Birthday Soup: A Labor of Love

An old family friend called to wish me a happy birthday.  She asked, "What kind of cake will you have?"

And I said, "Well, I really love soup."

I could get all metaphorical and say that I love how it represents making something from nothing to warm the bellies (and hearts) of many, but I won't go there. Instead I'll say that I simply love soup because it is hot and delicious.  Plus, there's an endless number of souper puns to dish out.

For my birthday this year, I celebrated with many soups.

Soup No. 1: Hot Pot
Hot pot is like the story of stone soup come to life. I'll boil some cabbage and shrimp skins, you bring some mushrooms, we'll add some meat, and voilà! We have soup and we made it together! Don't forget the fish balls.

I don't have a picture of hot pot, so here's a picture of a fantastic birthday gift,
"Everybody Poops" in its original Japanese form. 

Soup No. 2: Pho Sho
Melodie asked what I wanted for my birthday. I said soup. So she boiled me an amazing pot of pho for 2 days, and on day 2 we feasted. It was gone instantly. We will be making this again. 

The Soup that Keeps On Souping
And then Melodie gave me the pinnacle soup gift of all, a Le Creuset enamel coated cast iron pot! This will be host to many a delicious soup I'm sure, the perfect good omen for a fantastic 27th year.  

It was a lovely birthday, truly un-pho-gettable.

Love and Apple Butter

Today, one of my best friends got married. It was lovely and I feel loved in their love.

The Colors of Patriotism

Fourth grade math taught me about the commutative property: 3+2+1 = 2+1+3. Pretty simple, and I like to think that the commutative property works with flags too: red, white, and blue = blue, white, and red.

And that is why we celebrate the American and French Revolutions in the same month.

(Texas was a republic once.)

It seems that inventing traditions runs in the family. It is my personal tradition to celebrate Bastille Day, the grand kickoff to the French Revolution!

Since 2006, Bastille Day celebrations have included:

• A rousing game of vingt-et-oeuf. Yes, that does translate to "twenty-and-egg."
• Making Bastille Day t-shirts
• French food of course: peach galette, French onion soup, croque monsieurs et mesdames, French toast
• Adding "le" in front of everything you le-say
• Yelling both "Vive le France!" and "Liberté, égalité, fraternité!" as often as possible
• French braiding hair
• Building a fort (bastille) and watching Amelie

Other ideas that have yet to be completed:

• Recreating the storming of the bastille
• Knitting with the fervor of Madame Defarge
• Building the Eiffel Tower out of K'nex
• Letting them eat cake

This year, I have bought this amazing toy to help us celebrate our patriotism. It's a pretty genius action figure: royalty to peasant, head-on to head-off with just one click of a button. Just my kind of push button world.

Additionally, we are going to the market! Chicago's French Market is celebrating Bastille's Day Eve (Genius! I hope Santa Claus is there) with food, wine, and music...for free!

And as we might recall, "French" and "free" also fall under the commutative property.

"Liberté, égalité, fraternité!"