Comfort Food

When I'm feeling low, it directly influences what foods I want to prepare and eat. Do you feel the same? I don't head for sweets or chocolate, but instead crave those foods which were part of my childhood: My grandmother's soup with saltines, corn meal mush with butter and sweetener, and my mom's pinto beans with buttered cornbread. Whole-grain pancakes and macaroni & cheese I pretty much crave all the time, so I don't add them to this list officially. Today I'd like to introduce you to the soup.

Granny only ever made one soup that I recall, so if she said she was making soup for dinner everyone knew exactly what to expect. Thus it is so clearly associated in my memory with her. Sometimes we would make cornbread to go with it, but more often than not, we'd have saltine crackers instead, putting about five or so on each of our plates but having the open cracker sleeve handy for refills.

My grandmother was such a comfort to me for most of my life, and I can't make the soup now without thinking of her and the wonderful sensations I always experienced in sitting down to eat this meal with her and the family--the fragrance of steam rising from the bowls, the thin, hollow sound of crackers breaking into pieces, the spoons gently scraping against the sides of porcelain or stoneware, the soft whistle of air as we cooled each spoonful, and the flavor that tasted like home. The familiarity of Pat Sajak in the background and the ding of letters on the board. What a blessing! (Granny, family, and soup--not Wheel, you understand, although in general I think it a fine program).

I was such a thin little child, but I could eat at least two full bowls of this soup, and if allowed, probably a third. Where did it all go? Straight to my heart, of course, and has remained for all these years. My mom recently told me about being in the hospital after delivering one of my older brothers. The hospital food was terrible, but they wanted her to eat a certain amount every day in order to be released. She finally told them that if they would let her go home and have some of her mother's soup, she might live. They did and she did.



Granny's Soup

Basic ingredients:
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 large white onion, diced
2-3 lb. red potatoes, scrubbed and diced (amount depends on size of family and taste!)
salt and pepper to taste
water

Optional ingredients:
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1-2 carrot, sliced
1 can diced tomato (Rotel will make it very spicy)
1-2 c. frozen corn (or one can)
1-2 squash or zucchini, chopped
4 T. Butter
Ketchup

Directions:
1. Brown ground beef in large pot with salt, and add chopped onion when beef is about half done.
2. When beef is fully cooked, spoon off whatever grease weighs on your conscience.
3. Add diced potatoes and sliced carrots; cover with water (water line should be about 1" above ingredients).
4. Bring to a boil, lower heat to medium and cover, stirring occasionally until potatoes are beginning to soften. Add squash, corn, tomatoes, butter, salt, pepper; cover and return to a simmer.
5. Soup is ready when vegetables are soft. Adjust salt & pepper to taste. Soup will thicken over several days of reheating. Don't freeze it--the texture of the potatoes will change.
6. If you want a little punch to it and are feeling reckless, stir about two tablespoons of ketchup into the soup in your bowl. Oh yeah.
7. Share with your loved ones, with plenty of crackers between you!