The watched pot, as the old saying goes, doesn\’t boil. Or, as a list of \”familiar phrases\” that my sister once had put it: \”The aqueous contents of an unremittingly ogled amphora does not reach 100 degrees Celsius.\”

And indeed, when you\’re waiting for the water to boil, it can seem to take an eternity. The UN-watched pot, on the other hand is liable to boil over!

Last night I did my laundry. Contrary to my usual practice, I did some cooking afterwards. I had soaked, drained, and frozen some anasazi beans. I put them in a big pot with potato water and spinach \”juice\” to start heating while I hung socks, etc. on the drying rack.

Then I started washing dishes, so I could have room on the kitchen counter for the cutting board. That pot was taking a long time to get boiling. At some point I went to check it, and found that it was boiling over. I don\’t know what made it foam up so. Maybe the starchiness of the potato water? And some beans foam up a lot during cooking.

While I was waiting for the beans to cook soft, I got the other ingredients ready. Onion, for one. I had chunks of a yellow onion in a quart jar in the fridge. I was going to use them for the soup; but when I opened the jar and took a sniff, I discovered that the onions were too old. Not spoiled, but getting close to it.

Luckily I also had part of a red onion in the fridge, and used some of that. The celery I have is getting pretty old, and needs to be used up. So I chopped up a stalk of celery. And some garlic, carrots, and potatoes.

Soup is a great way to use up odds and ends; I had used parts of cans of corn and sweet peas, and put what I didn\’t use in the freezer. They went into the soup pot, along with some tomato sauce that was left over from another cooking project.

Oh, and what was that about the beans? Soak-drain-freeze? I got that idea from The Complete Tightwad Gazette. Beans that have been \”pre-treated\” that way cook soft much faster. Then you can get away from watching the pot, and go for a nice bicycle ride.