Secret Elf: day 2

Yesterday marked the first day of our week long secret elf giving spree. Each year we pick one lucky friend and sneak up to their house each day with a present which we leave anonymously on their doorstep, ring the bell and run away. Yesterday we delivered a plate of snicker doodles. Today we left a jar of Love Soup.

Love Soup is a wonderful idea for an easy thoughtful gift. You include all the dry ingredients beautifully layered in a jar. You attach a note with the cooking instructions. A parent gave me a jar of this soup as a Christmas present one year and it quickly became one of my families favorite recipes.

To prepare a jar of Love Soup use a canning funnel to layer the following ingredients in to a 1 quart canning jar.

1/3 cup beef bouillon granules
1/4 cup dried minced onion
1/2 cup dried split peas
1/2 cup uncooked elbow macaroni
1/4 cup barley
1/2 cup dried lentils
1/3 cup long grain white rice
1 cup uncooked tri-color spiral pasta

 The cooking instructions are as follows

In large kettle, brown one pound ground beef in a little olive oil. Remove tricolor pasta from top of jar and reserve. Add the rest of the jar contents to the kettle with 12 cups water. Let come to a boil and simmer 45 minutes. Add tricolor pasta and simmer 15 minutes more. Serve with your favorite bread or with a tossed salad.

We left this new gift on the doorstep with a note which read

We're the Secret Elves
Catch us if you can.
We'll come back tomorrow,
With more gifts in hand!