Stone Soup

A few days ago when I had my fairy tale books out I began looking for a story I remembered from long ago about stone soup. My daughter asked me about a story she had read in which a traveler made nail soup. "Can we have nail soup for supper some day soon?"

In trying to avoid the question I asked her if she had read the similar tale about stone soup. I could not find it in any of my books, so I turned to the internet.

When I told the Quipper about our conversation he happily remembered his class in one of the primary grades making stone soup. Each child in the class had to bring an ingredient and they watched the teacher prepare the meal. He thought it was a grand idea as he had such fond memories about stone soup. The Artist was tasked first with finding ingredients in my cupboards and refrigerator and making a list of what she wanted to put into the soup. This girl, as I knew she would, passed over the celery and onions. I can't make soup without them!

Here is her ingredient list:
one hard smooth stone from rock collection (scrubbed with a nail brush, rinsed, and placed into a tea ball for easy retrieval)
carrots
potatoes
ham
milk
turnips
oats
lentils
cabbage

I had to tell her the turnips were gone. But I put some water in my stew pot and she tore up cabbage leaves, and peeled and shredded the carrots and potatoes. After that she added my suggested amounts of the other ingredients from her list. After the simmering started, I could not stand not seeing any green veggies in the pot so I mandated some parsley be harvested. Last we added some beef bullion and, voila! it was done.
It was a terrific meal!

I regret I did not think to get out my camera until the supper was done. The Engineer was napping when we ate our meal, so he got his later. I snapped this photo as I was preparing his place. The Engineer never was much of one to enjoy soups. The rest of us were so pleased with the tasty meal and we all had seconds. We'll enjoy leftovers tomorrow.