Love Soup by Anna Thomas

We promised this blog wouldn't be just kids books. So, here's a cookbook that has been in constant rotation at our house lately. The recipes in this book are downright extraordinary. I thought I had found the ultimate soup book when I got Deborah Madison's soup book. I still credit her for teaching me how to cook wild rice but her soups mostly rely on tons of dairy and/or flour to get thick and rich. But Anna Thomas is a wizard, pure and simple. At first you'll groan about how she asks you to season and saute ingredients separately (it's not unusual to use two skillets in addition to the soup pot). But what this does is let you stew some of the ingredients to thick soupiness while sealing flavor into each tasty morsel of the ingredients that have been sauteed on the side and added at the end. And there will actually be combinations you haven't thought of before (squash and red lentil, pickle soup with mushrooms!)