More crushes... mushroom barley soup

Had some hot weather last week and was worried that I was out of time for eating winter meals, but thankfully there was rain tonight so I made seitan. And Sunday it was windy and in the 60's so I made this other recent crush... a savory, flavorful mushroom soup that I changed enough from this smittenkitchen recipe that I thought I'd write it all out. It's enough to be 4 solid servings, so we ate it Monday night too - it was welcome nourishment after we busted our butts on other projects all day. (He built steps, and read up a few posts to see what I did.)

Mushroom Barley Stew

1/3 cup dried porcini mushrooms

1 tablespoons oil (or less if using nonstick pot)
2-3 carrots chopped
2 cloves pressed garlic
1 pound(ish) chopped fresh mushrooms (white or cremini)
1/2 cup pearl barley (uncooked)
4 cups broth (I used better than broth)
1/4 cup dry sherry
2-3 T tomato sauce like Prego (or 1 T tomato paste)
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar (or sherry vinegar)

Cover dried mushrooms with 1 cup boiling water, and set aside for 20 minutes or more. Heat oil (if using) and cook carrots over medium heat for 5ish minutes to soften. Add garlic, and sautée for ~1 min. Add fresh mushrooms, and cook until they begin to release liquid, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add barley for 2-3 min. Add broth, sherry and tomato sauce/paste. Drain porcinis (reserving liquid) and finely chop. Add new chopped dried mushrooms and their cooking liquid and simmer everything for about 40 minutes, until barley is tender. Stir in vinegar and you're done!