Soup Made From Leftovers

I am a home cook--I am not someone who is running a restaurant kitchen. I have to cope with what is in the refrigerator, rather than shopping for each menu that I have planned. One of my real skills as a home cook is the ability to transform leftovers into something else entirely, something that will be eaten without any thought of what it's first life was like. The impetus is born of Depression era parents, who knew food shortages and are loath to waste anything. Transforming wilted vegetables into something both nutritious and delicious was a part of their upbringing, along with foraging and fishing. The single best way to transform leftovers is to make a soup. Starting with homemade stock is a big help in this endeavor, but not entirely necessary (we have a bag of poultry parts and bones in the freezer that we add to, and when there are enough of them to produce a stock, we empty it out and start again--the whole waste not, want not philosophy I grew up with rearing it's head again). I often take two or three leftover dishes that have lost their appeal (a vegetable side dish or two, and any meat that is leftover) and transform them into a soup--occasionally adding additional ingredients. The latest version was leftover turkey, some pasta with pesto, and assorted sauteed vegetables that had outlast their welcome in the refrigerator. Delicious! The one problem with this is that while the soup is often delicious, it is often not reproducible. I always say, "Love it or hate it, you will never have it again." On the other hand, you don't get tired of it. Here today, gone tomorrow.