When the air is seeping from my balloon, when I've lost my vim and vigor, when I need an infusion of strength and guts and oomph, I need soup.

Sipping once
sipping twice
sipping chicken soup
with rice.
~ Maurice Sendak

Yes! Chicken soup, tomato soup, minestrone, cream of asparagus, matzo ball, borscht, M.F.K. Fisher's Green Garden soup (from How to Cook a Wolf); I collect soup. Soup recipes, soup restaurants.

In Oakland, California, I have at least three places I visit just for their soup:

• Doña Tomas -- Chicken Tortilla soup topped with crumbled cheese and strips of fried corn tortilla, tart and luscious.
• Battambang -- Banana blossom and salmon soup; knock that cold right out of your system.
• Silver Dragon --Won Ton soup. No place does it better.

Sure, soup can be a winter thing, and some generally is: potato leek, French onion gratinee, rich oxtail...

But even when the weather is hot, when you're down in the mouth, when the world is on top of you instead of you on top of it, I give you one word: Soup!

Beautiful Soup, so rich and green,
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
~ Lewis Carroll

Here's a delicious summer soup recipe. Now that tomatoes are safe to eat again, go at it:

Fresh Tomato Soup with Pesto Crostini

INGREDIENTS
~ 3 lbs. incredible TOMATOES – seeded
~ 1 cup chopped SHALLOTS
1 big pinch SAFFRON
3 TBS BUTTER
~ 2 cups WATER
SALT and PEPPER
7 cloves GARLIC – roasted

Garnish with:
Crostini slathered with pesto

Saute the chopped shallots in the butter, adding the saffron briefly at the end.

Puree the shallots with the tomatoes in the food processor.

Transfer to a pot, add water, and simmer for 45 minutes.

Add smashed, roasted garlic and simmer 15 minutes more.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve in big bowls with pesto crostini floating on top.

(P.S. I think it's vitally important to use the word "slathered" in all recipes. Don't you?)