I Never Claimed That a Cookbook Was in My Future

OK, so after the Great Oreo Eyeball Debacle, I'm sure the sound of "Katie" and "recipe" in the same sentence is met with a dash of skepticism. Trust me, this tale will do nothing to debunk that what.so.ever.

All I wanna do in life is make a good pot of vegetable soup, people. My Mom had the audacity to leave me in this world without her vegetable soup recipe. Often people have asked, "if you could spend 5 minutes more with your Mom, what would you ask her..."

"Her vegetable soup recipe" is usually at the top of my list. I'm not kidding. It was that good and no one knows how she did it.

So, my quest continues.

And, today was a perfect day to make soup--what with it being so blustery and cold outside. Vegetable soup it is! So I track down a recipe that sounds yummy and is Weight watcher friendly to boot. Ah! So, I print the sucker out and get to work. Having everything I needed on hand, I decided to enlist the help of my 6 year old. He enjoyed pouring the tomatoes and broth in as well as measuring out frozen corn and scooping the potatoes off the cutting board and into the awaiting pot.

But, with some of the other ingredients, I decided to do the measuring. You know, like the basil and...um, Splenda. I love Spelnda folks. In fact, if I were to miraculously be with child and said child was of the female persuasion, I'd probably name her Splenda. I love the stuff. So, after measuring cup upon cup of other ingredients, I naturally ASSUMED it was cups...when I saw the 1 1/2 in front of the Splenda. It was a huge pot filled with beef broth and every veggie under the sun...the 1 1/2 CUPS of Splenda I tossed in didn't seem odd to me.

That was, until I took a taste.

Tasting more like a fine dessert wine than soup, I grabbed the recipe and, in horror, found that it called for 1 1/2 TEASPOONS of Splenda. TEASPOONS not CUPS. In the finer world of all things culinary, that my friends is a whopping big difference. Not to be deterred and doing what Katie does best in any culinary emergency, I go plundering for a fix. I dumped nearly the entire contents of my pantry in that pot to balance out the sweetness. Pinto beans, onion, a can of Progresso Southwestern Vegetable Soup, more corn and every kind of garlic seasoning I had on hand. I also tossed a little Cumin, and some good ol' salt and pepper.

Lest you think I will EVER be able to recreate this soup again, the answer is no. I cannot remember for the life of me what I threw in there to salvage dinner for my family. But, what I created in the meantime was the best tasting soup I've ever had. Seriously.

Now there are not one, but TWO, soups in my life I shall never be able to taste again. My Mom's Homemade Vegetable and Katie's Southwestern Splenda Extravaganza. Maybe some things are just better preserved in our memory.

But, for now, at least I have the leftovers!