The Kitchen Soup

I have been craving soup since the weather turned cold. But I hadn't gotten my act together early enough in the last few days to start a good bean soup from scratch, with dry beans. I threw caution to the wind today and started soup at 4 pm, but with canned beans.

Bud helped drain and rinse cans of small red, dark red, and cannellini beans and then watched me saute onions, celery, and garlic in oil. We added stock, the beans, seasoning (Penzey's Tuscan), and then one can each of stewed tomatoes and tomato sauce. Later, I boiled some pasta ("finger noodles" at our house, or rigatoni, because Sis especially likes to put them on each of her fingers and eat them off that way).

And it was soup. Eventually. But in the meantime, the kids painted on paper spread out on the floor. What started as an experiment with small Dixie cups as applicators morphed into a whole soup-making game, with Bud fetching pots and spoons, while Sis poured the paint water into various Dixie cups and other containers. Soon, there was colorful soup all over them and the kitchen floor. No matter. They cleaned it all up--themselves, the floor, and the detritus. And I think my floor is cleaner now.

Plus, there was soup, topped with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano, for dinner.