I was so blessed when I worked to be
able to come home to a home cooked meal each night. I worked a full FULL time job. Hardly a week went by without having to work
overtime AND I traveled to work AT LEAST an hour to and from work, SO I always
had at least an 11 hour work day.
I would come home from work, go upstairs and change clothes, come
downstairs and set the table, eat and have conversations with my wonderful
parents, go outside to my Craft House and paint until 10:30pm, come inside and
do what needed to be done and do my best to get into bed at midnight.
When I would get up the next morning, Mother would often lie in bed and
time me as I would go into the bathroom, take a shower and wash my hair, go
upstairs to dry my hair, put on makeup and get dressed, come back downstairs
and head out the door…SHE LOVED to tell people that it took me 25 minutes to
get ready in the mornings…LOL…
WHEW…that makes me exhausted to remember that! I survived on 5 – 6 hours of sleep for so
long, that I THINK I am STILL trying to catch up.
I did craft shows during this time as a way to give money to my parents to
make ends meet. I did my best to make
sure that they had EVERYTHING they needed.
It was the least I could after all they did for me and my brothers.
When we would go to Church on Sundays, Mother would stay and talk UNTIL
everyone left…I just wanted to come home since it was often the ONLY day that I
had just a few hours for ME…I looked forward to doing what I WANTED to do or
take a nap! I would take my own car to
church so I could leave as soon as church was over. Since I was the first one home, I would go
ahead and make lunch…
I would be looking for something quick and easy, so I started by opening the
fridge to SEE what was in there—usually NOT much…BUT I would often find enough
scraps to throw in a pot and add some liquid and make SOUP! It became a joke that I could make SOUP out
of ANYTHING!!
I was raised with the story of Mrs. Hunter who cooked for the local
elementary school who would often say that IF she had a potato and water, THEN
she had SOUP! IF you hear something long
enough, one tends to start BELIEVING it…
Last night was one of those moments when I didn’t KNOW what I would have
for my meal. I had seen a black bean
soup made on our local midday news, and I thought I would give it a shot at
something similar…
I found a can of black beans, cannellini beans, Mild Ro-tel, corn and a
half of bag of frozen chopped spinach…I threw them into a pot and added the
water from each can that I used to rinse them out with…added chili powder,
paprika, cumin and about 6 beef bouillon cubes and let it come to a boil. I left it on medium to boil for thirty
minutes and then dished it out and YUMMY!!
It was delicious! I guess the lesson
I learned tonight was: IF life gives you
a potato and water, THEN make SOUP! OR…if
it gives you BEANS, Corn, Spinach and Ro-tel!!
;)
 |
| Is that Barney trying to get him a bowl of soup!! teeheeeheeeeee |
I am thankful for each bowl of potato soup that my mother made for me…WE
just made it from cutting potatoes, an onion, water, salt and pepper…Cover the
pot and bring to a boil. Once it boils,
turn to low and let it cook for 10 minutes.
Serve with cornbread hoe cakes and as Mother would say, it was a meal
GOOD enough for Queen Elizabeth!
BE thankful for the simple things that you have in life…BE thankful that
you have food…Blessings to YOU…~charlotte♥
Thank you again for a great blog! I am finding that you and I DO have a lot in common, as I make soup all the time as well! My favorite this year has been a yummy chicken soup with little spaetzel dumplings. The dumplings are so easy and a nice change from noodles or rice. I just put the dough in a small zip loc bag and snip the corner of the bag off and squeeze the stream into the boiling pot. YUMMY!! I also have made some potato-leek soup with a little bacon and it has been a favorite as well. AND a potato kale soup to die for. Nothing beats hot soup on a cold day, but I eat it in the summer as well. Thank you as always for sharing your life with us! :) Sheila
ReplyDeleteYUM!! I have NEVER cooked with leek...I get scared off because of having to clean it so well!! LOL...I will eat soup ALL winter LONG, BUT when it gets HOT~~UNLESS I have nothing else, SOUP is STOPPED...LOL...Soup goes into the category of WINTER FOODS...I guess cause I eat so much of it in the winter!! I miss having the leftovers from cooking for several people...NOW since it's just me, I eat WHATEVER until it is gone...=( xoxo
DeleteOk - You made me remember AGAIN! lol. I cannot tell you how old i was, but obviously old enough to cook some. Most of our soup came from a Campbell's can. One Saturday, i was going to "fix" soup for Mom & i. Dad came home unexpectedly & i had just opened the last can of the kind of soup that we were having. (Knowing Mom, it was probably chicken noodle.) But i remembered that i found another type of (probably) chicken soup & added that. The thing i remember most of all, was Dad saying, "She's going to learn how to cook, yet." The thing was, my mom was not an adventurous cook AT ALL. =)
ReplyDeleteSOME DAYS there is NOTHING BETTER than Campbell's chicken noodle soup...UNLESS it is Campbell's Chicken and RICE....ROFL...SEE...I'm GOOD at making people REMEMBER!!
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