random thoughts – Day 2,365 (Monday) – soup's on

On Labor Day in my past, I often spent the day engaging in the seasonal wardrobe changeover. White shoes and most of the strappy sandals would be stashed away until Memorial Day. Autumn hues, suede, lined booties, and winter white footwear would emerge from the depths of a storage box and begin to mingle in the closet.

Obviously summery fabrics would be swapped out for earth toned lightweight sweaters in silk and cotton, with cashmere and alpaca queued up to enter the scene the minute the temperature plunges to the chilly setting.

None of this happened today. What did happen, was the launch of soup season. Despite my love of the stuff, it was a minimal soup summer. Two containers of vegetable soup base have been in the freezer since spring. I had been chilly in the house all day and suddenly it felt like time and my brain switched to soup mode.

Maybe it's soup season.

Imagine my surprise when my chilly body with the soup mode brain went outside for a walk and it was warmer than in the house. The cardigan over my long-sleeve tee shirt was shed halfway through the walk. I opened the windows when I got back inside. Later, I checked the thermostat and saw it was 71 degrees in the house, which is closer to cold gazpacho soup season than hot soup.

Despite the actual warm air, the vision of hot soup lingered in my mind and there was no turning back. Plus, I haven’t gone grocery shopping and there aren’t any especially interesting ingredients in the pantry from which to produce an interesting meal.

A container of soup base was excavated from the far-left corner of the freezer. It got a bit of a summer treatment with the addition of summer squash, diced tomatoes, and onions sauteed in olive oil, plus a pour of half-and-half. Mixed frozen vegetables were added and a leftover chopped hot Italian sausage from the freezer. I had forgotten what was in the original broth, but as it transformed in the pot with the new vegetables from a frozen block to a liquid, carrots, onions, and potatoes appeared.

The bowl of steaming soup was topped with shredded parmesan cheese and plated with a side of Ritz crackers and it was good. So very good. The additions mean that the original quart of soup, even after I ate a large bowl, magically had 1.5 quarts left.

New broth scraps have been accumulating in the freezer all summer in preparation for fall soup season. Bags of onion skins and trimmings, broccoli stems, and Brussel sprouts trimmings are crammed in the cubbies on the freezer door, jockeying for space with bags of bread ends that I swear will one chilly day become chocolate bread pudding. Based on the inventory, it’s time to begin the next round of broth making.

A few hours after the hot soup supper, the next logical food and beverage step occurred. The switch in my brain was flipped, and even though it isn’t actually chilly, it was suddenly time for a mug of steaming fruit tea. This is an evening ritual from fall until spring. Tonight’s selection was black cherry tea.

The forecast for the rest of the week is temperatures in the mid to high 70s. Based on that, soup season may meet a brief delay and the freshly boosted veggie soup may be put back into the freezer.