A month of soup
Posted: February 5, 2011 Filed under: food | Tags: breast cancer, broccoli soup, chicken noodle soup, comfort food, cookbooks, Houston, kids, memorieshomemade soup, Mom, plastic surgery, reconstruction, soup 13 CommentsWith it being so bitter cold in my neck of the woods, I want soup. And a can of Campbells just won’t do. 
I was raised on homemade soup, and when the weather turns or a nasty cold invades my system or a surgery is imminent, homemade soup is what I crave. I toyed with the idea of making a different soup every day for a month, but that may be the cold weather talking (seriously, 27 degrees in Houston?? Egads). Then I realized that I don’t even have a month between now and my reconstruction, and once I have the surgery, it’ll be quite a while before I’m able to cook again.
When I am able to cook again, I’ll be making soup. The weather will have warmed up by then; in fact, we may even be trending toward summer. But I’ll still want homemade soup. It must be genetic. My mom made soup. Well, actually she made everything, but soup for sure. She had many specialities, but her broccoli soup was my favorite. I’m not a big fan of broccoli (I eat it because it’s good for me and packed with important things like cartenoids, vitamin C, calcium, beta-carotene, lutein, and phytochemicals); but I love my mom’s broccoli soup. She knew the recipe by heart, but I have to look it up. Luckily for me, the cookbook falls open to the broccoli soup page every time. 
When I was a kid, my mom helped run a cooking school with a friend of hers, Mary Gubser. Mary is a bread and soup guru. She wrote a few cookbooks and taught cooking classes out of her home for suburban women who wanted to learn how to put a yummy and nutritious meal on the table.
I remember one time I was probably younger than Macy, and I was sick on a cooking school day. My mom bundled me up with a bag full of activities (no PSPs or iTouches back then) and took me with her. I settled on Miss Mary’s couch and listened to the women chattering as they went through the lesson: herbed vegetable soup and meunster cheese bread. My mom brought me a piece of baguette, warm from the oven, with real butter, and it remains to this day one of the best things I’ve ever tasted.
Maybe that’s why I love food so much: because memories of meals are so interwoven with memories of my mom. Food is such a powerful force, and it does way more than provide fuel for our bodies and sustain us through the day.
Soup has always been comfort food for me. You can have your mashed potatoes & gravy, your mac & cheese, your pot roast. I’ll take soup. But it’s gotta be homemade.
I got the love of soup from my mom, and Payton & Macy got it from me. In fact, Macy takes a thermos of homemade chicken noodle soup in her lunch every day. She’s vegetarian, but some things, like my chicken noodle soup and PF Chang’s honey-seared chicken, don’t count as meat in her mind.
Every week, I make a big pot of chicken noodle soup. For me, there is security in routine. Making soup for my kids every week is a ritual, and when chopping onions, celery, and carrots, I fall into an easy rhythm. Sauteeing the veggies in glistening green olive oil and with a few garlic cloves fills the kitchen with a smell of innate goodness that fills me up. Anyone can open a can of Campbells, but making what I consider real soup is a different thing entirely. It’s a labor of love, which I hope fuels and sustains my kids and weaves a delicate yet tangible ribbon of connection between them and me.
The Pink Underbelly 
Mmmmm…..sounds delicious. Would you mind sharing your chicken noodle soup recipe? Lucky kids to have homemade soup in their lunches every day! Jacob will want to come and move in with you. 🙂 He loves it when I make soup, but I only do it about twice a month. You are motivating me to make it a weekly ritual.
check your email; just sent the recipe.
Nancy, what a wonderful memory – and food is the best way to bring back memories too!! I love homemade soup too and am actually going to make a black bean and tomato soup today (recipe from a magazine). I’m meatless these days but it’s amazing how much I can still eat and it’s really good! I’m sorry for all you’ve been going through – you sound so strong. I know we don’t stay in touch enough, but I want you to know I think about you alot and am praying for you every day. I miss you all! Lotsa love, FAJ
Hey Joan! Thanks for thinking of me. I appreciate it. Come back and tell me how the black bean soup turns out.
Mmmm, mmmm, good! Does chili count as soup? Now I want pho, and pozole, and clam chowder and . . . to be warm! You’ve managed to make this cold weather a good thing. Well not good but less bad for sure. I’m going to the grocery store for soup fixings. Thanks for the idea and the warming memories. I might even make muenster bread.
Nancy, I love to make homemade soup (I still try to cook on weekends). However, I have never mastered the art of chicken noodle soup. Mine always turns out very bland. Will you share your recipe with me? I’ll add it to my soup rotation!
Just sent it to your windstream email. Enjoy!
send it to me! send it to me!
One of my real treasures is the bread and soup cookbook that belonged to your mom which you so thoughtfully gave me after she died. It stays on my kitchen counter along with only one other cookbook (alas, I have two shelves full of unused ones!), and that is a new one, The Healthy Family Cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen. Both of these are great sources of soup recipes, for which I have a lot of use up here where we hit 27 degrees just about every day in the winter. BTW, I look forward to reading your blog every day – great writing and photos!
okay girl you can’t put a pic that looks that yummy up without a recipe for us lame moms who can’t cook…or email it to me at lauren624@gmail.com
Maybe your friends will all make homemade soup to drop off regularly during your recovery. Do you have any freezer space to make some chicken noodle soup and freeze some this month?
I think we might have known each other in a past life. Bread is one of the comfort foods I like to make. As a matter of fact, I am making sourdough bread today, in Baltimore, with my soon to be daughter in law.
xo Barb
Ok, I know it’s an old post, but I’m still getting caught up. I need the recipe too. My family thinks my homemade chicken noodle soup sucks. Yours (of course) looks delicious. You always WERE able to run circles around me in the kitchen.
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