Water soup

      

By Friday night, enough was enough.  Poor Laura and her bad decisions in this detachment portion of teen age life. I’ve already encountered several detachments, and kicked them to the curb. The super blunt, for instance. 

I wonder if I even mentioned all the phone apps that permit teenagers to talk to anybody about anything, and there is no record. All while being under the age of consent and using a phone they aren’t paying for! And now Zuckerberg is buying the apps. I don’t know how parents keep up with it. I took the phone.

Anyway, come Friday night and three straight nights of water soup, I’d had it. For anyone who has heard of our family Grandpa Soup, no, it’s not. Nor is it Stone Soup, which winds up as loaded and good as Grandpa Soup.

No, Water Soup, with leftovers, is made from half a chicken breast, one carrot, one stalk of celery, a few thin noodles, and water. “Did we run out of food this week?” I asked the cook. 

I added my own list of ingredients to today’s shopping list. Mine included artichoke hearts, in a can, half and half, cheese ravioli (from the refrigerator section, not a box), and a couple of cheeses. Oh, yes, red pepper flakes and basil. And other stuff. Peas. I remember peas.

It was for a new recipe I’d printed to use when I cook again. Laura has a portfolio of recipes I’ve given her over the years, most made once and filed. She is a college cook, mac and cheese in a bowl. Now it must include meat and a veg, to pass grandma’s inspection. But this week we have degenerated to Water Soup. So I presented the list of ingredients for Cheese Ravioli with Artichoke Sauce.

After lunch I made a new loaf of Boston Brown Bread, cleaned the kitchen and retired to the loom. At the usual time, and with only three bouts of new warp left to tie on, I heard “Supper’s ready” at the usual time.

Supper still was presented in a bowl, and it was good. I glanced at Laura’s face, and we both agreed the red pepper flakes will be halved, come future. “Did it take long?” I asked.  She may have begun quite early, for all I knew, to put supper on the table at the same time. “The usual,” she replied.