Soup

Soup. That's what I've been thinking about lately. I've been giving it a lot of brain juice because soup is the ultimate mix 'n match food. Like, a million soups all start with the same ingredients, but end up totally different from one another. See my uncle is a French chef. I mean, he's French. And he's a chef. Not just that he cooks French food. He's my uncle cuz my aunt married him. Anyway, he taught me that tons and tons of soups start with celery, carrots and onions sauteed in olive oil or butter. But from there, you can go anywhere. You can make chicken soup by adding chicken (duh!). You can make a bean soup by adding all kinds of beans--like lentils, navy beans or black beans. You can make mushroom barley. You can make minestrone. You can make...well, you get the idea. The world is your soup pot. So start mixing and matching soup ingredients until you come up with the ultimate YOU soup. You can start with a recipe, but once you've mastered it, then start playing with the recipe until it's just the way you like it. My favorite right now is one my uncle taught me called a Pistou--which is French for pesto. It's got your carrots, onions and celery plus chicken broth, thyme, bay leaves, navy beans, plum tomatoes, leeks, and, of course, pesto. In fact, I gotta go cuz my pot is boiling over and I'm hun-gry! Just one last thing: if you've got any soup recipes you love, send 'em my way. Especially if you've got new and kooky combos that I've gotta try!

Cheers,
LittleMissMatched