James Peterson

I got a new cookbook called "Splendid Soups" by James Peterson and it is a 600 page book that discusses, dissects and provides recipes for a variety of soups. I'm going to try to work my way through the book this year.I'm not going to post the recipes because people should be buying his book if they're interested.

I'm not going to make every recipe, but working my way from simple to complicated so I build up soup-making skillz. I want to try my hand at some of the more complicated things I've avoided in the past by using canned vegetables, bouillons and pre-cooked ingredients.

Action: I started this morning with vegetable broth. I bought most of the basic vegetables (the spices and some other things I had already), which came out to about $8 for 10 cups of broth. Cooking is simple and took less than an hour without any attention required while it was cooking (40 min).

Reaction: It's simple to make and relatively quick, but in the end, it's just broth. There's no picture because it is, again, just broth. It would be cheaper to buy the vegetable broths in the cartons (not canned!) and the flavor will be pretty much be the same. Except for when you're using pre-made broths they're loaded in salt so you'll have to adjust your recipe accordingly. I think I'll continue to make veggie broth in the future because it's easy, but I'm just going to use leftover veggie peels, greens and stems rather than buying new ones every time. It's not worth the price and I feel wasteful when I have to throw the vegetables away.

Next on the menu: Watercress Soup