Hi! My name is Suzanna. I live in Arnold, Maryland with my husband and two children. I am a mom, artist, architect, and “home chef.” I love creating things whether it be a painting, a garden, a home or a great meal. I come from a family of creative people who love to cook. My parents were always looking in the Gourmet section of the “New York Times” for recipes to try to even formed a neighborhood Gourmet Club. When I was in high school and college, I had many part-time jobs in restaurants. During slow times, I enjoyed chatting with the chefs about how they made the food that I was serving. I would try to replicate the recipes at home and eventually got pretty good at it. Over time I got to the point where I could get a great meal at a restaurant and decipher the ingredients on my own, then recreate it. During the early years of our marriage, my husband and I had a lot of dinner parties for family and friends where we shared our creations. During that time, I also was watching a lot of the newly created Food Network channel from which I learned a lot of cooking techniques. After having kids, my daily cooking became simpler. When I had time, I still enjoyed spending an afternoon creating a fabulous meal, even if it was just for my husband and me. Now that my kids are older, the whole family can appreciate good food. Older kids, though, means a busier schedule and that’s how soups have become popular at our house. If everyone is coming and going, a pot of soup on the stove saves the day. Sometimes I’ll add extra meat if I know the soup is the only meal, but my soups are pretty hearty already. Add some bread, cheese and maybe a salad and everyone is happy. Our middle school has a 10:30am lunch time for 6th graders so when my son was a sixth grader he was coming home from school famished. Whatever quick snacks he could find he was eating in large quantities. I started leaving a pot of soup on the stove or a note to look in the frig. Two years later, he still likes this after school soup snack. My daughter likes it after school and in her lunch box. I’m happy to have extra soup on hand for her to bring in a thermos. She is a picky eater so any extra veggies she eats makes me happy. My husband, too, appreciates soup on hand for a quick-lunch or light meal if he comes home late. Like my mom, I make soup when I have a lot of family visiting. It’s a perfect meal solution for a large crowd. I also make a lot of soup for entertaining because it can be made ahead of time. I like to vary the soups I make, so I am always coming up with new recipes. Usually, I’m inspired by a meal I’ve eaten, an ingredient I’ve seen, or just a feeling in the air bringing back memories. My initial approach had been to get a bunch of ingredients and just experiment until my vision came to life. Through my family wanting repeats and friends wanting to make the soup themselves, I started making notes and eventually emailing recipes to those for whom just a list of ingredients wasn’t enough. Recently, I’ve refined the recipes and have made them healthier. I’ve found that I feel and look better when I’m incorporating a lot of healthy food in my diet, so I use quite a bit it in every soup recipe. I have found ways to thicken soup without cream or flour, yet still produce a rich taste. I decided to take a year to fine tune my recipes and choose the best ones to share. Every week I am posting a new recipe using healthy and seasonal ingredients. I invite you to try them and let me know what you think.