My wife and I used to do wilderness camping. We would sleep in a pup tent and cook over an open fire. Sometimes we would gather berries and put them into bread dough and then we would bake the dough in a fry pan.

Since we did not have a frig at our disposal, and wishing to avoid carrying extra weight, we opted for a lot of dehydrated foods. Most of these foods we purchased at either the grocery store or the sporting goods store. And sometimes, we purchased more food than we used in a summer. When that would happen, the unused food would go into the cupboard for future consumption. And so it was with the dehydrated minestrone soup mix.

While the minestrone soup sounded good at the time we bought it, when we actually went camping, the weather was too hot for soup so we waited for a later day to sample it. And, that later day occurred on Saturday afternoon during a cold winters day.

It was near zero outside and the snow was blowing. A perfect day to stay inside where it was warm. And a perfect day to try the minestrone soup. So, a pot of water was put on the stove and when boiling, the minestrone soup mix was dumped in. A couple of minutes later, we had minestrone soup.

We divided the soup into two bowls, got some crackers and sat down to feast on hot soup. It was then that I noticed something unusual about the soup. There was rice in it.

Even though I wasn’t Italian, I did know that rice is not usually apart of minestrone soup. So, I commented to Kathy about the fact that this minestrone soup had rice in it. She said that she had noted it too.

It was at this point in time that reality set for both of us. Minestrone soup does not have rice. And, what we thought was rice was really dead meal worms. Simultaneously, we both put our spoons down and pushed the bowls away. After a brief moment of horror, we got up from the table and dumped the contents our our bowls down the drain.

Since we still had a craving for hot soup, I hopped into the car and drove over to Eberhards (local grocery chain) where I purchased some canned soup for our afternoon lunch. Even though it was cold and blowing outside, we still had our hot soup.