What's for dinner?

It's that time of year again. When the calendar reaches December, my mind conjures up images of winters past with snow and blowing cold. Even though I live in Florida, come Christmas, I get that "rumbley in my tumbley" for a crock full of homemade soup. Especially now the turkey's gone, and we have plenty of leftover meat filling our freezer.

I don't know about you, but I love soup. I grew up on it. Times were tough, and my dad had to travel to find work. Soup was a staple and our garden and my dad's fishing provided most of the ingredients.

I know soup isn't a guy thing, and nothing like real meat and potatoes, but it's user friendly. No matter what you put in the pot, it comes out smelling and tasting like fine wine or the best in epicurean cooking. And when you're done, you feel like you've accomplished something.

In the winter, soup warms your bones. In tough times, it fills your stomach. When there are many mouths to feed, you can thin and stretch soup to fill every hungry mouth. People who turn their noses up at leftovers sometimes slurp down every sumptuous bite hidden between stirs of a bubbling pot of melding flavors.

Soup is like life itself: a pinch of this, a dab of that, some bittersweet, some sugar, some spice mixed together with faith, hope and love. Simmering through the highs and lows, the combination becomes the essence of a life well lived; a life remembered.

Is it any wonder my favorite T.V. program is the food channel? I believe people who can decorate cakes with sculpted roses, create flavorful recipes and present them with flare and style can match any artist's creativity. Come to think of it, that soup is so colorful I see shapes forming, values changing, and my imagination soaring just like it did over my alphabet soup when I was a kid.

Got brain freeze and writer's block? Get back to basics and warm up with a bowl of hot yummy homemade soup. And you'll save money, too!