Last night I Stone Souped myself. 

I hope you are familiar with the story.  It is told all over the place.  A clever traveler or soldier returning home is passing through a town where hunger has made everyone kinda close up in on themselves.  Every person is hoarding what he or she has and nobody wants to share with a neighbor, let alone a stranger.

The stranger produces a soup pot and fire, and then drops a stone into water in the pot.  He stirs it and tastes it and says that it tastes sooooooo good, but would be all the better if only he had a little carrot or just a little celery or just a little cabbage.  Well, sure, one by one each of the locals offers a tiny bit of their stores to make the soup and in the end there is enough soup for every one to get full. 

Yesterday I had a regretfully exciting day at work.  When I came home, I headed to the small shrine in the pantry that is dedicated to Mrs. Weiss' Chicken (flavor) Kluski Noodle Soup Mix.  The happy blue box with Mrs. W's name on a rolling pin on a doily (so you know it is wholesome and home made and immune to unAmurrikin influences).  This soup mix is wonderful stuff.  It takes a bit longer than instant cuppa soup or condensed salt in a can soup, but I find it quite tasty.

I pulled the box out and measured out the five cups of water into the pot.  I set the pot to heating.  Then I thought, "Gee, you know, a carrot chopped up fine would taste real good in that."  So I chopped up a carrot and threw it in the pot.  Then I thought, "Hey, a stalk of celery would add a lot to that flavor." And chop chop chop there it was.  "You know, there is half an onion around here somewhere (a good woman always has half an onion left over somewhere)." Chop chop chop and scrape in the pot.  I looked up over the cutting board and saw the happy garlic waving at me.   How could I not rip off a clove, squish it with my fist and chuck it in there.  And once one has done the garlic gateway drug of flavor can a bay leaf and some rosemary be far behind?

Had I planned to do something like this no doubt I would have started with about three carrots and ended up adding way too much of everything and making enough soup to feed the Russian Army and ended my week without any more stuff to add to stuff.  But I added just a bit of this, just a touch of that, and before I knew it the "water" that I was going to add the soup mix to smelled as much like soup as anything else. 

When Katie caught wind of my putterings in the kitchen she joined me.  She gave me a secret smile and pressed her finger to the side of her nose, then she bent down and reached into the pantry shelves and produced a jar of matzo balls. 

So I was Stone Souped, and the meal that was quick and easy became delicious, filling, healthy, and comforting with almost no effort.  It wasn't a big plot and a big production.  I dirtied one knife, one cutting board, one pot, two bowls, and three spoons. 

Yes, there were leftovers, that was just a little too much soup for two.  But what was left over fit perfectly into the matzo ball jar with the remaining matzo balls, and it's in the fridge now ready for Katie to heat up for her lunch.

It's not the exotic flavors or expensive ingredients that make food great, it is the simple use of the common things.  The comfort tastes and textures, the traditional spices and combinations that speak to us on a deep level and let us know that we're eating Good Stuff.  A bit of carrot and celery can do far more than the finest truffle oil.  Start with something simple, add something simple, enjoy it and go with it.