Brussel-Sprout Soup

Nothing compares to being sick with an infant. Last weekend, I realized that more stuff could come out of my nose than should be humanly possible, and my daughter was there enjoying every moment of it. (How did you do it, Mom?) Anyway, Monday has come and gone and I am feeling much better, but it has been an ordeal.

The husband has not been a lot of help with the sickness because he has been building the studio by himself. The workers at least got it to a point where it is pretty weather sealed, so he has been attaching huge planks of hardy-plank to the side of the building by himself and the cunning use of shelving. This scares me to no end, but I can barely talk right now, much less help or tell him how dangerous it looks when he is perched on the ladder like that...

The best news that has come from this past week is my sister's vegetable soup recipe, which I followed like I follow pretty much every recipe I'm given - I don't. (Julia Child, I am not.) She tells me about this amazing recipe that called for brussel-sprouts and a bunch of other things, so when my throat started getting scratchy the next day, I run out and get the ingredients to get started and call her up to get directions.
"So what goes in first?"
"Start by sauteing the onions, peppers, and garlic..."
I don't know if she heard the pause in my voice, but I certainly did not buy peppers or garlic. I remembered the onion, but only after I left the store, and the hubby had to go back and buy one for the project.
"Sure, sure. What's next?"
"Go on ahead and get the chicken and the broth started boiling."
"Chicken? What if I didn't buy chicken?"
"What did you buy?"
"Crawfish."
"Um..."
"It was fresh from Louisiana... Eunice, I think."
"Uh, okay. Well, go on and start the broth boiling anyway."
"I did buy chicken broth."
She starts talking me through the rest of the recipe, but I'm thinking that I've already got this, and I stop listening.
"So, when do you add the carrots?"
"The carrots?"
"Yeah, don't you have carrots?"
"No, but I'm sure they will work fine, just add them with the brussel-sprouts."
"Oh. I don't think I heard you at all. What did you just say?"
My sister is so sweet, she actually walked me through the entire directions again, this time with my undivided attention.
"Ah crap. I just put the broth into the onions and celery." (Did I mention that I did remember celery?)
"Well, as long as the onions are brown, it will be fine..."
"But I didn't turn the onions on. I guess I could just strain it..."
"Yeah, or not, whatever..."
"What else did you say to add to the onions when they were sauteing?"
"Rice."
"Right. I have rice, but I also have a lot of potatoes. Should I have rice and potatoes?"
"That's a lot of starches."
"I know."
"Just put the potatoes in with the chicken to boil,"
"Or at least the broth,"
"Yeah, whatever, and leave out the rice..."
I think at this point it became obvious that I was not going to make my sister's soup after all. In fact, it's a miracle that what I got out of this was soup to begin with. I guess if you keep adding broth to something, it eventually becomes soup, but like her soup, it was surprisingly tasty for vegetable soup with brussel-sprouts.

Also, I'm really proud of myself. She told me before I got off the phone with her "Just throw in some frozen spinach at the end" I think as a joke, but surprise! I actually had frozen spinach! Maybe it was the spinach that made the soup so good and not the brussel-sprouts after all...