Not long ago, my friend Diane broke her elbow while she was hiking, and as is so often the case with such things, she needed surgery. Because she can only use one arm, cooking is a real challenge, and Diane is someone who likes to cook and eat well. “Could you make a simple soup for me?” she recently asked. “Now that the nights are getting cooler, I am really craving soup.”

Of course I could. Soups, simple or otherwise, are one of my specialities. They fit in with my improvisational approach to cooking. (Although I can follow a recipe, too, as long as I’m not too distracted.)

What kind of soup to make? Outside, on my patio, I have herbs in pots. Because of the rainy summer, the herbs are not exactly thriving, but there are certainly enough for a soup or two. I have basil, rosemary, thyme, parsley, sage, and cilantro. I decided to go with the rosemary, thyme, and parsley, which meant it would have a Mediterranean taste, which I just love.

What else did I have? Two 28 ounce cans of diced organic tomatoes, 2 cups of frozen chickpeas, zucchini and summer squash from Farmer Kev, and onion and garlic. To me, mushrooms add a lot to a vegetarian soup. But then, I am a mushroom lover, and I think they add a lot to many dishes. Therefore, I picked up some mushrooms at the grocery store.

I made the soup on Saturday so that I could bring it to Diane’s house on Sunday. As it turned out, Saturday was an extremely busy day, and out came the Crock-Post, which has become one of my favorite little appliances. There are no worries about burning or sticking. Just throw everything in, let it simmer gently for hours, and voilà—supper! The Crock-Pot was especially handy on Saturday as I was volunteering at a benefit concert for our library expansion.

On Saturday, around noon, I made the soup. Into the Crock-Pot went the 2 cans of diced tomatoes, one of which I puréed in the food processor to give the soup a smoother texture; 1 (28 ounce) can full of water; 4 cloves of chopped garlic; 1 whole onion—onions often bother my stomach, and with a whole onion, I can remove it after the soup has cooked, still get the onion flavor, and not feel sick to my stomach; 2 cups of cooked chickpeas; 2 small zucchinis, roughly diced; 2 summer squashes, roughly diced; and 12 ounces of mushrooms, roughly chopped. I like biggish chunks of vegetables in my soup.

Now here comes the clever part, if I do say so myself. Because I was so busy, I didn’t want to take the time to chop the herbs, especially that dratted thyme, with its little leaves that must be plucked from the stem. I came up with the idea of making a bouquet garni, the French term for a bundle of herbs.  I cut a couple of sprigs of parsley, 2 sprigs of rosemary, and 2 springs of thyme and tied them together with black sewing thread that I had rinsed. Never having done this before, I figured that if the soup wasn’t flavorful enough, then I could add more herbs afterwards. But it seemed to me the quick way was worth a try. Into the Crock-Pot went the bouquet garni. I set the temp on high, let the soup come to a boil, and then turned it to low, leaving it to simmer gently while I was at the concert. After the concert, I removed the onion and the garni.

Readers, this soup came out so well and was so flavorful that from now on I will be making a bouquet garni when I am making a soup with fresh herbs. (According to Mother Earth Living, you can do the same with dried herbs if you use little muslin packets or something else to bundle them.)

On Sunday, Clif and I bought a baguette to go with the soup—what is soup without bread?—and off to Diane’s we went. We had supper at the small table in her cozy kitchen. We talked about the art exhibits at Colby and at the Portland Art Museum.  I told her to put the movie Museum Hours on her must-see list. We talked about family and friends and gatherings. For dessert, I made a blueberry crisp that didn’t quite crisp, but it was good anyway. As the sun set, the air become cool, and the sky changed from bright blue to night blue, a beautiful August evening at the end of a very fine day.

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