For better or for worse, but not for lunch… that’s the old saying about marriage and retirement.
But what if a couple both work at home, is the saying true for them, too? You bet!
Soup saved our marriage (along with a few other things, like the microwave).
That is because a souplover is someone who doesn’t just like to eat soup, but someone who loves others enough to make soup for them… all the time.
Here’s the backstory. When I taught college courses online, I was able to work from home. But then one day, after a few years of this, my husband looked around and decided he too would like the comfort and convenience of working at home. No more commuting to an office for him.
Fortunately, we had a space we could clear out for him in another room from where I worked. He set up desk, computer, and reference books and got down to work: separate but equal, or so it seemed…until lunch.
When lunchtime came, he stood up, surveyed his new domain, wandered over to my desk and asked, “What’s for lunch?”
I’d heard “What’s for dinner?” maybe even, on a Sunday, “What’s for breakfast?” but “What’s for lunch?” on an ordinary weekday was another matter.
And so began my routine of making a pot of soup a couple of times a week. Two containers for the refrigerator, two for the freezer, so there is always an assortment of soup to choose from whenever someone asks, “What’s for lunch?”
“SOUP!” And anyone can heat up a container of soup.
Making soup a couple of times a week, I collected recipes for every season, every kind of ingredient: heavy winter meat soups, thick purees, light summer soups; hot and cold, spicy or comforting. I adapted recipes from cookbooks, magazines, and friends… always trying to simplify them.
Every soup has its own story, starting with a soup I learned about forty years ago. We call it Mexican Fried Noodle Soup. It is the soup I make when the family gathers because it brings back the house in which they grew up. Next week's installment of Souploversblog is the story of Mexican Fried Noodle Soup, along with recipe and instructions.
