Life lessons from soup kitchen ingredients

Roasting green chiles on a gas stove makes an amazing smell and taste. Perfect for a soup kitchen salsa.

Cooking on Saturdays at a soup kitchen over the years has taught me one very important lesson: every ingredient matters.

That didn’t come from an older, wiser grandma whose been cooking for years. It also didn’t come from a famous TV chef or one of those online cooks that make cooking seem like a fast-paced reality show.