What's cooking: Lentil soup;or,when it's squirrel-eating time

So about those squirrels . . . Last weekend when we were sitting around the beach house, much of the conversation concerned . . . the economy. Who had pulled out of the market, who was in. Who had gone to cash, to gold, to wine. Whose fault was it? Where is the bottom? Will it effect our long-term investments? Will it effect our current jobs? One friend's take on it was that in the near future it may get very bad: We'll all be eating squirrel for a while, and then it will slowly get better. And so that's where my mind has been: Is it squirrel time yet?


Thank goodness I have a volume of The Joy of Cooking that is old enough to have instructions for preparing squirrel (and porcupine, muskrat, and bear).

But if things get bad enough to threaten our food source, the Figs are eating lentil soup. It's easy to make, cheap, and we love it.

I've always got lots of chicken stock (I use the kitchen sink approach: everything goes in).

The rest of the ingredients are always on hand.

A big bowl of it—along with sandwiches of Gruyere, tomatoes, and good bread,

grilled on my pannini maker—makes for a perfect dinner.

And pickles and olives. Because everything is better with them, and besides I have new pickle forks.

LENTIL SOUP

2 tablespoons olive oil
large onions or several leeks, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
3/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
3/4 teaspoon
dried thyme
1 28-oz. can tomatoes with juice
7 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups dried lentils, washed and picked over
6 oz. dry white wine

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, and saute the onions, carrots, marjoram,
and thyme, stirring the vegetables for about 5 minutes.

Add tomatoes, stock, and lentils. Bring soup to boil, reduce heat, and simmer for about 1 hour.

Add wine, stir, and serve.

Then go make some more to stock up in the freezer. Because squirrel-eating time could be around the corner.