It’s hard to take credit for boiling bones with water – but, what the heck…

Coming from a large family, we were raised on soups.  My mother could make soup out of anything – or nothing, depending upon how close it was to payday.  Soup is merely putting things into a pot and making it all hot.  Really basic.  And really, really easy.

Tonight’s soup started with the turkey carcass in a pot filled with water.  I added a bit of white wine, a couple of bay leaves, a couple of garlic cloves, and a bit of salt and pepper.  I let it go at a rolling boil for a couple of hours, allowing it to reduce by almost half.  (It did a wonderful job of humidifying the house.) I strained it, added a couple of cups of leftover gravy, and after it cooled, into the ‘fridge it went.  I probably ended up with a gallon of broth.

Today, I skimmed the grease from the top and back into the soup pot it went – with:

• 2 cups chopped celery
• 2 cups chopped carrots
• 1 cup fresh peas (leftover from my farmer’s market run)
• 2 cups fresh green beans
• 1 can cannellini beans
• about 3/4 cup dried barley and
• about 1/3 cup wild rice that I precooked before adding
• 3 cups chopped turkey

It all went into the pot and cooked.  Really simple, really basic.  The beauty is any and all of the ingredients could have been changed or omitted.  In most situations, it’s about what’s in the refrigerator or cabinets.  You shouldn’t have to go shopping to make soup.

And now that cake is calling my name…