duck-shaped pain

You all have to remind me never to use water in place of broth when I make soup. I've made two in the last few weeks, and they have been intensely disappointing.

The first time, I made a butternut squash dal soup, based on a recipe out of this very disappointing book. The recipe called for 1 1/3 cups of yellow split peas and 6 cups of water -- a little much on the fluid side, I thought. But I made it as planned, and then nothing went right from there. There was too much water for too few split peas, and then the split peas refused to cook all the way through, despite a) being soaked for 14 hours and b) being purchased out of the often-refilled yellow split pea bin at the hippie grocery store. Then, when I was saut�ing the spices to add to the soup, I burnt the mustard seeds, although they didn't look burnt. So I had this concoction with a very distant flavor of lentils and squash -- if you really concentrated hard, and sat and ate the thing in a dark, silent room, you might be able to make out those flavors in the liquid -- topped off with burnt schmutz. I made the still-hard lentils submit to the blender, and then I had thick yellow smoky paste on my hands. I ended up putting the thing in the refrigerator so that it could ruminate for a while, during which I ignored it in favor of better foods. Then I threw it out.

Last night, I made leek and potato soup, out of a recipe someone gave me. 3 cups of leeks, 3 cups of potatoes, 6 cups of water. Simmer for 30 minutes. Blend until smooth. Add butter, salt, and pepper. Eat. It looked pretty when it was all done, but I ended up with a big bowl of potatoey water in the end, with very little taste. Any suggestions?

This is what I get when I try to cook without using hot things.

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