The Taste of Memory Soup

Sunday morning (my favorite time to cook) I begin to bang pots and pans getting organized before I chop my vegetables. I had gone to bed thinking about what I would make the next day. Cold weather has me craving comfort foods. Craving warm meals means I am thinking of my Polish babysitter Zofia who put cabbage in just about everything. Her soup was deliciously flavorful and made us all happy to eat it.

Zofia was someone who had survived the war and endured much more; she had a lot of good secrets and cabbage was one of them. Eating cabbage is a childhood memory that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

When we are children, the people we have in our little worlds form and shape us. As our memories grow and we age, those special times are triggered by the little things in life…a meal, a song, a figurine. We are so lucky when we find people who love our children just as a relative does. Having Zofia in my life added to my happy childhood.

It’s December and I’m shivering from the inside out, this is probably why I started craving cabbage this week. I want to feel that warm comforting feeling that I so well remember with Zofia. Well-loved memories of my babysitter have me longing for my childhood.

She made the world safe with her Polish food and songs. I wish she was still here to sing Kosi Kosi Lapci  and cook for my children as she did for me and my siblings, but life comes full circle and our children will have their own Zofia who makes the world happy and safe with mashed potatoes, tractor toys, and Backe Backe Kuchen. The paddy cake song may be in a different language but it carries that same warm feeling.

Making my shopping list for soup I write cabbage and smile. Holding the cabbage at the store I feel as though I’m holding something much more valuable like a truffle. Sometimes the special ingredient isn’t anything expensive or out of the ordinary.

When you feel chilled to the bone, begin to worry about your well-being, and your memories sneak up on you…cabbage never fails to sooth you and those you love. As I made cabbage soup I was surrounded by happy memories and I’m thankful Zofia is in my heart to help me make them for my children.

Na zdrowie

Photos of Wroclaw, Poland where Zofia was from.

A sick day, a snow day, a just say no day

There are days when we should stop and smell the chicken and dumplings and listen to some Christmas carols. Sometimes when we are so consistently scheduled, it feels really good to break the pattern. When you have a sick child, things have to change and we are all forced to slow down and say no to obligations. In a way it is a blessing! It's like a bonus day, a snow day...when you have the time for more of those things you don't usually get to enjoy as long as you wish like coloring, cooking, and cuddling.

You know how there’s a Seinfeld episode for everything that happens to us in life? I think the same is true for Beatles songs…After a long week at work, I kept having a Beatles soundtrack in my head that related to how I was feeling…It’s been a Hard Days Night and we keep having to Come Together at work when all I want to say is Don’t Bother Me because I’m so Tired. I know that All Things Must Pass so I’ll say Ob-La-Di and when I need some, I’ll yell HELP and I Call Your Name!

After singing these songs in my head for a few days, my daughter got sick. I thought…more stress, but it was truly a blessing because I was forced to slow down with her and just breathe. We curled up together sharing a blanket and colored princesses. Isn’t it true that once we relax, answers to problems will often be revealed? What had seemed like such a big deal becomes much less of one. Then we can be more productive in every area… maybe we all need to color more.

I remember enjoying sick days at home from school when my mom would set me up on the sofa with chicken noodle soup, hot tea, warm blankets, a fire in the fireplace, and I Love Lucy. I felt warm, safe, and secure. Nothing beats home when you are exhausted and curling up in your little mom-made cocoon is pure happiness. “Stay-at-home” mom is the dream job for most working moms, but it has a more special meaning on a sick day. We all deserve some “stay-at-home” time. Make sure you take advantage of yours when you can.

Sometimes the most urgent and vital thing you can possibly do is take a complete rest.

~Ashleigh Brilliant

How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward.
~Spanish Proverb

Rest when you're weary. Refresh and renew yourself,
your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work.

~Ralph Marston

There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them. ~Sylvia Plath

Sick

“I cannot go to school today,”

Said little Peggy Ann McKay.

I have the measles and the mumps,

A gash, a rash and purple bumps.

My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,

I’m going blind in my right eye.

My tonsils are as big as rocks,

I’ve counted sixteen chicken pox.

And there’s one more—that’s seventeen,

And don’t you think my face looks green?

My leg is cut, my eyes are blue—

It might be instamatic flue.

I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,

I’m sure that my left leg is broken—

My hips hurt when I move my chin,

My belly button’s caving in,

My back is wrenched, my ankle’s sprained,

My ‘pendix pains each time it rains.

My nose is cold, my toes are numb,

I have a silver in my thumb.

My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,

I hardly whisper when I speak.

My tongue is filling up my mouth,

I think my hair is falling out.

My elbow’s bent, my spine ain’t straight,

My temperature is one-o-eight.

My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,

There is a hole inside my ear.

I have a hangnail, and my heart is—what?

What’s that? What’s that you say?

You say today is… Saturday?

G’bye, I’m going out to play!”

~ Shel Silverstein

For your next “stay-at-home” day! Hopefully it will be a “snow day” and not a “sick day!” Read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, listen to She and Him, A Very She & Him Christmas, eat chicken and dumplings, feel a cashmere sweater against your skin, and sip and smell some peppermint tea. You’ll be feeling better before you know it.

Chicken and Dumplings

8 chicken thighs (with skin and bones)

Dredge in and brown in 2-3T vegetable oil:

½ flour

Generous amount of salt

½ t cayenne

¼ t black pepper

Sweat in 1 T vegetable oil:

3 leeks, white and light green part sliced in half moons

2 celery ribs diced

2 carrots, diced

1 sweet potato, peeled, cut into chunks

2 parsnips, peeled, diced

2 bay leaves

Deglaze with 1 C dry white wine

Stir in ¼ C more of flour

Gradually add 6 C chicken broth

Stir in browned chicken and juices

2 t fresh lemon juice

1 t sage and rosemary

For the dumplings:

Blend

1 ½ C flour

1 C parmesan cheese, grated

2 ½ t baking powder

2 t sugar

Salt and pepper

Heat:

1 C whole milk

4 T butter

Preheat oven to 375. Cut chicken into large pieces. Combine flour and seasonings in a resalable plastic bag. Dredge chicken in flour, shaking off excess in a deep oven proof pot, heat 1 T oil over med-high. Brown half the chicken; transfer to a plate. Brown the rest in a bit more oil then remove and reduce heat. Sweat the vegetables and bay leaves in oil until softened, about 5 minutes. Deglaze with wine; simmer until almost evaporated. Stir in flour to coat vegetables. Gradually add broth then chicken. Cover pot and transfer to the oven; cook for 20 minutes. While stew is in the oven, make dumpling dough. Stir in lemon juice, and herbs before adding dumplings. Blend dry ingredients for dumplings in a mixing bowl. Heat milk and butter until butter melts; blend into dry ingredients. Shape using a small ice cream scoop then drop dumplings into the simmering stew. Braise in oven until dumplings are cooked through, about 20 minutes. 

Here’s to another week and wishing for Good Day Sunshine!

Soups on!

Soup is like a softly glowing and occasionally crackling fire in the fire place; it’s soothing, therapeutic, and nourishing all the way to the bones. Soup warms the belly, gently bathes the soul and simply does the body good.

Louis XV silver soup tureen

King Louis XV made soup an upper-class dish. He turned soup from “fuel” for the poor to pure pleasure to satisfy the court at Versailles.

We‘re still having heat waves here in Texas but we’ll be welcoming autumn before long. The weather has finally shown signs of fall; we’ve had a good amount of wind, the nights have cooled quite a bit and a few times a hint of that “something in the air” that we all recognize as a welcome signal of change.

The biggest sign that fall is here is that college football has begun. Fall, Football, Food…such a perfect combination that makes your senses come alive. I love to hear the noise of the game combined with good smells coming from the kitchen. A soup can simmer for hours and make the house smell cozy and just where you want to be.

One of my favorite scenes from the movie Julie and Julia is when Julie says, “You know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure and when I say nothing, I mean nothing. You can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. That's such a comfort.” I love that about soup. I can start chopping vegetables and hear the broth simmering and instantly feel better. After a long week, I needed to cook lots and LOTS of soup!

Perhaps due to growing up in Rhode Island where my husband Derek says he had soup so often as a child, (resulting in a few common scorched tongue memories), I have had a job to do in persuading him of the pleasure of a delicious bowl of soup.  After making the best chicken noodle soup he said he’s ever had, I think I’m winning him over to the soup side!

Here’s to letting your good evening turn into a “super” one. Remember, if fall, football and food are an appreciated combo at your house too, do your best to make each new serving a “super bowl.” It goes well with the season. And, if the soups too hot, do what Lauren Bacall said in To Have and Have Not, “You just put your lips together and...blow.”

French Onion Soup:

2 T olive oil

4 red onions, thinly sliced

¼ t sugar

4 leeks (white part and a little of the light green) thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

8 C beef or chicken stock

½ C white wine

1 bay leaf

¼ t thyme

Salt and pepper to taste

Baguette

¾ C Gruyere cheese, grated

In a large saucepan over medium heat sauté onions about 15 minutes. Add sugar and leeks and continue to cook, stirring frequently until caramelized. Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add stock, wine, bay leaf, and thyme. Cover partially and simmer until flavors are blended, about 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Ladle into oven proof bowls and place sliced bread on top and sprinkle with cheese. Place under broiler until cheese is bubbly and lightly browned.

Tomato Soup:

12 Roma tomatoes

2 shallots, diced

3 carrots, diced

1 potato, diced

1 T tomato paste

1 T ketchup

½ C white wines

Dash of cumin

Place tomatoes under broiler for a few minutes then peel and remove skins. Sauté shallot in olive oil and add carrots. Pour in wine, add the whole tomatoes and diced potato. Cover with chicken broth and simmer until the vegetables start to fall apart. Process the whole mixture and strain the soup through a chinois. Stir in the tomato ketchup, paste, and cumin, then season. Optional: fry tomato skins in olive oil for garnish

Chicken Noodle Soup:

1 stewing chicken (about 4 pounds), cut up

5 celery ribs, coarsely chopped, divided

4 medium carrots, coarsely chopped, divided

2 medium onions, quartered, divided

1 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper

8 ounces uncooked medium egg noodles

In a large stockpot, combine the chicken, water, half of the celery, carrots, onions, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 2-1/2 hours or until chicken is tender. Chop the remaining vegetables; set aside.

Remove chicken from broth. When cool enough to handle, remove meat from bones and cut into bite-size pieces. Discard bones and skin; set aside.

Strain broth; return to stockpot. Add the salt, chopped onion and remaining celery, carrots, red bell pepper and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Add noodles and chicken. Cover and simmer for 12-15 minutes or until noodles are tender.

Leek and Potato Soup:

1 bunch of leeks (white part and a little of the light green) sliced

4 C diced potatoes

6-7 C water or chicken stock

Salt and pepper to taste

Bring leeks and potatoes to boil in the water, simmer 20-30 minutes. Puree soup and serve warm.