Some Abstract Musings... And Easy Veggie Soup

Due to the fact that I ran an 8-mile race yesterday, I didn't plan anything really blog-worthy.  I just made soup.  We'll get to that in a moment.  But I wanted to talk about recipes in general first.

My mom accused me of being close to having more recipes than I could possibly make.  She may be right. (Let's hope not.)  But it raised an interesting question in my mind.  Is the sole purpose of a recipe to tell us how to make a dish?  I don't think so.  In fact, I have some recipes I'm pretty sure I'll never make, such as a recipe for pork cake.  (Because breakfast should be a meaty, coffee-containing fruitcake.)  It's from a cookbook published in the 1920s, and shares a page with recipes I actually would eat.  But more to the point, I think it's interesting.  It tells me a bit more about what people were eating and how they were cooking a little less than a century ago.  This same cookbook also has a section of tips for stain removing, pain relieving, etc. and a chart for converting cooking using a wood-fired stove/oven to cooking using a swanky new gas-burning one.  Nifty, right?

Even if you don't care for the historical or cultural insights recipes may provide, they can also provide more practical information beyond making pork cake for breakfast.  From that recipe, I might choose to pair coffee and pork together in a recipe of my own devising (perhaps a coffee marinade?), or any of the other ingredients.  A recipe may also have a novel cooking approach (bagels, for example, are boiled prior to baking, which gives them their chewy texture; would I have thought of that?  Can I use it for something else?)  Perhaps a recipe features an ingredient you don't care for-- can you alter it to create something you'll love?  Maybe a recipe just gives you an "aha!" moment, and your mind runs to something new and wonderful.  (My first encounter with puff pastry was a recipe I didn't bother to save, but I've had some great times with puff pastry since then.)

Now, the soup:

Soup doesn't have to be ridiculously simple, but it can be.  Which is one of the great things about it.  Other great things: you can use even more things in soup that you can in stir-fry (I'm trying to think of something I can't use in soup... well, I guess cookies, etc. would be stretching things), soup is multi-cultural, soup is homey.  It can be a hearty meal to itself, or it can be a light starter.

Easy Veggie Soup-- Throw everything in a pot (or slow-cooker) with water.  Simmer until you are ready to eat it.

In slightly more detail-- I chopped some onions, minced some garlic, and sautéed those.  While doing that, I chopped up some carrots, celery, and broccoli.  Those got added along with frozen corn, canned beans, and canned tomatoes.  The tomatoes are my favorite thing to add to veggie soup.  Don't bother to drain the canned items.  Add water, and noodles if you like (I used Ditalini).  Season to taste with salt, pepper, herbs, and/or spices.  I used Italian seasoning, a bay leaf, tabasco sauce, pepper, and Lowry's seasoned salt (as well as regular salt).  I also added some sweet vermouth to give the flavor more depth.