hour early, dressing in black and white, and showing people to their seats. On Monsters of Folk: their C.D. is pretty swell, but the show was really fun because they played songs from all the members' oeuvres--a highlight was Bright Eyes' "The Bottom of Everything" with each member of Monsters of Folk taking a verse. Also, the lights were really, really good.

Third thing: The Life of the World To Come, the new album from The Mountain Goats. The songs are based on individual Bible verses, but they are neither religious nor not religious. What they are is real nice listening. My favorite is probably Deuteronomy 2:10, which is obscurely titled and about extinct animals.

p.s. Happy Halloween.