Happiness is...

Soup. There is something about a big pot of soup simmering on the stove that just makes me happy. Is that weird? I'm not sure what it is...perhaps the aroma perfuming the condo (and the hallways. I hope my neighbors enjoy the smell of soup simmering as much as I do.) . Or it might be the promise of a hot bowl of comforting soup for dinner. Or it could just simply be the act of making the soup that I enjoy. Probably, it's a combination of all the above. I LOVE to make soup. Is that weird??? When it comes to makeing soup I like that I don't need to stick to a recipe. I can just see what ingredients I have on hand and go from there. I like that it is a work in progress over several hours...a layering of flavours that develop and intensify with time. I like that no two pots of soup are exactly the same; they are unique (dare I say) like works of art. Ok, I'm problably weird, but I make good soup. This past Sunday (Easter), John and I spent the afternoon and evening with his family. (John is the youngest of eight kids, so there was a big ,group of us.) Whenever we are with his family, there is always a lot of food and Sunday was no different. I brought a spring giardiniera (I'll explain that on a future entry.) to add to the spread. There were lots of salads, vegetables, potatoes, and the Easter hams. I say hams, because there were at least three. Maybe four? There was a lot of ham. Too much ham. Everyone went home with a bag of ham. And I was not going to let my ham go to waste. (You should know I hate to waste food. You should also know that is why I need to lose 10 (or 20?) pounds.) I digress. Ham. Leftover ham. Great (brilliant) minds think alike so (though I didn't know it at the time) John's Mom (Merilee, in Lake Elsinore) and I both decided to make bean soup. For mine, I started by cooking down onions, carrots, and a little celery. When that had softened, I added a few large cloves of garlic and two zucchini. Next came chicken stock, a bay leaf, fresh rosemary and thyme, and several cans of white beans which I pureed with an immersion blender before adding. Then in went the diced ham followed by a good stir and a couple hours of simmering with an occasional stir. (If it had been raining out, I would have been in heaven. No such luck. Beaufiful sunny day. 68 degrees. Have I mentioned that the only thing better than making soup is making soup on a rainy day?) A few tastings later and a little salt and pepper and my masterpiece was complete. And I achieved inner bliss. (P.S.--If you find yourself bored sometime and need a challenge, try taking "pretty" pictures of bean soup. Where's a professional when I need one?)