Vegetable Soup & An Amazing "Crouton"

My eyes are almost always bigger than my stomach.  Typical.  A great thing for my stomach (and my waistline), but a horrible thing for my refrigerator space.  At least twice a month, I find myself starring into the refrigerator at an abundance of vegetables that are threatening to start wilting any day now if I don't do something about it.

And my mind immediately flashes to my grandmother.  This is a woman who carried ziploc baggies filled with snacks in her purse because she'd be damned if she was gonna waist good left overs!  And by "snacks", I mean that one time we got in a cab headed to the airport and she pulled out a ziploc filled with pancakes and ham.  Pancakes.  And HAM.  It didn't matter if you were at Jean George or Ponderosa (yes I'm from the Midwest where we have Ponderosa...leave me alone!) she was NOT going to leave good food on the table....and into her tupperware it went.

Fortunately, it turns out that if you throw a ton of vegetables into a pot with a piece of double-thick cut bacon, and some fish broth, let it cook for an hour, and then hit with the hand-blender, you come out with a perfect fall soup. 

And of course, you'll need to top it with the best crouton ever...a piece of Pancetta Foccacia.  I don't understand why anyone would serve anything other than piece of toasted foccacia as a crouton.  Probably because they're stupid.  Fortunately, I don't have to worry about that.  The perfect snack on a perfect fall day spent playing in the park doing this...

Yep!...that's my friend...yeah, the grown up one...on the swing...with all the kids...giggling hysterically.  I won't lie, I was on the swing right next to her.  No judgement.