Sunday night supper.

When I was in grad school I got into the habit of making soup on Sunday nights, huge pots of legumes and vegetables -- cheap, plentiful enough to provide leftovers for days, and perfectly calculated to fill my apartment with great aromas all afternoon. When I moved to Seattle, it was one of those habits from my east coast life that was worth keeping.

We've slowly been working our way through Deborah Madison's soup cookbook, which we picked up at the bookstore a few blocks from our house one day when we were snowed out of work. It was the perfect find on one of those rare winter days that shuts Seattle completely down.

Tonight I tried a new recipe from that book, a barley soup with corn, red beans, and sage. It's been getting warm here over the last few weeks, but today the temperature dropped fifteen degrees again. This soup was just what the day called for -- simple, flavorful, and nourishing -- and like the soups I used to make in grad school, we have leftovers for days.

A good Sunday night!