The Soup Pot

For as long as I can remember, my mother has kept in her freezer a tall, cylindrical, pale green tupperware container. The lid has a hole in like, like you can pour stuff out, but Mom has never kept liquid in it.

It is her soup pot.

Sure, it's not a pot. But in this pale green plastic container goes all the leftover she will eventually use to make her "vegetable soup". I say "vegetable" because while there are veggies, there's also usually some chicken, occassionally ham, and it's usually a chickeny broth.

Mom collects her leftover in the freezer. Vegetable leftovers, where there's not enough to be a side dish for one person in a meal, but there's enough that you feel bad throwing it away.

Once the container is full, she throws everything in a pot, usually with an extra onion and whatever leftovers happen to be in the fridge, and simmers it on the stove all day. It's different every time, depending on what veggies and meat had been left over, and what spices she felt like using up. I could have sworn she threw in a bay leaf, but she told me last month that she never had. Oh well, I used a bay leaf.

My cousins love this soup. I...I like the corn bread Mom usually serves with the soup. And I like making the soup because I dislike waste.