[Sca-cooks] Soup-tastic

[Georgia Foster]

In my personal world we eat soup LOTS.   My work schedule can be such that the meal is prepared in the morning and left to cook all day in the crock pot.  My current feed-lot numbers three but it seems a waste of time and energy to set up and run the 6 quart crock-pot to just feed three so the left-over soup is vacu-sealed in a 'boil-in' bag and frozen to later be dropped in a pot of boiling water for another meal or more.  These instant meals have served as a 'take food over to the neighbor who is recovering from surgery' item, or can accompany the youngest to dad's house to help with the care and feeding of a teenager.
 
As a child mother's version of soup was lots of broth and very little substance.  Bread was added to the broth-with-very-little-substance until it became more like a pottage.  My stepfather was a mostly unemployed carpenter and there were seven mouths to feed.  I learned to bake bread almost as soon as I was sent to live with them again (long story ... ask me at a campfire sometime).  Bread can be made for pennies a loaf and meat and vegetables are expensive here in the back hills of nowhere.  By age 10 I was more or less responsible for the baking of 12 loaves of bread each Saturday afternoon.  But I digress.
 
Soup should be thick and full of good sturdy meats and veggies with grains and pasta when appropriate.  My favorite non-period soup is a competition winning green chili stew (as taught to me by my youngest brother's ex-wife who hails from Santa Fe).  A close second is Cioppino made with Shrimp, rough chopped sausage, small red potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, elephant garlic, tomatoes,  chopped golden apples, chunks of cob corn, portabella mushrooms, green chilies, poblano chilies, and 'Old Bay' seasoning.  Other family favorites include been and bacon (northern beans, bacon, grated carrot, onion and celery), beef and barley (left-over beef roast, barley, lentils, carrots, celery, onions, garlic), and chicken and noodles (chicken, potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, fresh-made egg noodles (egg, salt, flour (I have a hand-crank pasta roller))).  
 
For events I make up bourguignon (recipe downloaded from the internet) or pork country stew made with pork, carrots, celery, onions, garlic in a vegetable base broth.  Put in a vacu-seal boil-in bag and freeze.  Use as cooler ice for the first day and heat by dropping into a pot of boiling water on the second day.
 
The beef bourguignon was made for the hazard tree removal camp-out for which I ended up camp mom (imagine that) and was a HUGE hit with the seasonal and interns.  But I digress.
 
 
 
In all cases, the wooden spoon will stand in the pot supported only by the mass of ingredients or I will not serve it.  In all cases the soup is served with freshly baked bread except for the green chili stew which is served with freshly made blue corn tortillas.

 

So, that is a few .... I have more .....

 

 

Cheers

 

Malkin

Otherhill

Artemisia

 



Jo (Georgia L.) Foster
 
Never knock on Death's door.
Ring the doorbell and run ... he hates that.
 
I don't want to set the world on fire, I'm just trying to light a candle.