Soup Kitchen

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In January
it's so nice
while slipping
on the sliding ice
to sip hot chicken soup
with rice.
Sipping once
sipping twice
sipping chicken soup
with rice.


from Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months
by Maurice Sendak

At mid-National Soup Month, four soups have come out of my kitchen. I do like a one-pot meal. I also enjoy serving soup at home and giving soup away. Who is not delighted with a jar of healthy soup for lunch?

At present I have split pea and roasted vegetable in the fridge. I use the Contessa's pea soup recipe from this book and it makes double what she revised for the Food Network. A large family ate from the pot for a week. Made at least three times over the years, it is flavorful and divine. For a New Year's holiday get-together, we feasted on Hoppin' John. Sprouts was out of dried black-eyed peas so I used second-choice canned. I used one ham hock and ate the leftovers (Skippin' Jenny) until they became too porcine. The fourth soup was the Contessa's Chicken Noodle Soup for a new baby's family.

For the preparations, I used two pots, the Dijon and the Cherry Red. I love a pot on the stove.