Since we law students are supposedly starved for free time as we take part in the act of balancing legal practice memos, catching up on Jersey Shore and speculating as to whether or not Jersey Shore characters will in fact show up at Rick's, finding an hour every day to cook and eat dinner seems like somewhat of an ordeal. Still, there's something comforting about a home-cooked meal in this weather, and nothing is more comforting or easy to make than a good homemade soup.

Aside from warming the belly, soup has a functional advantage over most other food: it is truly the only food that reheats well in the microwave. If you have meat or fish, a microwave will simultaneous steam it and overcook it. If you have pasta, it will get mushy. Same goes for most vegetables. If you have risotto, or any dish that's emulsified, the fats and solids will separate and your dish will be oily and greasy. Not good.

So if you're tired of pretending to care about the Federalist Society's "interpretation" of the Constitution just so you can eat their free Cottage Inn pizza, soup may be your solution. Soup, especially when it's puréed smooth, is liquid, and its consistency and taste will not generally be affected by microwaving. If it gets a little thick, a little water will solve that problem. It's also really the only food that can be salted after cooking, meaning that you can season it on the spot with those little salt packets from the snack bar. And so, here are some tips on how to make your soup the envy of HH200:

1. Don't overcook it
When cooking vegetable soups in particular, you don't want to let it simmer for too long. The vegetables lose nutrients, color, and flavor as they cook. Even though soup may seem like something you want to let simmer forever, some vegetable soups need only about 15 minutes of cooking.

2. Creamy without the cream
Some soups benefit from adding cream at the end, but it's not always the best way to bring out the flavors in your soup, especially with vegetables with muted flavors like squash or leeks. Instead, add a potato (Yukon gold is preferable) or two to your soup before you blend it. The potato starch will help your soup have that creamy consistency without the actual dairy.

3. Invest in equipment
If you're going to make puréed soups, which are great for microwaving, you'll need three things. First, get yourself a good blender, or at least a hand-blender. Second, buy a fine-mesh sieve to pass your soup through after it's been pureed. Push the soup through with a spoon to get a smooth consistency. And finally, get some of that Tupperware with the screw-on tops. Spillage is bad for those expensive casebooks.

4. Make croutons
Don't throw out that old bread. Making croutons by cutting it into cubes, tossing with some salt and olive oil and baking until crisp is a good way to add texture to your soups. Just pack some in a sandwich bag and bring it to school with your lunch.

5. Make your own stock
This is both a cost-saving measure and improves the flavor of your soup. Boxed or canned stock is expensive, and it isn't particularly flavorful. Making stock is very easy. Collect all your vegetable scraps during the week, pop them in a gallon of water, and let it simmer for a couple of hours. Strain, and freeze in batches. Cheap and useful. For meat stocks: start the bones in cold water with some aromatics (onion, carrot, celery, herbs), then bring to a boil. Skim off the scum that forms on top, then reduce to a simmer, and let it go for around 3 hours (depending on the amount).

6. A tip on pasta
If you're making, say, chicken noodle soup, remember that once your pasta is added to the soup, it will continue absorbing water, meaning that your leftovers will contain mushy pasta. To avoid this, cook your pasta separately until al dente, then add to the soup as needed.

7. Experiment
Remember, you can make a basic soup in fifteen minutes with a vegetable of your choice, an onion, some stock, a potato, water, and salt. It's cheap and thus lends itself well to experimentation. Try toasting some spices in your soup pot before you add your liquid. Curry and squash go very well together, for example. Bacon is good with almost any soup (well, almost anything really).

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it should get you on your way to surviving the six months of winter we have left. And remember - don't microwave your soup spoons, plastic, metal, or otherwise.

When not running soups through China caps (and no, that's not a euphemism), the MLCC Board can be reached at mlawculinaryboard@umich.edu.