I come from a long line of women who've spent inordinate amounts of time in the kitchen.  My grandmother made her own butter and cheese which came from the cow she milked each morning before seven a.m.  She'd carry the bucket of milk into the kitchen and let it cool on the counter while she made baking powder biscuits. By nightfall, she'd have made icebox cookies, and banana pudding or a western cake drizzled with powdered sugar icing.  There'd have been bowls of butternut squash, creamed corn, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers soaked in vinegar and oil.  She'd have fried chicken or venison sausage and served them on platters that never seemed to run out.  All these things she produced in her blue-ribbon winning garden and on her Hill Country ranch.  She is stamped in my memory like that, perpetually working to feed us.
    My mother, an even better cook, went to great lengths to make mealtimes an adventure for us.  She made homemade sauerbrauten, Challah bread, and pastas from scratch.  Everything she touched seemed to turn out beautifully.  Mind you, she had four children to raise and not much help from the likes of us.
    Not everything I cook turns out perfectly or is a work of art.  Especially in my early years of cooking, some of it was flat-out ugly and laughable.  But over the years, I have tried to carry on the tradition of cooking at home, rather than eating out as much as is popular.  Whenever autumn comes around and the air grows cooler, I begin to think about cooking soups.  Tonight, we are having Blue Corn Tortillla Soup—one of my recipes.  I don't want to cook alone, so why don't we cook together? 

BLUE CORN TORTILLA SOUP 

(serves 8 or more)

Ingredients:

1/3 cup olive oil
1 large chopped onion
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 - 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes with juice
2 - 32 oz. cartons of vegetable or chicken broth
2 to 3 cups chopped, cooked chicken (optional)
1 - 30 oz. can of white hominy with liquid
1 - 15 oz. can of black beans, drained
1 - 16 oz. bag of frozen okra
1 tsp. white pepper
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro
1 to 2  tsp. salt, depending upon personal tastes
juice of 1 -2 limes
(if you really want this to be spicy, add one  7 oz. can of mild green chiles)

Saute' onions and garlic in olive oil in large soup pot until onions are translucent.  Add remaining ingredients and simmer for an hour.  (do not use a crock pot as it will not be as flavorful.) 

To serve:

Ladle soup in bowls and top with the following:

Blue corn tortilla chips, broken
Diced Avocado
Shredded Colby Jack cheese 
a dollop of sour cream, if desired