週末に/On weekends

最近はインスタント食品を含め、とても便利な食品（加工品）がスーパーの棚に多くなりました。考えてみると野菜と肉、魚のコーナー以外は殆どすべてそのまま食せるものですよね。インスタントの味噌汁を選ぶにも時間がかかります。具も味噌も一緒に顆粒になっているもの、液状の味噌の中に具が入っているもの、味噌は生タイプで乾燥具あるいは真空パックに入った具を入れる本格的なもの、そしてカップにお湯を注ぐタイプ。背景は味噌汁を飲む人が増えているのか、家庭で作る人が減ったのか…。夫はお弁当の時間にはインスタントの味噌汁を作っているのですが、私はインスタントの味噌汁は飲む気になれず、かといって一人分を作る気にもなれず、結局お味噌汁は週末にしかいただけない「ご馳走」になってしまいました。週末の朝、野菜は何があったかな、と考えながら昆布を水につけるとき、ふと気持ちが温かくなります。
今日の味噌汁：　昆布とかつおだし　麦味噌と合わせ味噌　豆腐と岩のり

Many traditional Japanese dish is based on Konbu (a large type of seaweed) soup stock. Here's an old way to make Miso soup : Leave Konbu, sometimes with small dried fish, in cold water for hours, and then bring the water just BEFORE boiling, so that it wouldn't lose the delicate flavor of the Konbu soup. Then, remove the seaweed, and boil vegetables to your taste in the soup. When it's done, remove the pan from the stove, and blend miso (fermented soybean paste) thoroughly. If you want to add Tofu, now is the timing. Reheat to serve, but never boil the soup, for miso flavor is also vulnerable to boiling heat. Miso soup is something the Japanese had at every mealtime even when they had nothing to eat other than rice. But now, our diet has changed dramatically. Not many young people today enjoy miso soup daily. My husband usually make instant Miso soup at his lunchtime. As for me, it became my weekend treat. When I wake up on weekends, as I recall what vegetables I had in the fridge, I soak a cut of konbu into the water. That's when I feel a tingle of anticipation for an easy relaxing hot dinner of weekends with my husband.
Today's Miso soup: Konbu and dried bonito soup stock, two kinds of miso, tofu and nori(seaweed)