Saturday, August 11, 2012

For the love of soup.

A million years ago when I had just graduated from high school, I made friends with a Pastor and his wife. At the time, they had six kids, no money and therefore needed to make their meals go as far as possibly. So they had soup and rolls...a lot. If there was a roast one night, the next day there was beef soup. Whatever was on sale could be made into some sort of wonderful warm splendor. At the time, I was eighteen years old and knew absoultely nothing about cooking. But my friend (Elizabeth) loved me and was a very patient teacher. So we made soup and bread together, feeding hungry little mouths with this amazing warm stuff. Funny how the time flies and now I am making soup and bread for my (much smaller) family. What I learned is that most soups start with the same basic ingredients that most people already have on hand; fat (butter or oil), onions, celery, carrots and liquid. I learned that chicken stock was your friend and that a sour dough starter on your counter (with a little care and love) could last the rest of your life. Life lessons- I'm tellin' ya! Then about 10 years ago, I wrote a bucket list that included "learn to bake bread" on it. Well, it took some time but I accomplished that goal and make a pretty wicked yeast bread. Yum! I still love the idea of sour dough starters and stuff like that but I'm not big on having things growing on my counter...at least not at this stage in my life. If I am not eating at Panera Bread (ahem)...I love to make soup for my own family. When the weather turns colder and the leaves are falling from the trees I start thinking about all the soups I can make. There is just something so comforting about soup. My favorite soup is vegtable beef with cream of chicken and rice as a close second. This all leads me to wonder- what's your favorite soup? Would you want someone to bring that to you as a meal? And if you had a cookbook called "Can I bring you a meal"...well, would you like a soup and bread section? And honestly, I need someone to bring a meal to-so I can practice. Seriously people!

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