by Trisha Orlando

Created on: September 16, 2010   Last Updated: September 17, 2010

"SO SOUP FOR YOU!"

Everyone loves soup. That is why Elaine and George were so devastated when The Soup Nazi banned them from soup on a memorable episode of "Seinfeld".

Soup is a universal cure. The best soup to make to chase away the chill on cold days should be one that matches your appetite. If you want a soup to replace a full meal, then a hearty beef barley soup is in your future.

Chicken soup has subliminal messages attached to it. It reminds you of feeling better and healthier. Chicken soup stirs up images of Mom offering you a nice bowl of hot chicken soup when you were a kid home from school with the flu. "Eat your soup, you will feel better" is always associated with chicken soup.

Tomato Soup and a Grilled Cheese Sandwich go together like a horse and carriage. No one knows why. It's one of the great unexplained mysteries. This delicious combination, accompanied by a small salad, makes a healthy meal.

French Onion Soup, possibly the most flavorful soup known to mankind, provides another cheese/soup combination that can be made into a full meal. The French bread in a good bowl of French Onion Soup provides the consumer with something other soups don't have.

Cheese soup offers another alternative to the cheese seeking tase buds. With fresh vegetables added, the basic cheese soup becomes a California Medley. Possibly one of the most nutritious soups known to mankind. Some folks like a can of beer blended into their cheese soup. How this ingredient became a flavorful addition to a cheese soup is unknown. Rumor has it that a man was having a beer behind his wife's back when she suddenly came into the room so he disposed of it by dumping it in the pot of soup on the stove.

Cream soups, such a spinach and chicken, provide a "stick to your ribs" variety of soup. Oyster or saltine crackers add a nice finishing touch to cream soups. Nothing like a bowl of creamed soup and crackers while watching the evening news.

Soups are therapeutic. A hot bowl of soup can help chase way the blues, get the chill out of you and make any location feel like home.

Soups and variations of soup, such as stews, portages, porridge, and gruels, have been around for centuries. Soup was prescribed as a cure-all in mid-evil times. Because soup is easily digestible, both young and old can reap the benefits of soup.

Soup has been served in covered wagon trains and cowboy chuck wagons, because of the simple culinary preparations required to make a soup. Some soups taste even better cold. College students can survive on soup alone. A few catsup packets and some hot water can make a tomato soup for the most impoverished scholar.

So now you know why Campbell's has used the motto "hmmmm...hmmm. good!" for so long.

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