The family history in soup--for girlclone

[anahata56]

When I was a little girl, my mother used to make a beef barley soup on cold days. It left me with an obsession--when the weatherman is calling for snow, I get the ingredients, and when the snow starts to fly, I get out the soup pot and get busy. I can't help myself--it's what makes a snow day a snow day, and it is particularly satisfying to come

Comments

[stewicked]

The soup sounds delicious. It is very much like the beef stew I make. If I already knew about mirpois what does that mean about my kitchen cred? I have slowly been able to start reincorporating that into my cooking over the past 7 years. My husband had a weird dislike of onions but I am getting him over that. Next I need to get him over his dislike of green bell peppers so I can start doing a touch more creole style cooking. They use what they refer to as "the holy trinity". It is just mirpois with bell pepper replacing the carrots. I am going to censor myself now, though, or I will write volumes

[anahata56]

I've started using sweet onions and red onions almost exclusively, unless I'm making something where I want the bite of a yellow or Spanish onion. It really makes a difference, especially for people who have a bit of difficulty with onion, either in the taste or the digestion department.

I'd do more Cajun/Creole if I could get past okra--which I think is vile. So while gumbo is off the menu, I still do a good jumbalaya, and I like the taste of the spices so I use them in rubs for meat or in seafood quite often. But yeah--you kind of have to do the green pepper thing if you're going to do that flavor at all.

I don't mind giving the dog a freshly boiled bone, because it's still quite wet and relatively soft, but yeah, I take it away before it has the chance to dry thoroughly and go brittle. And, of course, there's always a bit of meat on there...just because he'd look at me like I'd kicked him if I gave him a bare bone....

If he's been especially good, he gets the marrow, too!

[claire]

Sounds yummy. I think I might need to buy a bigger pot for the stove. Hmmm.
*adds to memories*

[anahata56]

I don't know how to make a "little bit" of soup--I nearly always fill the stockpot.

It's kind of nice that way, though, because I always have enough to share!

[weedblossom]

Oh yeah - gonna have to try this, though I may skimp on the celery (since I'm not a fan). I've become a big fan of soup lately, too. I wouldn't think that nutmeg would be an ingredient in this, either. Can't wait to try it!

[anahata56]

You won't even taste the celery--but you'll miss it if you skimp.

It's weird, because you'd think if you don't taste it, you won't miss it, but leaving it our leaves the broth missing a certain indescribable something that you can't describe.

If you cook it down as soft as is indicated here, there are no visible pieces of any vegetable at all in the finished soup--that's why you add the sliced carrots later. It just all becomes broth, and all the vegetables dissolve completely.

[anahata56]

Oh, and nutmeg is a good addition to almost every recipe for beef, believe it or not.

Once again, not something that you taste so much as sense, and very warming.