This morning I had a sudden craving for my dad's vegetable soup, rich and tomatoey with potatoes and carrots and celery and peas. So I started rooting through the freezer and pantry.
First I located a frozen soup bone, then a pack of frozen stew beef, left over from when I made beef bourguignon in the crock pot a few weekends ago. There were a few old potatoes in the larder and a half-forgotten stalk of celery in the bottom crisper drawer. Onions aplenty. Even two cans of tomatoes. There was, in short, everything I needed to make soup.
... Or almost everything. As I write this post I realize what's missing. The V-8 juice. That's what gives the broth its richness and flavor.
Too late now. The soup bone is simmering. And the grocery store is only minutes away.