Recess! Media

My old world mother-in-law made the kind of soup that would restore peace and tranquility at the end of the most terrible horrible no-good very bad day. It was ambrosia–one soup had 14 vegetables, and we still don’t know to this day where she found them all in the middle of winter. But we have the recipe, and even a video of her nimbly adding pinches of spices from memory. We’ll keep cooking that soup in her memory–especially during January–National Soup Month.

If you want to start a soup tradition in your family, there’s a delicious new book for you called Blue Moon Soup, with recipes by Gary Goss and illustrious by Jane Dyer. Mr. Goss perfected his soups in the Soup Kitchen Restaurant that he used to run in Northhampton, Massachusetts.

The recipes are divided into their natural tasting seasons. For instance, the winter soups include Ch-Ch-Chili; Brrrroccoli Soup au Gratin, a Hot Diggity Dog Soup made with, you guessed it, hot dogs; Twist and Shout, made with onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, twist noodles, garnished with fresh basil and, of all things, popcorn. There’s an onion Sob Soup; a hot and sour Chinese soup called Zero-Zero Soup; a Caribbean black bean Polka Dot Soup; and a creamy, leeky, peesey Peace Soup that should be on the agenda of all international negotiations.

Mr. Goss also gives the new chef de soup in your household some tips about how to set the table and a few sound cooking rules (like not leaving pots of anything unattended on the stove). And at the end of the book, he provides some recipes for the things that often accompany soups–breads, muffins, salads, spreads, croutons. What a way to introduce kids to the joyful art of cooking, through these simple, hearty recipes. Let’s see–tonite, I think we’ll try the Soup of the Evening with a little Lewis Carroll to go with it:

(Sound clip.)