For my beef-mushroom-barley soup I also bought a turnip and a parsnip. I have never cooked with them before, but every now and then I will pick up a cooking magazine and I see them in a lot of ingredient lists.

They are firm like a potato, but hold up better to the long cooking times of soups.

They are delicious raw! I made Sheri try a bite of each, and she really like them.

The parsnip is sweet like a carrot, aromatic like celery, and on the dry side.

The turnip is not as sweet or aromatic as the parsnip, but it has a very very slight horseradish taste, and a slight "green" taste kind of like the celery taste I mentioned above, but not quite. It is has more moisture than the parsnip too.

I think you could add either of them to recipes that call for potatoes or carrots. Possible even broccoli.

My beef stock is sitting in the garage right now so the fat can rise to the top and solidify. Tomorrow morning I will pick the fat layer off, and then put it back on the stove and cook the turnips, parsnips, mushrooms, and barely. I will also add some bay leaves, Kitchen Bouquet, and adjust the seasonings.

The stock smells very very good right now too. I got two packages of neck bones and one big soup/marrow bone. I roasted them in a shallow open pan for 30 minutes in a 450º oven.

I put the roasted bones in my stock pot with enough water to cover. I added ½ cup of cold water to the roasting pan to deglaze it, and scraped all of the good browned pieces of meat that caramelized in the pan. I emptied all of that into the stock pot.

Since the soup wasn't ready for dinner, Sheri drove through Portillo's tonight and got me a hamburger and an Italian beef with hot peppers.

Then we watched Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. It was a fun movie.

Sheri went to the doctor today for her cold, and her whole head is infected: her ears, nasal cavities, and throat. He told her to take Sudafed during the day, and Nyquil at bedtime. If she doesn't feel almost cured in seven days, she is supposed to go back to the doctor.