Vegetable Soup on a Snowy Winter's Day

What is it about those snowy winters’ days that seem to yell out to me “You need to have a pot of soup on and bake up something?”  So yes, I have a pot of vegetable soup on and the oven is heating up for some delicious pineapple muffins.  The aroma in my kitchen sends me back to the 60s, the time in history when I grew up.  But more than that, it reminds me of my Great Aunt Golden who was the creator of my soup recipe.  We often went down home to visit her and Uncle Dewey, usually on the weekends.  Down home is Lockwood, Missouri the area in which my folks grew up.   Aunt Golden never failed to have something on the stove for us to eat.  Now you might ask, “So what’s the big deal”?   The answer to that question would be what was cooking in her pot.  Her recipe for vegetable soup went as follow:
 

Aunt Golden’s Vegetable Soup

1 quart jar of canned Big Boy Tomatoes (from the garden)

1 yellow onion (from the garden)

6 potatoes (from the garden)
Bacon Grease for flavoring

Salt and Pepper to taste (from her mother’s shakers)

Add all ingredients into a soup pot and simmer until the potatoes are tender. 

 Now my Aunt Golden knew that she couldn't feed seven people on a pot of soup so she added to the menu Fried Crappie (yes, it is spelled right) that Dad, Grandpa, and Uncle Dewey caught the previous fall, and cornbread made in a cast iron skillet.  What I hope you are getting from this rendition is what created the meal.  Yes, you’re right, some of that “old way determination”. 

 

Ok, I will admit that she didn’t grind her own cornmeal, or gather salt from Utah, but the greatest portion of the meal was created from pure determination.  Aunt Golden and Uncle Dewey’s garden was truly a sight to behold.  Their tomato plants grew taller than my Dad who is 6’5” tall and as for the onions and potatoes they stored them for the winter in a bin built in their shed.

 

Her lifestyle was simple.  She used an outdoor john until the 80s, washed clothes in an old ringer washer that drained out into the yard, heated with coal from a pot belly stove, and entertained on a pump organ given to her by her father.  She loved to laugh, be around family, and never showed any hardships she had endured in her attitudes or actions.  My Aunt Golden and Uncle Dewey where apart of that “old way determination” that is buried deep into my psychic and will continue to be an inspiration that will trickle down from me to whoever will listen. 

 

What is it about those snowy winters’ days that seem to yell out to me “You need to have a pot of soup on and bake up something?”  So yes, I have a pot of vegetable soup on and the oven is heating up for some delicious pineapple muffins.  The aroma in my kitchen sends me back to the 60s, the time in history when I grew up.  But more than that, it reminds me of my Great Aunt Golden who was the creator of my soup recipe.  We often went down home to visit her and Uncle Dewey, usually on the weekends.  Down home is Lockwood, Missouri the area in which my folks grew up.   Aunt Golden never failed to have something on the stove for us to eat.  Now you might ask, “So what’s the big deal”?   The answer to that question would be what was cooking in her pot.  Her recipe for vegetable soup went as follow:
 

Aunt Golden’s Vegetable Soup

1 quart jar of canned Big Boy Tomatoes (from the garden)

1 yellow onion (from the garden)

6 potatoes (from the garden)
Bacon Grease for flavoring

Salt and Pepper to taste (from her mother’s shakers)

Add all ingredients into a soup pot and simmer until the potatoes are tender. 

 Now my Aunt Golden knew that she couldn't feed seven people on a pot of soup so she added to the menu Fried Crappie (yes, it is spelled right) that Dad, Grandpa, and Uncle Dewey caught the previous fall, and cornbread made in a cast iron skillet.  What I hope you are getting from this rendition is what created the meal.  Yes, you’re right, some of that “old way determination”. 

 

Ok, I will admit that she didn’t grind her own cornmeal, or gather salt from Utah, but the greatest portion of the meal was created from pure determination.  Aunt Golden and Uncle Dewey’s garden was truly a sight to behold.  Their tomato plants grew taller than my Dad who is 6’5” tall and as for the onions and potatoes they stored them for the winter in a bin built in their shed.

 

Her lifestyle was simple.  She used an outdoor john until the 80s, washed clothes in an old ringer washer that drained out into the yard, heated with coal from a pot belly stove, and entertained on a pump organ given to her by her father.  She loved to laugh, be around family, and never showed any hardships she had endured in her attitudes or actions.  My Aunt Golden and Uncle Dewey where apart of that “old way determination” that is buried deep into my psychic and will continue to be an inspiration that will trickle down from me to whoever will listen.