Having been married for years to the Queen of Stone Soup (aka “Bride”), I was nervous about cooking after she died, sticking verbatim to the Fannnie Farmer bible my mother gave me upon college graduation.
Last night I seem to have graduated again, while making vegetable soup to freeze. Almost done, I noted the author’s footnote words, “Add other vegetables as convenient.” As convenient? Well, hell. And what, I ask you, around an organic vegetable farmer’s house, isn’t convenient? A head of cabbage? YES! In it goes. Green beans? We got ‘em! Tomatoes? ROGER THAT, and in goes a full quart of summertime. Butternut Squash? Right there in the cold room. Parsley and oregano are outside the door. In they go!
That big mother pot simmered for an hour, and when it was done, yours truly took a taste. “Hoorah!” I graduated Magna Cum Loudly.
Burn your cookbooks America. Get free.