Beef and Barley Soup

Yesterday I put some beef short ribs and soup bones in the oven to roast. I roasted them for several hours and when cool put them in the fridge over night. This morning I skimmed the fat from the pan, scraped out all the drippings and put them on the stove top covered with water. For the next couple of hours I let them simmer, covered. The resulting stock was deep and rich and delicious.
While the stock boiled, I put some hulled barley in the rice cooker.I like using hulled barley instead of pearled because the bran is still intact and therefore more nutritious. Once it was done, I assembled my soup.
I sauteed onion, garlic, mushrooms and carrots in a bit of butter. To that I added the shredded beef, strained stock and cooked barley. I also added some powdered Hen of the Wood mushroom. All of this was put in the crock pot and turned on low. Not finished quite yet, I scraped all the marrow from the beef bones, put that and the bones back in the pot, covered them with water once more and set to simmer again. I wanted to extract all the flavor and nutrition possible. Later, I added the second batch of broth. I allowed it to slow cook the better part of the day. The fresh mushrooms were store bought and the barley was from our bulk stash. Everything else was from the homestead. Tonight we will have a fresh spinach salad and soup... and that's what's for supper!