A dear friend, Mary Lilly of Minneapolis, wrote the other day asking for more supper soups to simmer on the back of the stove on a bitter cold Sunday, while the football games drone on and the Sunday paper flutters about the floor.

There is not much to recipes like the one for today. A little stock, the odds and ends of vegetables and some leftover wine from Saturday night, along with chicken, if there's any left. This recipe calls for wild rice, but barley would be nice, or brown rice, too.

This is the kind of simple, warming supper that calls for nothing more than a good hunk of sharp cheese and some dense, chewy bread. If you're feeling ambitious, you can make these simple cheese toasts. These work with any hard cheese -- Parmesan, aged gouda or Cheddar.

What's your signature dish? Please send your recipes, along with stories, to Beth Dooley at bdirish@earthlink.net or by mail to Star Tribune, Taste / One Great Dish, 425 Portland Av. S., Minneapolis, MN 55488. All letters, stories and recipe submissions become the property of Beth Dooley.