Comfort Food

Here's a peek at yesterday's comfort food when that white stuff was falling around our place.

We're calling it Making Up For The Weather Soup aka Meatball Minestrone Soup. We didn't follow a recipe and we just used ingredients that were near to hand.

Aside. The Urban Peasant used to say on his television program years ago, if you don't have the ingredients he's using for a recipe, use your imagination and do the best you can with what you got. It's one of those bits of advice I never forgot.

So, here's what I did:

Started by sauteing 1/2 large onion in olive oil (with a dab of butter too) till soft in my blue le creuset pot. Chopped 1 large meaty tomato (Italian), a bit of diced celery, a couple fresh sprigs of thyme and Greek oregano. Added these to the pot.

I let these saute on very low heat for about 20 minutes. Stirred occasionally until everything began to caramelize and come together. For me, that's a key to making soup taste richer; don't be in a hurry at this stage. Oh... and I like to sprinkle a wee bit of salt and pepper on everything as I cook it.

Then I added 5 cups of hot beef broth and a generous handful of orzo pasta. Added salt and pepper to taste. Stirred. Then I found a few cooked meatballs in the freezer... y-e-s... must have made 'em for such a time as this.  If I would have remembered, I'd have included a wee bit of hot pepper sauce...

I let it simmer about an hour on really low heat. At the very end, I added a dollop of sour cream, stirred it in, and sprinkled with a bit of parsley. We paired the thick soup with thinly sliced dark rye bread. Yum.

Somehow the snow didn't matter after that.  

“Some foods are so comforting, so nourishing of body and soul, that to eat them is to be home again after a long journey. To eat such a meal is to remember that, though the world is full of knives and storms, the body is built for kindness. The angels, who know no hunger, have never been as satisfied.” ~ Eli Brown, author of Cinnamon and Gunpowder

BTW, our weather is coolish today, but so far no insistent signs of the white stuff...... a good day for writing blog posts, working on a new chapter of my memoir story, and coming to visit you.  Thanks for stopping by.  Now, here's wishing you......

Glimpses of heaven*´¨)
> ¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
> (¸.·´ (¸.·´ * in unexpected places ! *

Brenda 

xox

  

Photo: © Brenda Leyland, 2014