Resolutions, schmesolutions

I'm not going to make any resolutions. I have decided that January is not so much a resolutions kind of month. If anything the cold temperatures, gray skies, and snowy roads are more conducive to a "let's be more like bears" month. (Staying inside as much as possible, check. Grouchiness, check. Thick winter pelt, also check.)

Resolutions take energy. And it's hard to try to drum up energy when it's been dark for 6 weeks and the only place that energy is going to get you is outside, where it's cold. To me, March or April would be better for resolutions because that's when you start caring about life again. January, I have now decided and decreed, is the time to stay warm and eat soup.

So if anybody needs some inspiration, here are a few of the staple soups that might see me through the winter:

White chicken chili (with or without chicken), courtesy of Your Heart Out

Daltongirl's lentil soup:

2 cups uncooked lentils
8 cups water or stock (I use half water, half stock)
1/2 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stock, chopped
1 potato, chopped
2 T olive oil
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 t salt
2 t red wine vinegar

Pick over lentils and wash.
Mix all ingredients except the vinegar in a soup pot and cook until the lentils are very soft, about one hour (30 min for red lentils). Stir in vinegar at the end and serve.

Martha Stewart's "You in a fit of health bought a 16-pound tub of spinach at Costco and now have to find some way to consume it before it goes bad and silently blames you for being a person who destroys spinach and thereby THE WORLD" spinach & pea soup. It calls for 6 cups of fresh spinach and is quite tasty. (I have never bothered with the fussy little frico bowls on top so can't say if they're good or not.)

Cream of pumpkin soup (again, never bothered with the croutons)

GH's Grammy's potato pea soup

Daltongirl's Japanese Ramen soup, which takes about 5 minutes to make. You just add loads of veggies to the boiling water (or broth, if you don't want to use the radioactive seasoning packets found in the 5-cent ramen packages) in addition to the noodles. I like bok choy, carrots, mushrooms, fresh ginger, spinach, whatever. It's good for experimenting (sometimes I add 2 Tbs of fish sauce) and for using up the stuff that's languishing in your crisper. After you take the pot off the heat, stir in 1 beaten egg per person (the hot broth will cook it) & garnish w/sliced green onion if you have it. Good stuff.

Clam chowder. This is the recipe I tried most recently and liked. Until Azucar kicks in with what she claims is the best recipe ever, it will have to do.

So. Anybody have any good soups that should be added to the list? Or just ideas of what you do in January? I am all ears!

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