The weather is cooling, becoming the season of Pumpkin Lattes and no wearing white. For you kids out there, you read that right. There was a time when your elders or know-it-all peers told you, that you were no good, a bad person really, if you wore white pants, skirts, or even shoes after Labor Day. Shocking. But it’s one of many things that twist us up and complicate our lives. Strong women do get twisted up. But we must learn how to relax and unravel, disconnecting from ravenous stress, rituals and rules.
For this edition of Perfect Pairings, I journeyed the path of strong women and a food for the season, soups. Soup brings comfort. A few filling spoons of the goodness returns us to a simpler time and warms us up, restoring joy.
For each soup recipe, we will use my Soup Base which I will detail at the end. Think of it as the platform upon which we build flavor. It’s easy to do and will enhance your soup experiences.
My first perfect pairing is complicated. Reading My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuler Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie is a gut-wrenching. It’s a tale of a woman who had to define her existence in the shadows of her father, her husband, and the scrutiny of living after their deaths. Her father was loving but a man of war. Her husband was brilliant, but also self-absorbed and brash and striving for an acceptance that her love alone could never bring. Then everything was over. She was Alexander Hamilton’s widow.