Recipe with a Story

A recipe is a simple thing. You buy the ingredients, you put them together and you serve it. Done. But sometimes there's more to it. Sometimes a recipe is more than just simply cooking something. Sometimes there's a story that goes along with it. My chicken tortilla soup recipe has a story.

When my youngest son was in college, I began making chicken tortilla soup and he absolutely fell in love with  it. Every time he was home for the weekend, I had to make a batch. He would eat bowl after bowl until it was gone and if there was any left he would take it back to school with him.

Then he went across the country to law school. His visits home weren't as often as when he was in college only two hours away. His first winter in Virginia was hard on him -- a desert kid getting used to cloudy days, cold and snow. He was also studying for his first law school finals and understandably stressed.

I wanted to send him a "care package" and knew the thing he would love receiving most would be some chicken tortilla soup. But how could I get it clear across the country and have it still be fit to eat? My husband said to call FedEx and see if it was possible. And that was the beginning of the most expensive soup ever made!

I made up a double batch of the soup, poured it into a large glass jar (one of the canning kinds with the clamp-down lid and rubber seal), and put the jar in the freezer overnight. The next afternoon I took it out of the freezer and packed it into a small Styrofoam cooler with ice packs all around it. (Unfortunately, dry ice is prohibited by FedEx.) Then I put the cooler into a cardboard box filled with foam peanuts, sealed it up and drove it to the FedEx station where drivers made their last pick-up before heading to the airport. It was 6:30 at night and the soup arrived on my son's doorstep (2,275 miles away) at 9:00 the next morning with the center still frozen. Of course, he poured it into a pan and had some for breakfast!  He says it was the one thing that got him through his first law school finals, not only the warming soup on a cold winter day but knowing how much love went into making it and getting it to him.

Do you have a recipe that has a story attached to it?  I would love to hear it. If you have a blog, why not post about it and join our linky party?  Click  on the "Add Your Link" button below and you will be able to paste in the URL of your image from Flickr or your blog or any photo hosting site. Visit the other photos in the party and feel free to leave comments.

Just wanted to let you know that July's "water" theme will extend through August 3 so you still have a chance to post a shot in our Flickr pool to be considered for an IN FOCUS selection.  And I want to thank all of you who have posted your wonderful "water" shots so far this month.  I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every one.

Linky party will stay active through Friday, August 3rd.