This year, I don't need to bother with my ritual of making New Year's kitchen resolutions. So many changes came in 2007 that all of my cooking habits have been re-examined, rearranged or simply thrown out.

My kitchen transformation started with the addition of a French exchange student who wouldn't touch raw vegetables and outgrew her jeans almost overnight. (We later discovered she ate an entire pan of brownies in one sitting.) Then my husband took a new job, unexpectedly leaving me a single mom to three teenagers for four months.

We moved from Minneapolis to join my husband in Miami, and I jumped into a delightful cultural stew that has already expanded my recipe box to bursting.

Finally, my carnivore of a son headed off to college, our French "daughter" departed, and my shriveled nest was suddenly dominated by a sometimes-vegetarian, fish-phobic 16-year-old whose culinary concerns rotate between "How healthy is this?" and "Isn't dinner ready yet?"

Now that 2008 is upon us and life is calmer, I find I have a lot to say.

Change is hard, but it can force you to purge the pantry and develop some new tricks. So stay tuned.

In the meantime, today's recipe is a comforting White Bean and Sausage Soup that you can pull together no matter how crazy life gets.

Heat the oil in a 4 ½ -quart Dutch oven or soup pot over medium-high heat. Peel and coarsely chop the onion, adding it to the pot as you chop. Rinse and dice the celery, adding it to the pot as you cut. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions begin to brown, about 3 minutes. Meanwhile, pour 1 can of the navy beans into a colander, rinse well and set aside to drain.

Stir the garlic into the onion mixture. Add the broth and tomatoes with their juices. Raise the heat to high. Add the remaining can of beans with its liquid along with the rinsed beans, bay leaf, thyme and pepper. Stir and cover the pot. When the soup comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low. While the soup is heating, cut the sausage in half lengthwise. Cut the pieces into ¼ -inch, crescent-shaped slices and add them to the pot.

Stir the soup, re-cover the pot, and cook at a slow simmer for 7 to 10 minutes to let the flavors develop (or until ready to serve). To serve, discard the bay leaf and ladle the soup into bowls. The soup can be made up to 3 days ahead, covered and refrigerated.

Makes 4 servings.

Notes: Use seasoned no-salt tomatoes (such as those with onions and garlic added) if you can find them, but plain works fine. Fresh tomatoes also can be used. For variety, any type of lean, fully cooked sausage can be substituted, such as chicken sausage. Ham chunks also work well.

PER SERVING: Calories 419 (22% fat)

Fat 10 g (3 g sat) Cholesterol 35 mg

Sodium 1,230 mg Fiber 22 g

Carbohydrates 57 g Protein 26 g

MENU

•White Bean and Sausage Soup

•Deli broccoli salad

•Assorted crackers