22 September
 
Mother's Vegetable Beef Soup

(Vegetable Beef Soup on the Stove)
 
Well, they took lovely dead summer and put the green shroud on her, lickety-split. She was barely cold when Czar Peter and his pool-surfs showed up late yesterday.
 
Peter was at his leonine best, rich dark hair flowing like Fabio over his tanned muscular shoulders. He poured some embalming chemicals in her blue water, hosing down the pool deck, putting away the beach furniture and tightening the green tarp on her.
 
When I got home it was as if the whole summer had not happened at all, and the night before, splashing and frolicking, was a disturbed dream.
 
I scrambled around to get dinner on. I only tend to do a full-production dinner once a week, and it provides an attraction for my older son to stop by and let me know what is going on in his life, to the extent that he cares to share.
 
I chose skinless chicken breasts in a white Alfredo sauce for this week. I had one of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force’s beef briskets in the freezer. If I was going to use the stove, I thought I might as well through that in to slow cook for a meal or two later in the week, and some lunches.
 
There is a recession on, I have heard, and brown-bagging a lunch or two is a good thing.
 
I cooked the beef for twenty-four hours at 180-degees in a foil packet with garlic, a packet of Lipton’s onion soup, sea-salt, crushed black pepper and some Frank’s Louisiana Hot Sauce for a little kick.
 
Before work, I pouched up the chicken breasts and threw them in to join the brisket for the working day. When the time came, I decanted the beef, scraped off the remaining fat and saved the juice to let the fat separate out and cool in the fridge for a day or so before I tried to slice it.

Then sautéed one of those Peru sweet onions with fresh chopped baby bella mushrooms and when the onions were nicely caramelized, dumped in a jar of Harris Teeter’s white sauce.
 
I could have made it, I know, but I was making mashed potatoes from little russets from scratch, and I am lazy sometimes. I un-pouched the chicken, bathed them in the sauce and layered fresh shredded Parmesan cheese on top with some paprika for color. I threw the casserole in the oven and took the fresh artichoke off the boil and let it cool while I threw together a chop salad with feta cheese, and then split the artichoke down the middle to sauté in extra virgin olive oil with a lemon, halved.
 
It is a dynamite green for dinner, the tasty meat of the leaves dipped in whatever sauce you like; I think a little fresh Challenge Butter melted in the water from the boiling is elegant and simple.
 
I could have made biscuits, too, but I had some dinner rolls and I was lazy.
 
There is time for baking later in the year, once we have figured out how to win the Afghan war, cap-and-trade the crap out of the economy and adopt universal health care.
 
I heard the Baucus Plan, the one that is supposed to be the cheapest of the lot, makes a up a lot of the necessary savings by taxing the “gold plated” benefits plans. On further examination, that seems to apply to the ones enjoyed by Auto workers and teachers, those Plutocrats, so I am happy my crappy government health plan could not possibly be liable to additional taxes.
 
I think. It is hard to tell. I’m sure it will all be clearer before the bill is signed.
 
Maybe it is because Labor Day was so late on the calendar this year, I don’t know, but with the pool embalmed it just seems like time to cook.
 
I talked to a pal who lives on the West Coast the other day. She is a great beauty still, even in her eighties, and once we got done with the outrage over what is likely to happen to her medical benefits, I asked her for new recipes to try. I asked her for specifically for the ones that were tired and true and had always worked for her.
 
She came back with a classic that her mother taught her, so this is right from Depression-era Ohio. She says it freezes well, and it is useful to make a batch and freeze what she doesn’t use. That is the way I cook, in spurts, so I thought I would pass it along as the season changes.
 
It is her Mom’s recipe, so I will let her tell you:
 
From Jinny’s Head-Bone: Mom’s Vegetable Beef Soup
 
“Vic:
 
I buy 2 packages of good stew meat. I don't know how many lbs. there are in a pkg. but they are fairly large.
 
Put the meat into a large stew or soup pot and cover it three fourths to the top of the pot.  Bring to a boil, cut the heat to low, and start skimming the top until all of the foamy goop is gone.  Season with salt ( I use No Salt) and white pepper. Boil on low for 2 hours or until the meat is tender.  Some cuts take longer.  Test the meat after 2 hours to see if it is tender.  You may have to cut some of the cubes into bite sizes.
 
Then you will need:
 
About 6 carrots with tops snapped off and stripped.
6 celery sticks, stripped with tops cut off
2 handfuls of fresh green beans
One large onion, white, red or yellow, your preference.  I use red.
One Large can of mushrooms
One LARGE can of Italian Tomatoes and cut into smaller pieces.
 
And pasta of your choice.  My mother used short, wide, flour noodles but I can't find them anymore so I have been using wide egg noodles. About two big handfuls will do the job.  You can use other kinds of pasta like bow etc. if you like. But not long pasta.
 
Slice carrots, celery & onion into small or medium slices, and green beans into fairly small pieces.
 
Take the meat out of the pot with a slotted, large ladle and put it into another container. I usually cover it with Seran Wrap to keep in the moisture.
 
Taste the meat broth to see if it is seasoned well enough and put more water into the pot.  Bring it to another boil and put in the above contents. You will need to do some skimming again. After it boils on a lower temperature for about 10 minutes, maybe less, taste the carrots and pasta to see if they are done.  If the veggies and pasta are all cooked moderately to what the Italians call "al dente," put the heat on low and put in the meat.
 
Taste the broth again to see if it is well seasoned.  If not, add more white pepper and salt.
 
It tastes best the next day when all of the seasonings have blended.
 
Mother kept it on the back of the range for several meals and it didn't spoil. But I don't do that.
 
After it cools, which can be over night, place it into plastic containers for the amount of servings you wish.  Since I am often alone, I only put enough for one serving into each container and then place them into the freezer.  Be sure to label them with the date made and what it is.”

I made a note to try that last part, since I have plastic containers of all sorts of mysterious stuff in the freezer. And I made another note that along with the chili, this is going to be the first real Fall savory meal I am going to cook.
 
Maybe serve it in a scooped out mini-boule sourdough loaf from that cool bakery over on Wilson with fresh creamery butter on the side and a small salad.
 
I don’t know. There are a lot of choices floating around these days, and I sure is good to be alive.
 
Copyright 2009 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com