In the Company of Soup and Tea

I have spent a great deal of time this weekend in the company of both,as I have made/eaten nothing by soup for the past three days. Mom's Chili, Butternut vegetable (with little turkey meatballs added....) and sausage lentil.  I drink tea every day, of course, but the soup is a new development.

Why so much soup you might ask?

Well, for one thing I had time to make it, since we've had a four day weekend. Also, now i have no less that 5 frozen containers of soup in the freezer, and tonights sausage lentil will bring that number up to 7 or 8. This will neatly eliminate the need to cook for eight whole meals. Eliminating the need to cook, while still providing home made food, has become my mission of late. Its like having a mom. Who mysteriously appears to cook and freeze your dinner before disappearing again. I call it "The Mom Fairy".

But lets think about soup for a minute. And at the same time, lets think about tea. I feel that both of these things are tragically underrated. They are the only thing that you can eat both when you are sick and when you are well. There are a hundred million different kinds of each of them. They can be served hot or cold. And they are universally made. No matter where you go, from America to any other continent on earth (with the possible exception of Antarctica. Although one must not discount the penguins) you will be able to go into a restaurant and (provided you speak the language or the menu comes with little tiny pictures) you will be able to order soup and tea. There are not many things about which this is true.

Additionally, soup and tea are things that carry a small, but serious level of respect.  If one has a day off and ones friend were to ask what one had done all day, it is not respectable to say that one has slept till noon and then watched shadows on the wall.  But one can say "I was making soup today" and one's friend will be obliged to look impressed, and then make comments about the soups that they themselves have made in the past, so as not to appear less worthy.  The same can be said of a cup of tea. With a cup of tea one CAN just watch shadows on the one, because they are not simply doing nothing. They are drinking tea. Presumably they have a pot of soup boiling about somewhere in the vicinity.

I think because of the great amount of time I have spent with soup this weekend, I am beginning to think they a pot of soup. There are lots of things in my head, but they don't really work too well together until they've bubbled for an hour or two within the confines of my skull. Before then, if I were to take them out, they were fall apart. I can't say that I have thought of anything with particular merit. My thought soup has been watered down.

A great many things can come from making soup. The very best of which is that you are not hungry when you are done. And, if you are like me and have decided that heat is for the weak, they can also make you warm. Last of all, if they are a recipe you stole from your mother, they can also, briefly, make you feel a little less far away. The same, of course, can be said of tea.