Stoneless Soup

There's a children's storybook entitled 'Stone Soup'. It is about a wandering man with a sharp brain and an empty stomach. He tricks the villagers into making soup for him...his addition to the pot is a stone, and everyone else brings veggies or broth.

I recently attended a meeting with Dean Adams. He is always full of interesting stories. This time he told about his grandmother's soup which, in his opinion, was the best soup ever created. The secret? His grandmother always put ALL leftovers into a huge container in the freezer. When the container was full, she would empty the container into a stock pot and add a can or two of diced tomatoes and throw in a fistful of spices.

I decided that, in these hard economic times, I should give it a try.

My most recent pot of soup contained leftover pork chops that were fixed on the fire pit (I diced the meat finely), about a half cup of shredded beef, quite a bit of leftover roast chicken, part of a can of corn, two whole potatoes that were roasted with the chicken, some green beans, part of a package of Healthy Choice veggies (I think it was white beans and yellow carrots), a cup or so of pork fried rice, and some Mongolian beef. In my opinion a meal isn't a meal unless onion is on the menu, so I chopped up a small yellow onion to add to the broth. I also added the leftover chili and about two cups of tomato juice (leftover from making chili the day before.) To add even more flavor, I added sweet basil, fresh and dried garlic (no wonder no one ever wants to kiss me with all of the garlic & onion that I eat!) and some freshly ground black pepper.

I let the soup simmer on low heat for an entire day. When it was dinner time, I ladled soup into my Campbell's mug (I still think of Phyllis when I use it) and added freshly chopped onion for a little crunch. Instead of crackers, I like to tear up a piece of bread in my soup. MMMMMMMM. The soup was delicious, even without a stone!

I've had many meals off of it including breakfast!

Thanks to Dean for giving me the idea for this soup. It uses up leftovers (Max hates to eat leftovers) and is relatively good for me.

In the meantime, I have started another big Rubbermaid container. There's a few pieces of leftover steak from the fire pit and a bit of corn and green beans. By the time it's full it will be chilly outside and the stoneless soup will be a welcome treat.

Happy eating to all of my family & friends.

shel