It was the first truly dreary day of the fall, a Sunday on which it rained from morning to late afternoon. A heavy, mostly windless rain fell dismally down, an undesirable situation which found Andy rushing out to prepare the pool for closing. Inside, there was only one thing to do: make soup.
The previous day I’d tried my hand at a meatloaf, and there was some pork left over from the endeavor. I put that into a large pot, rendered some fat, added a chopped onion, a bit of garlic, some carrots, then a few cups of water after things wilted down a bit. After bringing it to a rolling boil, I found some leftover chicken stock and added that. Trying to be healthier (by pretending there wasn’t a bit of pork involved), I went easy on the salt, but added a dried and seeded guajillo pepper for some heat.
When Andy returned from the grocery store with spinach in tow, I added that at the last few minutes of cooking, then boiled up a six-minute egg. Some chopped fresh parsley and the soup was done. Soup is good for the soul not only in the eating, but in the making.
