Button Soup #Recipe!

Hey Everyone!! :-)

I've got another recipe for you, today...sort of. ;-)  First, a story. This one isn't one of my stories. This is an old story; an old folk tale. I don't know who originally came up with it, but I've heard several versions. The title I first heard it called was Button Soup, but I've heard it called Stone Soup and a couple of other titles, too.

It's about a town miser, an Ebeneezer Scrooge-type character, who lives in a town where a lot of people are starving. He's the only one who has money, so the rest of the town comes to beg for food, but he claims he doesn't have any. So, they write to his niece (or sister or another close relative, depending on the version) who comes for a visit. He's inhospitable and tells her she should leave because he has nothing to feed her. She tells him all she needs is a single button (or pebble or ax head, depending on the version) and she can make a delicious, filling soup.

Intrigued, the miser gives her a button, which she puts in a great big soup pot with a lot of water. He's fascinated to find out how this is going to turn into soup, so he stays with her as she stirs the pot. She makes small talk and eventually mentions that while the soup will be fine as it is, it would be an awful lot better if she just had a little salt. He thinks that over and then allows how while he doesn't have any food, he does have a bit of salt put aside. So he brings it to her and she adds it to the pot and keeps stirring.

This goes on for a while, and every now and again she mentions that if she just had one thing - an onion, a potato, a ham bone, a carrot, and on and on - the soup would be just that much better. And each time he claims he has no food, but he might have a little of that one thing put aside. Eventually, she has a ginormous pot of soup.

Then, she tells him the only thing the soup needs is some friends to share it with. So, they invite the whole town, and all the starving people get to eat. The end.

Anyway, Button Soup is what I call it when I have a bunch of bits and bobs leftover and I throw them all together into a single dish to make something. Because anything can go into button soup, it just depends what you happen to have on hand.

So, that's my recipe for you, today. Take a look in your fridge, freezer, and pantry and see what you have that needs to be used up.  Then, use a little imagination and create something yummy. It doesn't have to be soup, though soup is a good vehicle for such a recipe, it can be a casserole, a stir fry, a hash, or whatever will fit your leftovers. And, to finish it off, why not invite a friend over and share?

Bon Appetit! :-)