Like my grandmother used to make …

August 17, 2008 by joyknits 5 Comments

I love to make soup, and I like to think I got a soup-making gene from my maternal grandmother, who taught me to cook.

I doubt if she made it exactly the same way every time either – I know my pots tend to vary by what’s available, but I try to keep “the makings” on hand. Soup bones are definitely not as easily found as they once were, but we’ve found a store than can be counted on to have slices of beef shank, beef neck and other good stock basics, and I’ve usually got enough for a pot stashed in the freezer, so that when the mood hits, I’m ready to go.

I started this pot yesterday evening, browned the meat and bones, then let them cook with an onion, tomato juice and a couple of bay leaves in the crockpot overnight – it smelled pretty good this morning! 😉

Today, after removing the meat and bones, I added more diced onion, a cut-up bunch of kale, frozen mixed vegetables, a can each of beans and stewed tomatoes, and some cooked pasta (I remember her using potatoes, but Himself prefers pasta), then seasoned to taste, and put in the cut-up meat at the last. As usual, the batch expanded to fill the pot, so I had some to share, some for the freezer, and some for now – yum!

Vegetable Soup - sort of like my grandmother's

It seems like we’ve had a lot of really gorgeous evening skies lately, or maybe I’ve just been paying more attention …

Evening sky