Beef Vegetable Soup, TV wars

I may have mentioned that, while my mother was a good cook, she was not the least bit adventurous.

For Sunday Dinner we either had chicken or beef roast, with the occasional pork roast thrown in, just to be different.

Each was fixed in it’s own unique, delicious, but never changing way.

She had a few cook books and a box of recipes that she had collected but these were mainly for desserts and baked goods.  One needed recipes for baking.  One did not need recipes for cooking.

When she stated that she was making soup no one asked what kind.

We all knew.

She occasionally made bean soup, split pea soup and chili (hers was soup, sorry Texans).  She even made potato soup once.  But these were all given their full names.

If she just said ‘soup’ we knew it would be the winter staple: Beef Vegetable,

There’s a funny twist to it though I didn’t realize it at the time. She always made it with short ribs and she  served the short ribs as a separate meat course.

Very European…..

I just put it all in the pot.

I know some people are leery of rutabagas, but it really is a key ingredient to this.  It adds a sweet undertone that’s essential to this winter soup.

The recipe, Beef Vegetable Soup, has been updated and re-posted here: Vegetable Beef Soup.

Note: Long simmering time is what breaks down the collagen in the meat, giving body to the stock.

Mon mari is disgruntled.

I’ve been messing with his weekend TV time.

We can only watch one channel at a time.

We have two TV’s but they are tied to the same box. We can watch one channel while recording another, but whatever is being watched on one TV is all that’s available on the other.

I’m giving this detailed explanation because I’m guessing most Americans will not easily comprehend such limitations.

I rarely watch TV other than the 90 minutes in the evening set aside to watch whatever prerecorded shows we have…. And then I’m on my laptop doing whatever.

This weekend is different.

I’ve finished my big site redesign, got all the tweaking done, and so forth.

My next big project is so big that I’m not pressuring myself to finish it quickly. I fully expect it to take a year so I’m setting a reasonable work schedule. (Something I also rarely do.)

Which means I find myself with free time in the afternoon to tackle other, smaller projects… Like the box full of recipes torn out of various magazines that need to be sorted.

Clipping and sorting recipes is exactly the sort of job to do in front of a roaring fire on a rainy day with something interesting on TV.

Unfortunately my idea of interesting doesn’t always match mon mari’s.

There’s a series on at the moment called ‘Secret World’ narrated by an archaeologist. So far I’ve seen one on the Anasazi and one on Angkor Wat. Both were excellent.

Both were on at the same time as a documentary on fighter planes.

I got to watch ‘Secret World’.

Since the TV is normally under the sole direction and discretion of mon mari, you can see that it was a bit of an infringement.

Neither the project or the series will last that long (he hopes).

This recipe is entered into Foods From the Heart:

This monthly event is co-hosted by Delicieux and Eat Your Veg.

Delicieux, this month’s host, will have the round-up of all the heart-warming entries right after March 1.  Check it out!