Not so matchy-matchy with my food prep any more

So it used to be that when I made soup from scratch I used "matching" ingredients. For instance, if I made a chicken-based soup I used chicken fat, chicken stock and chicken meat. I might walk on the wild side and use turkey stock with chicken "other" ingredients. But mostly, I pretty much stuck to the formula my mom always used, and I had continued.

Well, not so much any more. Last night I made a pretty decent soup, starting with turkey fat and oil, then using vegetable stock, adding ham meat and topping the whole pot off by adding the last of the ground beef gravy from the other night's dinner (of Yorkshire pudding and beef gravy).

The soup I made was along the lines of plaid shirt with paisley skirt, polka dot hosiery and a striped sweater. But you know what? It actually tasted good! (The soup, not the outfit!)

Are there any "rules" that you follow, just because you've always followed them? As they say -- some rules are meant to be broken!

(p.s. If you're curious, in addition to the mentioned soup ingredients, there were also lentils, onions, summer squash and red pepper flakes.)

First week of September lunch round-up

It's a short week to prepare for, due to Monday being a holiday for everyone at home. So, I didn't need to make as much as usual. Here's what I came up with:

• hard-boiled eggs (this must be sounding monotonous as I've been boiling eggs for the last several weeks)
• pasta-tomato-basil salad in Italian dressing
• vegetarian baked beans
• apple-cinnamon muffins
• fresh apples

There's also sourdough bread, peanut butter and jam, and yogurt, for those who want some of the usual fixings.

My daughters are still working a job without a decent kitchen. There's a fridge but no microwave, so I'm still making everything "safe" to eat without reheating (no meat in anything). My husband has a kitchen at work, so this doesn't concern him. At the end of September, my daughters start classes again, and will once again have a full kitchen to use for lunches. (They even have real plates and silverware there!) So I will be free to use meat or meat stock in anything I put together.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day!