Our friends are driving down from the city for a hike in the country.
The plan is to trek some trails in Brown County State Park then come back to our little house in the big woods for a meal. Becky suggests we get out the Soup book.
The well-worn cookbook simply entitled Soups by Carole Clements has been around since the beginning of our relationship. The inscription on the inside cover says it was a gift from me for Becky’s Jan. 2, 2004 birthday. We met in the fall of 2003, so, yeah, right at the beginning. In some ways, the book is more than a collection of dependable recipes or new challenges for us. Starting from our first cooking attempts using the book, we have made notes about the recipes as well as the particulars of the different occasions. It is a special pleasure to re-read the marginalia in the pages of Soups as a record of our life together so far.
The earliest annotation is Jan. 10, 2004, just days after her birthday. The recipe is for “Provencal Turkey Soup.” This is a reminder we were still working out our slow progression from a diet of occasional meat to near vegetarianism which is where we find ourselves these days.
Ten months later on Oct. 11, 2004, we were focusing on seafood ingredients as we tried a “Fennel & Tomato Soup with Shrimp” recipe. From our notes: “Use small shrimp.” (Somehow, that reminds me of the classic oxymoron “jumbo shrimp.”) Continuing on our vegetarian theme, a week later on Oct. 16, we noted using our homegrown tomatoes to make “Fresh Tomato Soup.”
I had always considered soups as mostly cold weather fare, something to warm us when cold winds blow and snows rage. More than a few notations in the book include some variation of “eaten by the fireplace.” (notes for “Corn and Spinach Soup”: “outside temp — 15 degrees.”) But as the years went on and our assumptions and soup palates developed, we learned to appreciate the joys of cold soups. The “Chilled Borscht” we made and served at least twice in the summer of 2009 was made with beets and cabbage from a local farmers market. We have since started growing our own beets. Same with “Cucumber Soup with Walnuts and Yogurt” in 2010. Last summer we had a bumper crop of cucumbers.
As the years go on, some recipe notes evoke a certain time period and can be quite poignant. The one from Jan. 22, 2005, explains we served “Green Vegetable Soup with Basil Pesto” to Becky’s childhood friend Carole and her husband Ed when they came for a visit. Becky relates how I did so much chopping that, later in the evening after they left, I fell asleep and was dreaming about chopping vegetables. It had been a good evening with good friends. This time, when we came across that recipe, we were reminded of Ed’s funeral earlier this year.
Becky flips the pages until she decides on page 162, “Minestrone.” The recipe calls for lots of seasonal vegetables. We will modify it to accommodate the ingredients we have on hand. We can add some of our winter squash from last summer’s garden. This will work. They know we are vegetarians and are good with that.
Becky pulls out the large soup pot from the lower cabinet and fills it with water. I gather the variety of vegetable onto the counter, choose a large knife and grab the cutting board. Soon we are in the midst of soup preparation. The friends, the hike, the time of year: This should be a good one to write about.
