Vegetable Soup

It's the time of the year when people think of tart apples, Indian corn, tangy cider and large rockfish.But some of us think of turnips.This is the month to be on the receiving end of the summer harvest. What could be better than a frenzy of vegetable buying at the Saturday morning farmers' market at 32nd and Barclay streets in Waverly? For those of us who think there's nothing better than a bowl of vegetable soup, September is our month.There's an added bonus to visiting the open-air market.

It's hard to miss them - bright flashing lights, one red, one white - next to the awning out front of Roma's Cafe. At first glance, it could be an ambulance parked there. But getting noticed is the name of the game for this restaurant in Cockeysville, which has been open since August. Roma's does not face York Road. Rather it is tucked inelegantly behind a tune-up shop and an oil-change facility. The flashing lights are designed simply to catch people's attention as they zoom up and down Cockeysville's main drag.

I know I need a respite from work when I find myself moving a 60-watt bulb back and forth between a bedside lamp and one on the dressing table -- as I've been doing for several weeks now. Also, a family of wasps has been trying to take over the house for the winter, which reminds me that the windows -- the wasps' port of entry -- need to be recaulked. There's more, but the point is, when I'm living on the edge like this, I think of the restorative powers of soup.What luxury to put a few ingredients in a pot and let a wonderful aroma fill the house while I read a book.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - A woman who said she found a mouse in her soup at a Cracker Barrel restaurant last month made up the story, the local prosecutor's office announced. Carla Patterson, 36, and her son, Ricky Patterson, 20, both of Hampton, Va., were arrested and charged Tuesday with attempted extortion and conspiracy to commit a felony after they tried to get Cracker Barrel to give them money, said Howard E. Gwynn, the commonwealth's attorney in Newport News. Carla Patterson was eating at the Newport News restaurant May 8 when she said she discovered the mouse in a bowl of vegetable soup.

An Annapolis woman and her 15-year-old daughter are suing the Campbell Soup Company, claiming they found a worm in their vegetable soup.Diana Elliott Early and her daughter, Jessica, were eating Campbell's Vegetarian Vegetable Soup on Sept. 27, 1989, when the child noticed what appeared to be an insect or a rodent in her bowl, according to the suit. The substance was identified as a worm known as a "European corn borer," according to the complaint, filed Wednesday in countyCircuit Court.After seeing the worm, the mother and daughter "were overcome with hysteria, became nauseous and vomited for approximately two hours,"the suit states.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - A woman who said she found a mouse in her soup at a Cracker Barrel restaurant last month made up the story, the local prosecutor's office announced. Carla Patterson, 36, and her son, Ricky Patterson, 20, both of Hampton, Va., were arrested and charged Tuesday with attempted extortion and conspiracy to commit a felony after they tried to get Cracker Barrel to give them money, said Howard E. Gwynn, the commonwealth's attorney in Newport News. Carla Patterson was eating at the Newport News restaurant May 8 when she said she discovered the mouse in a bowl of vegetable soup.

Animals grow thick coats to protect them against the winter cold. I pry open cans of soup. My mainstays are vegetable and chicken noodle. But the other night I broke the routine, and heated up a can of conch chowder.Selecting a can of vegetable soup is not a simple business. It seems that years ago there was one style of canned vegetable soup, the kind with the letters of the alphabet floating in it. Now there seem to be more types of vegetable soup than there are ways to say "cloudy and cold."

Some of the most pleasant restaurants in Baltimore are th ones located in once-grand rowhouses. The owners have incorporated the beautiful moldings, elegant appointments and stately mantels of the original homes into their restaurants' dining rooms. I'm thinking of places like the Brass Elephant and the Orchid and, on a slightly smaller scale, Tree's.xTC What a pretty dining room Tree's has, with its high ceilings, ornate chandelier, fine woodwork, soft gray walls and flowery tablecloths covered with glass.

It began as a modest undertaking, just making a pot of vegetable soup. It grew into a Sunday project with frenzied chopping of zucchini, enthusiastic peeling of tomatoes and multiple attempts to get the entire family involved in the process.The result was too much of a good soup.My zeal got the best of me. I ended up with enough of the vegetable soup with basil, tomato and garlic to give a cup of the stuff to every man, woman and child who can say "soupe au pistou" without giggling.I doubt that many kids would ask for this soup.

Vegetables and chocolate with cherries? No need to guess, they are a meatless soup and a cake, both of which are easy to plan, easy to prepare and, oh, so easy to eat.Gloria Kohlhepp and Mrs. William H. Waring, both of Baltimore, requested a vegetable soup without meat. Mrs. Kohlhepp wrote, "when my children were younger we would have lunch at Hutzler's in Westview Mall and they enjoyed the vegetable soup better than anything. It had no meat in it but lots of vegetables and a tomato broth.

"I like to try all different kinds of food," says George Low, owner of South Pacific, off U.S. 40 in Ellicott City, "and I like my customers to try different dishes when they come in." That, in part, explains why Low decided to offer an extensive buffet - of more than 50 dishes - for lunch and dinner. Originally from Hong Kong, Low has lived in Canada and the United States for 40 years, and he has been in the restaurant business for 30 years. He and his brother-in-law opened Jade Palace in The Mall in Columbia 30 years ago. That was a first for him and for Howard County - Jade Palace was the county's first Chinese restaurant, Low says.

MY GRANDMOTHER, Lily Rose Stewart Monaghan, never liked hot, muggy weather. I think that's one of the reasons she expired during an August heat blast precisely 30 years ago. I can't remember her age. She guarded her birth date. Let's just say she was born on Aisquith Street in the 1880s, moved to Broadway in the 1890s and to Guilford Avenue in 1915. That's where she died in 1970. Like many non-mobile Baltimoreans, she lived in but two postal zones during her 80-some years. What trips out of town she did make, she didn't like much.

Some of the richest-tasting, creamiest vegetable soups are made in only half an hour -- and entirely without milk or cream, or even flour or cornstarch for thickening.What makes such soup possible are plenty of ripe vegetables to provide superb color and pure, sweet flavor, and a food processor or blender (conventional or immersion) to spin everything into a velvety puree.Sweet peppers, carrots, spinach and other produce make exquisite pureed soups. For a dairy-free version, substitute olive oil for the butter in the red pepper soup recipe below.

For years the tiny dining room next to the Stone Mill Bakery in Green Spring Station was open as a restaurant on Friday and Saturday nights only, with a multi-course prix-fixe menu. Ecole, as it was called, was clearly a labor of love for owner and Baltimore native Billy Himmelrich.Although he's made his name here as a bread baker, Himmelrich is a chef by training. He attended La Varenne cooking school in Paris and worked in restaurants in France and Washington before moving back to Baltimore.

It's the time of the year when people think of tart apples, Indian corn, tangy cider and large rockfish.But some of us think of turnips.This is the month to be on the receiving end of the summer harvest. What could be better than a frenzy of vegetable buying at the Saturday morning farmers' market at 32nd and Barclay streets in Waverly? For those of us who think there's nothing better than a bowl of vegetable soup, September is our month.There's an added bonus to visiting the open-air market.

Vegetables and chocolate with cherries? No need to guess, they are a meatless soup and a cake, both of which are easy to plan, easy to prepare and, oh, so easy to eat.Gloria Kohlhepp and Mrs. William H. Waring, both of Baltimore, requested a vegetable soup without meat. Mrs. Kohlhepp wrote, "when my children were younger we would have lunch at Hutzler's in Westview Mall and they enjoyed the vegetable soup better than anything. It had no meat in it but lots of vegetables and a tomato broth.

"I like to try all different kinds of food," says George Low, owner of South Pacific, off U.S. 40 in Ellicott City, "and I like my customers to try different dishes when they come in." That, in part, explains why Low decided to offer an extensive buffet - of more than 50 dishes - for lunch and dinner. Originally from Hong Kong, Low has lived in Canada and the United States for 40 years, and he has been in the restaurant business for 30 years. He and his brother-in-law opened Jade Palace in The Mall in Columbia 30 years ago. That was a first for him and for Howard County - Jade Palace was the county's first Chinese restaurant, Low says.

MY GRANDMOTHER, Lily Rose Stewart Monaghan, never liked hot, muggy weather. I think that's one of the reasons she expired during an August heat blast precisely 30 years ago. I can't remember her age. She guarded her birth date. Let's just say she was born on Aisquith Street in the 1880s, moved to Broadway in the 1890s and to Guilford Avenue in 1915. That's where she died in 1970. Like many non-mobile Baltimoreans, she lived in but two postal zones during her 80-some years. What trips out of town she did make, she didn't like much.

"Don't throw that out!"My friend leaped across the table and snatched the receipt from my hand.Six months of collecting receipts was drawing to an end and the competition for register tapes was getting fierce."My school is so far behind our goal. We need to at least another $100,000 worth to get a printer for the computer, six boxes of ditto paper and pay the art teacher's salary."She looked haggard."I've been loitering at the pharmacy counter, hoping someone will drop a receipt for a major antibiotic."

Because of incorrect information supplied by a photographer, the name of the dish featured in the Dining Out photo in today's Sun Magazine is incorrect. The dish is beef carpaccio.The Sun regrets the error.Peabody Grill, Latham Hotel, 612 Cathedral St., (410) 727-7101. Major credit cards. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. No-smoking area: yes. Wheelchair-accessible: yes. Prices: appetizers, $2.95-$8.25; entrees, $10.95-$21.95.Well, here I am again. Sitting down to a meal at Peabody's because its menu has changed drastically.