Week 1: I tried. I really tried. But I failed. I really failed.

Spent a couple of hours last weekend reading through all 35 soup recipes in the book, and found about 15 that my good friend and occasional dining companion, CS, (who claimed not to be big on soup) and I both thought sounded good. Of the other 20 or so, about half are ones I thought sounded pretty good, so I’ll either make those for myself or for other friends (should I, and they, be so brave).

CS and I had dinner plans for Tuesday, and we picked grilled salmon noodle soup for our first soup adventure. However, as we looked at the recipe again the other night and talked about going to the Asian market to buy the necessary ingredients, she decided she’d rather have New England Clam Chowder.  Unlike the salmon soup, which the book claimed “can be on the table in about 8 minutes—30 if you’re chatting and enjoying yourself over a glass of wine,” I could tell the clam chowder was going to be a two-night endeavor. So, I made a list of all the ingredients I’d need, and off I went to HyVee after work on Monday so I could make the fish stock and begin preparing the soup a night ahead of time.

After finding the onions, celery, carrots, fresh thyme, and flat leaf parsley in aisle 1, I ran into a friend, GP, who helped me find the leeks in the same aisle. To my great relief, she also strongly encouraged me to buy fish stock (which she said I’d find in the canned soup aisle) instead of trying to make it from scratch my first time out. She recounted having made it herself from scratch, but said I might be better off not trying to do that my first time. To my dismay, however, I found only beef and chicken stock in the canned soup aisle; so, I resumed my search for stock ingredients. After picking up safflower oil, bay leaves, and cracked black pepper, I headed for the seafood counter where I saw shrimp, oysters, salmon, catfish—BUT NO CLAMS!  I asked the nice young man behind the counter if he had any clams, and he checked in the back but there were no clams to be found. How can I make clam chowder with no clams? Just then GP came up to the seafood counter, as did another acquaintance, KQ, and both advised me as to possible options: I could make salmon soup (but I didn’t have my salmon soup recipe with me and I couldn’t remember all the ingredients I’d need for that), or I could use oysters or muscles instead of clams (yuck), or I could make catfish soup (again, yuck, and also no recipe). Then WGJ came over and tried in his ever-so-supportive way to be of assistance—why not just use canned clams (but my grocery list called for “quahog clams in the shell”, not canned clams). Why, he wondered, was I trying something so difficult if this was the first time I’d ever tried to make soup? Because that’s what my friend wanted, and I didn’t want to let her down.

As I returned to aisle 1 and began to put the vegetables and other ingredients back where I found them, I called CS, nearly in tears, and told her there were no clams to be had for her clam chowder.  Not to worry, she said—just pick up a couple of steaks and we’ll throw them on the grill. We’ll try the soup again next time—either with a simpler one, or on a Saturday or Sunday night when we have more time to shop and prepare a more complex dish.

"Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape." - Michael McGriffy, M.D.

Introduction

After making it through my first 20 or so years of adulthood without owning a cookbook, I was delighted to get a Soup cookbook from friends JO & ES for Christmas 2003 when I was 40 years old. Since I don’t cook, I’ve never had any need for a food pantry; so, my first task was to clear off two shelves in my kitty pantry so I could stock soup ingredients. My second task was to bookmark a Website where I could look up cooking terms I didn’t know like “blanch” & “parboil.”

I began writing "The Soup Diaries" in January 2004, and I wrote the last entry in January 2005. I didn't date the entries, but all were written during that one-year period. This was before the widespread popularity and use of facebook, and before I was aware of the existence of blogs. I shared my “Diaries” with only a handful of family and friends via e-mail at the time.

I recently shared the initial installments of "The Soup Diaries" with my facebook friends, and several people have encouraged me to share them with a wider audience via a blog. As one friend put it, "Think of how many other non-cooks you'd be helping!" I'd never thought of it that way--I've been so worried about what people who are good cooks would think that I haven't thought about how my (mis)adventures might help other non-cooks like myself. I don't know how many people will find them helpful, but I hope those who read them will enjoy them. I'm not generally known for being funny, but some people who've read these have found them to be, at times anyway, mildly amusing. So, if you decide to follow me, thanks; and I hope you'll laugh with--and not at--me as I share my earlier entries and add new ones as I embark on my new adventures!

“Do you have a kinder, more adaptable friend in the food world than soup? Who soothes you when you are ill? Who refuses to leave you when you are impoverished and stretches its resources to give a hearty sustenance and cheer? Who warms you in the winter and cools you in the summer? Yet who also is capable of doing honor to your richest table and impressing your most demanding guests? Soup does its loyal best, no matter what undignified conditions are imposed upon it. You don't catch steak hanging around when you're poor and sick, do you?” ~Judith Martin (Miss Manners)