Everything Soup

We haven't gone to the grocery store in ages (we've been out of milk all week) so I was really scraping the bottom of the barrel when I made dinner tonight. I had old, old, old carrots and celery (which was mostly leaves), a leek, garlic, chicken stock and some bread left over from a takeout dinner on Wednesday. So I made "vegetable" soup (it was very green).

Chopped up the celery stalks and the leaves separately, and sauteed the stalks with carrots, leeks and garlic in a Dutch oven, then added chicken stock, water, a diced potato, salt, pepper and the celery leaves. Simmered until the potato was tender. It was pretty good, with pronounced celery, leek and garlic flavor fighting for prominence. Cut the bread in half lengthwise, broiled it, then put some shredded Parmesan on top and put it back under the broiler until the cheese was crusty.

I just love the challenge of making dinner out of nothing. It's like Gordon Elliot's Doorknock Dinners. There are some nights any chef would be hard-pressed to make something from the contents of my fridge. But I feel inspired by the challenge. Now I'm in the worst position, though. A completely empty fridge, which means complete freedom to make whatever I want (since I'm going to the grocery store). This is when I spend hours flipping through cookbooks, never settling on anything.