The house smelled heavenly -- probably better than it has ever smelled. And I was only on the first step.

A recipe for grilled white corn soup with leeks and roasted peppers from the cookbook "Cooking With the Seasons at Rancho La Puerta" had caught my eye, because we happened to have some fresh corn in the house. I decided to make it, which was the best decision of the day, if not the weekend.

The recipe calls for using either water or vegetable stock, and I decided to take the time and effort (and expense) to make the stock.

Oh. My. Gosh.

The cookbook provides a recipe full of aromatic vegetables (celery, carrots, leeks and onions, plus garlic, dried mushrooms, tomatoes, fresh thyme and more). It takes an hour to cook and nearly half that to bring all the veggies to a simmer, and that is when the house smelled so incredible.

A great smell leads to a great taste, and this astonishingly hearty stock made an absolutely amazing soup. A call-your-friends-and-brag-how-good-it-is soup.

We gave a taste to a co-worker. She immediately demanded the recipe.

With the vegetable stock as its base, the grilled corn soup is irresistible. It is made without cream, so it has none of that odd creamed-corn taste, but is a tasty purée with leeks, fresh thyme and a roasted red pepper. The trick is that the grilled corn is not, technically, grilled. The fresh kernels are instead seared on a hot pan until they have a few black spots.

For an entrée, I made stir-fried scallops with sun-dried tomatoes and baby bok choy, only I used regular bok choy because it is almost half as expensive. Though not exceptional, the dish was certainly intriguing and would definitely be improved by the addition of ginger, which is a suggested variation.

But writers Deborah Szekely and Deborah M. Schneider must have made a mistake in the recipe. It calls for 4 pounds of bok choy to go with just 12 scallops, which is a ridiculous amount of bok choy (we used 2 pounds, which is still more bok choy than most folks eat in a year. Or a decade). The recipe is meant to feed four large people or six small people, all of whom must really, really like bok choy.

Because it is produced by a spa, the book's recipes are relatively healthful. After the 120 recipes, which are arranged by season and organized by meals, comes a section with information about grains, rice, legumes, herbs and cooking techniques, plus suggestions for spa treatments you can make yourself.

The cover calls Rancho La Puerta "the world-famous spa." I've never heard of it. Apparently, it is in northwestern Mexico. But after seeing the cookbook and trying the recipes, I wouldn't mind going for the food.