And this is how I spend my time.

To be fair--to myself, actually--if I don't occupy my time with cooking and baking until the wee hours, I have way too much time to think about my current situation. This makes me sad.

So I cook.

This is today's Soup Day spread. X-ray tech extraordinaire Vicki's oyster crackers aren't in this shot. But she brought them. We love Vicki.

Cornbread sounded good to me. And I actually had cornmeal, sitting around and looking lonely. So I used it.

And lately I've been naming my food. Remember Hans? The hot vegetarian blonde, AKA red lentil soup ? Yeah. Anyway, this is the name of the cornbread:

And I needed a safety soup, but jeeze, how many pots of lentil soup can I make before people rise up and revolt? I could eat lentil soup every day of the week, but strangely, other people do not share my delight in that lovely little seed.

Yeah, I thought it was a legume, too! But no. A seed. Whodathunkit?

Anyway, I made cheater chili. A whole lotta cans got opened for this soup. White beans. Garbanzo beans. Black beans. Tomatoes. And frozen corn. Because that's what I had. And you have to do a grain with beans to make a complete protein in vegan food. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Go Google it.

So this is my gluten-free, vegan option of the day:

And this is what I named it:

Then I made the main soup. This soup is what happens when one persists in buying 20-25 pound turkeys for the holiday meal...for four people. One is left with eighteen containers of turkey and stock in one's freezer. But do I learn from this? NooooOOOOOooooo.

Turkey, parsnips carrots and spinach, all held together with approximately 45 pounds of nokedli. You know, the Hungarian version of spaezel. The love child of pasta and dumplings.

And as Nadia G. of "Bitchin' Kitchen" says, "Only parsnips can taste parsnippy." I think there's a lesson in there for all of us.

This soup is what grandmothers use when antibiotics aren't available. Or are too expensive. So naturally, this is its name:

Note the asterisk. Disclaimer followed.

NB: Always read the fine print.

Hey, I'm here to help.