Puck.

Here's a dilemma for you: soup that is too salty. Howard and I increasingly find ourselves eating dinners together while our daughters are either a.) out on the town; b.) working an evening shift of babysitting of busing tables; or c.) away on a school-sponsored trip.

Tonight, for example, Meghan is in Boston competing in the state DECA tournament (business/marketing competition for high school students; she and a friend have created a marketing plan for a wrap sandwich business in downtown Beverly). Anyway, she's holed up in the Copley Marriott until Saturday at this competition. Anna, meanwhile, is performing at the opening night show of Funny Girl (the high school's musical this year). She's got more of a background role but has enjoyed herself immensely, with the glaring exception of having to wear stage makeup (you can imagine...). We're seeing the Friday and Saturday night performances (when hopefully all the kinks will have been ironed out and she's "accustomed" to the makeup situation).

Anyway, this leaves sibling #2 and husband to fend for themselves in the kitchen, which we rather like to do. Howard made a seafood chowder with perch that would have been delectable if not for one fatal flaw: chicken broth packaged under the Wolfgang Puck name. It was way too salty. Inedible-y salty. The chowder suffered because of it and, though we each had a bowl, we ended up having to toss the rest.

So I did a little research - since, as you know, there is that legend out there that says raw potato can soak the salt out of a too salty soup. Turns out it's all just legend and myth. A Google search yields several postings that debunk this whole potato theory and go on to say that the only way to correct a too salty soup is to add more non-salty items. Thing is, it was the chicken broth that was too salty to begin with; it wasn't anything we added or didn't add.

I feel the need to send Mr. Puck a note of dissatisfaction.