My formula for clear (brown) soup: Put about 2 quarts of water in a large pot or kettle, set it on the stove at high heat. Cut up some meat and add to pot. The meat can be raw or cooked, any kind, doesn't matter. If you combine meats, make sure they go together okay, like beef and polish sausage, or chicken and ham, etc. Start adding a variety of veggies; canned, fresh, frozen... any are fine. Don't forget beans. There are many interesting kinds, and while your family might not eat a bowl of great northern beans, a few in a bowl of soup are just right. Now here's the secret to successful soup: Soup needs 3 flavors: 1) salty 2) sweet 3) tart. For the salty I use soy sauce, miso, or table salt to taste. For the tart, I add a can of sauerkraut, pickle juice, vinegar, lemon juice or mustard, and for the sweet, I use a tablespoon of brown sugar, honey, molasses, white sugar or even jelly. This combination of salt, sweet and tangy, no matter how mild, is what makes okay soup taste wonderful, but go easy-- you don't want any of them to overpower the others. Taste-test for a balance of the 3 flavors. Add appropriate seasonings which might include herbs, liquid smoke, spices, packets of seasonings for sauces, or salad dressing. I keep my soup seasoning simple: garlic and onion with beef, sage and onion with poultry. Add salt and pepper to taste. Note that ketchup and BBQ sauce have all three tastes rolled into one.

When you've added all the meat, seasonings and veggies you want, add more water, say, a couple more quarts and bring to a rolling boil. Turn the heat down to a slowly bubbling simmer, with or without a lid. Let it cook for just a few minutes (if you're in a hurry and if the meat you added is already cooked), or all day (keep replenishing the water). About 1/2 an hour before serving, add up to a cup or so of dry pasta-- any shape, plus 1/2 to 1 cup raw rice, barley or other grain. Make sure to keep it bubbling, otherwise the pasta and grain won't cook as fast. Don't add too much pasta and rice, or you'll wind up with stew, which is not a bad thing, but soup is soup, and stew is stew. Taste your soup every so often while you're adding ingredients. That's the time to catch mistakes, like adding too much salt, etc. When your soup looks and tastes good, serve it up with chunks of french bread, specialty crackers, cornbread, biscuits, popcorn, etc. To create starter for the next pot of soup, I keep a plastic pitcher in my fridge into which I put any leftovers that will go in soup, such as macaroni and cheese, a stray hotdog, a bit of gravy, the last helping of succotash, etc. The wider the variety of veggies and meats, the better the soup.

Now, for cream soups: Start with a base of white sauce something like this: Have milk and flour standing by while in a pot, melt a tablespoon or two of butter or margarine. Stir 1-2 tablespoons of flour into it and get ready to splash in a cup or two of milk when the flour mixture gets very thick. Now thin the sauce by adding milk, cream, broth or water until it's... well, soupy. In a frying pan, saute thinly sliced carrots, cerery, onions, potatoes, parsley or any other veggies you want. Add these to the pot. For potato soup, make it mostly potatoes. For cheese soup, add a cup or two of grated cheese, and include a small amount of sliced or minced veggies for an accent. You get the idea.

These are the two basic types of soups, and there's no real wrong way to do it. The aroma of a pot of soup simmering on the back of the stove says Comfort like nothing else.