Bean Soup Dilemma

The air is crisp.  The sky is clear.  The few leaves that still cling to the trees have turned.  The ground is frosty in the morning.  We are waist-deep in fall and last night visions of bean soup danced in my head. 

I soaked the beans overnight and made a trip to the grocery this morning to pick up the requisite carrot, celery, and bell pepper.  I got back and got busy chopping, dicing, and mincing and one by one added ingredients to the crock pot.  The pot got fuller and fuller, and with each ingredient the concern that it wouldn't all fit became a little more realistic.  But I held onto hope. 

After I added the tomatoes, however, I couldn't pretend any longer.  I still had to add 5 more cups of broth, and my soup was already at the tippy-top.  I don't know if I'm just forgetful or in denial, but this happens to me every time I use my miniature crock pot.  So, I resigned myself to cooking in my stock pot.  I transferred the soup ladle-full by ladle-full, made a mess, and then added my last 5 cups of broth.

While washing the crock pot and restoring it to the pantry, I tried to devise my stock pot plan.  It was only 11 AM.  I couldn't leave the soup simmering all day because I'll be out from 3-5.  I couldn't put the whole thing in the fridge until later because it was too heavy.  I had lunch while I thought some more.

Then I realized that since I threw everything in raw rather than sauteeing the celery, onions, garlic, etc first, I would HAVE to cook it in the crock pot.  Ladle-full by ladle-full I transferred the soup back into the clean crock pot and put the rest in a tupper in the fridge.  And made a mess.

The outcome?  Half a pot of delicious bean soup that will be ready at dinner time, another quarter pot of raw soup in the fridge, a quarter pot splashed all over the kitchen, and more dirty pots and pans than I know what to do with.