I hope you like listening to Ann Tyler’s book. I like her writing and have read that book and a few others. I also love words, playing scrabble, upwords, and wordox. Do you play competitive scrabble in real life or only online?

I make soup all the time — my freezer is normally full of homemade soups. I do the meat thing, so I usually make stock from the bones and turn that into soup, but, of course, vegetable stock works well.

My favourites are split pea, lentil, carrot, and potato/leek/mushroom. When I do carrot soup I make it a thick carrot purée. Coarsely chop an onion, some garlic, a stalk or two of celery, a pound of carrots, and some potatoes (they help thicken it). Sauté everything but the potatoes, along with cumin powder, salt, and pepper for a bit, then add the ‘taters, some grated ginger, and enough stock to cover it. When it’s all soft, blend it (I use an immersion blender, which is convenient) and it should be a nice consistency. And tasty.

I always loved barley soup when they served it in my res hall (yeah, yeah — love res hall food?), but I’ve been too intimidated to try and make it myself.