Soups and Stews

As a child, it was always the food scenes that lured me into the stories in my books. I mean, who wouldn’t want those crazy three-course lunches from Bread and Jam for Frances? Cream cheese, tomato and cucumber on rye, cup custard, tomato soup, olives, carrots and celery . . . Frances dined first class!

But the most inspiring story, the one that I carry with me to this day, is Stone Soup, the story of a pot of boiling water that slowly builds from stock into a soup by adding vegetables one at a time, creating layers and layers of flavors. There’s also some stuff in there about bringing a village together, but what I remember most is the miracle of soup.