Stone Soup—A Recipe
Throughout this book you’ve seen references to things that may seem completely unrelated to money and personal financial management. If you skipped over the entries in the Glossary for Cooking or Mindfulness and Meditation, go back and check them out. (It’s okay that you skipped them—they are part of the Boring Stuff.)
Here is a suggested exercise that seems, on the surface, to be unrelated to personal finance and The Rules. But read on. There’s an explanation.
Stone Soup
Ingredients:
One stone
Some olive oil or whatever cooking oil you use.
Salt (Diamond Crystal Kosher salt is preferred).
Pepper (We find that Tabasco sauce, added a few drops at a time, is a good substitute).
Soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce or a couple of anchovies (Something with an umami hit, if you have it).
Whatever ingredients your guests bring with them.
Advance Preparation (several days):
1. Get your family—spouse, significant other, kids, roommates, hangers on—on board. Figure out a good time and place. Explain that we are going to make stone soup. When they come, they have to bring something to add to the pot.
2. Suggest some sample ingredients. A potato, some carrots, green beans, a can of diced tomatoes, a zucchini, a yam or sweet potato, a bit of squash, an ear of corn, some frozen peas . . . whatever. I suggest you keep it vegetarian, so no meats please. But a bit or rice would be nice, or some pearled barley, farro, or bulger, or teeny tiny pasta stars. An old cheese rind would be a great addition if you don’t mind the soup being non-vegan.
3. Then invite some more friends and family. And maybe that new neighbor you haven’t met from across the street or that really shy-seeming person who lives down the hall.
More Advance Preparation:
1. Find a nice stone. A stone that weighs about eight to ten ounces will work well but it can be larger or smaller. A river stone that has been worn smooth by years spent in running water is preferred. It will give the soup a smoother consistency and add more “juice” to the pot.
2. Place the stone in a small pot and cover with water. Salt the water—about a teaspoon of salt will do. Heat the water to a boil and simmer for at least 15 minutes. This process helps concentrate the juices in the stone.
3. When the stone is done (it will still be firm to the touch, but salt and hot water will have worked their magic) remove it from the water, let it cool briefly and store it in a food-safe container in the refrigerator until it is time to make the soup. Discard the cooking water.
4. Be sure you have a big pot. You may have to borrow one. A BIG pot. Big enough for soup for everyone.
Making the Soup
1. Put your big pot on the stove. Add a couple of quarts of water and start heating it.
2. With great ceremony (gather everyone around) place your carefully prepared stone in the pot.
3. Dice up your onions. Go for a very fine dice, but chunks and big bits are okay, too. Put ’em in a frying pan and cook them until they are translucent. A little browning is okay, too; just don’t let them burn. (Chances are pretty good that someone will bring an onion or two, but I suggest you have two or three big yellow onions on hand just in case. [This is NOT cheating. It’s our recipe and we make up the rules.])
4. As people arrive with ingredients, prep them to go into the soup. Peel, slice, and dice them up. Put them in little bowls or heap them on plates.
5. Add ingredients based on the amount of time they need to cook. Green beans and rice take a long time. If you like a bit of crunch in your celery, add it right at the end (someone will bring celery, for sure). Consult with your sous-chefs. Have fun.
6. Serve with some sides: crusty bread, hummus, salsa and chips—whatever is at hand. Plus beverages of choice.
After You Eat
You’ll probably have leftovers. Share them with guests.
As for the stone, there are two schools of thought.
Some people think that once a stone is used as a soup stone, it loses some of its flavor, becomes a little tender and shriveled, and will never make really great soup again. Other people think that a good soup stone is revitalized in the cooking process, filled with extra juices and flavor from the ingredients, and can be preserved and used for generations.
I’m in the “lasts forever” camp myself. Do some taste testing and learn from experience to decide what you think.
What Does Stone Soup Have to Do with Personal Financial Management?
First, you are following The Rules; especially Rules No. 2, No. 9, and No. 10. You are spending less for a big dinner by sharing the costs with friends. You are enjoying some of your non-monetary wealth: the company of family and friends (and possibly making new friends). You are gathering your team. As the dinner progresses, you’ll probably talk about the stone soup, where you got the idea, The Rules, and things you are working on.
And an Even Bigger Picture
It is human nature to try to separate our problems and deal with things one at a time. We want to fix things, to solve a problem, and to get on with the rest of our lives. It would be nice, but in reality everything we do is connected somehow to everything else. And money is a big factor in all that.
Money helps shape our choices in food, shelter, and clothing. Money impacts our healthcare decisions. Money causes stress and anxiety for a lot of people.
In The Rules we have tried to acknowledge that reality. The Rules certainly focus on money and what we do with it. At the same time, they encourage us to pay attention to other aspects of our lives, our life priorities, and (Rule No. 9) what REALLY matters.
You can’t separate the “money thing” from everything else in life. What you can do is put it in perspective.
Think about it.
And the next really nice day you have, go outside and look around. (Cliché alert!) Smell the dang roses. And keep your eyes open for a nice smooth stone that might be just right for a big pot of stone soup.
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Anon
Ridge