Condemned furnace vegetable soup

In Part 2 of our continuing series on “My century old house is falling to pieces” – Part 1 was the fridge saga and I actually didn’t even fill you in on the real Part 2, which involved raccoon removal and a new roof.

But when the weather cooled down for good and we went to turn on the furnace last week, it was a no-go. So we called Direct Energy and the nice repairman was here within two hours (score!). But after a half-hour of fiddling he shook his head and explained that the news wasn’t good (waaa). He pointed out the rust and internal corrosion and even held out a broken bit for me to touch. He explained something to the effect of water vapours and certain volatile gasses being a bad mix and that “blah blah blah…” while I nodded attentively as I silently hummed the theme to ‘I Dream of Genie’ in my head.

Before I knew it I was signing a piece of paper and my furnace was condemned. And then I went back upstairs and did the only thing I could do: I pulled on a fleece and made a pot of soup.

Okay, I was going to end this blog entry right there, but you know something? Now that I’m looking at this recipe and clicking through my last dozen or so postings, I’m realizing I’ve been on a bit of a health kick without really meaning to be, and that’s not really fair to you. After all, this isn’t a health food blog.

Funny story: I bought a scale a few months ago because I had no idea how much I weighed. Now that I know, I’ve been weighing myself almost daily (actually, this may explain the aforementioned health kick). I’ve found that I can go up and down by a few pounds each day, which I think is kind of weird. But things took an even stranger turn a couple of days ago...

On a morning like any other, I stepped on the scale, looked down and to my utter joy I found I was almost 12 pounds lighter than the day before. I couldn’t believe it! I looked in the mirror and felt my elbows and pinched my cheeks (both sets) and for a good half hour I was convinced I had magically lost a ton of weight overnight. I couldn’t wait to tell Oprah!

But then after my morning tea logic set in and I walked back into my bedroom and that’s when I noticed I had accidentally kicked the dial the last time I got on the scale and it was actually set back by 10 pounds. (Darn it!)

So, long story short, next Recipe Monday will be something either meaty or gooey (or both.)

Take that -- you stupid scale.

And take this -- you stupid furnace.

RUSTIC VEGETARIAN SOUP

(serves 6+)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cooking onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 large potato, peeled and chopped

1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped

small pinch, sugar

large pinch, sea salt

medium pinch, pepper

½ cup your favourite tomato sauce

5 cups flavourful stock (either veg or Pareve chicken)

1 bunch kale, curly bits ripped from tough vein and stems (trash the stems)

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed well.

Method:

Cook all prepped vegetables, except for kale, in oil for about 7 minutes, then add tomato sauce and stock and simmer for 10 more. Add prepared kale and drained chickpeas and cook, covered for 10 minutes or until everything is cooked and it looks great. Taste for additional seasoning, then dish it out with some multigrain toast for dipping.