soup: from scratch

One thing on my life list is to learn how to make as many soups as possible from scratch.

I'm a decent cook, but I'm generally afraid of whole chickens, dried beans, and ingredients that I can't find easily in the store. (Did you know that pearled barley is on the top shelf in the SOUP SECTION? Because I thought it would be with the grains. Or the rice. Or the beans. Or the weird organicky bulk items.)

Anyway, I tackled homemade minestrone soup from scratch using dried beans yesterday using this recipe.

If you want to come over for soup, there's about two gallons of it at my house right now. Next time, halvsies. Also, more hot sauce. And tomato.

It was really cheap to make especially when you consider that I will be eating off of it for the next month.