Tag Archives: Soups and Stews

Daily Prompt; Seconds / The Daily Post

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Hospital

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/

Describe the most satisfying meal you’ve ever eaten, in glorious detail.

 

There was a time many moons ago when I was very ill. I had hepatitis. It stayed for a while and then I had my first child. Months later it surfaced again. My parents had to take care of my child for almost a year while I tried to heal. Finally that day came.

About three years later I wanted to have another child. My wants and it happening didn’t happen so quickly. The hepatitis had damaged my liver and my gallbladder. I got sick again and continued going to the doctors so many times I can’t even remember the count.

The problem was the doctors were trying to heal me from the hepatitis but at this time that wasn’t the problem. It was my gallbladder. I was so sick that I would go to the ER for shots that would knock me out for 24 hours at a time. I was so ill that I couldn’t keep water down any longer.

At this point the doctor admitted me to the hospital. I had seven tubes running into my body to keep me alive. I don’t remember what test it was that finally detected the rotten gallbladder but it was almost  too late. I was dying.

The doctor tried to reach my parents, but they were on vacation miles a way. My grandmother became my fill-in mother. She was with me at the hospital every day. The doctor came in to tell me that they could not operate on me. He could not remove the gallbladder. It was too full of poison.

He took my grandmother out in the hall and told her I didn’t have much time left. I was going to die. My grandma told me this later after I was better. Every hour on the hour nurses came in and flushed out tubes. I was fed through IV’s. My stay in the hospital was 21 days and it was spent ridding my body of all the toxins.

I was eventually felt  better but they still could not take the gallbladder out as I was too weak. I went back in the hospital about six months later and had it removed. Only after it was removed could I consider having another child, which I was granted that wish.

After being dismissed and going home I was very weak. My mom and grandma would bring me food every day. The best food was the home-made chicken noodle soup my grandma made me.

It was a golden-yellow with tender cut noodles that she had made herself.  Small pieces of torn home-grown chicken surrounded the noodles. Spices were added to enhance the already fabulous flavor. The broth had the most awesome taste. I wanted to let it linger in my mouth and not swallow it. I made each bowl last as long as I could and I would beg for more when the soup pan was empty.

I believe that this wonderful soup helped to heal me. I will never forget the taste of this soup. Even today after years gone by, I can still smell it and taste it.

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I Need Answers and I Know You Have Them

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Current Contents of Refrigerator

I have never run into a problem like the one I have now. Yes, I can google it and I can get all sorts of bad cookies following me. I would rather look towards trustworthy people for my answers this time.

I have seldom been on my own and the short time I was I ate at patients homes rather than mine. Now with Al gone I sort of cook the same way I did when someone was here and find myself in a left-over situation.

I was able to ask a friend about some soup I had made but here is the part I think I forgot to tell her about.

I made vegetable soup on Monday. I made it with chicken I had cooked Sunday night in the crock pot. Today is Friday and I have just eaten a bowl of the soup. I still have about two more bowls left. I know I can freeze it but I don’t have much space in my freezer. Some of my questions are;

How long will the soup be alright after I make it?

Can you drink milk if it smells good after the expiration date?

Can you still used a boxed product if it is past the best used by date?

How long can I leave turkey and ham in the freezer? It is left from Christmas Day?

Does cake or cookies stay fresher longer left out covered, or in the refrigerator?

I have shelled nuts left over from Christmas. Will they get rotten?

I know that I am a middle-age woman who should know these answers. But having a family of three children and a big eater like my brother Al, I have never had this problem before. So please feel  pity and help me out please?

Thanks,

Terry

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I Need Some Humor After Today

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Cooked cabbage

Cooked cabbage

My grandma used to say

That vegetables get in the way

I didn’t know what she meant

I looked at her and off I went

Now all grown up and eating right

I cooked some cabbage for tonight

I added some beef for flavor

I wanted my mouth to really savor

Mushrooms and tomatoes and spices too

Put it in the crock-pot and went to do

Some visiting an auction and Al during this day

Bought a big crock and saw Al in a bad way

I knew that I had supper cooking on low

I wanted to eat out but was low on dough

I walked into my house and I thought what is that

It smelled like someone had killed a cat

The stench I inhaled made me pretty sure

That I think I am going to vomit  and hurl

I used a clothespin and plugged my nose

As I knew the cooking had a ways to go

When the cooking was done I went to look

I carefully lifted the lid and took

The ladle and stirred it very well

The aroma was not setting off any memory bells

I thought what the heck I will give it a try

I poured some in a pot and closed my eyes

Ok, I did it, I ate  and then took a smoke

I felt my tummy rumbling as it began to bloat

I now know what my grandma was referring too

The little toot toots that make you say pew

Terry Shepherd

01/12/2013

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Recipe From My Grandma’s Days

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This is a recipe that my Grandma made up until she could no longer sit or stand to cook. As she got older, her love for cooking never ended, and so she would get an old wooden stool and sit in her kitchen cooking.

Today, she is 96, and although, she has remained firmly planted to the old ways of cooking, where you used lard, instead of canola oils, and she ate gravy every day and fried every meat, instead of baking, she is a very healthy woman still.

Here is her recipe, that I use still, in fact, I made it yesterday, a big pot, and shared it with Al and my son and his family, and there is one small bowl left, so this tells me I still got the knack!

 

Home Made Potato Soup With Rivals
Peel potatoes and cut up bite size. Cook until almost complete. While potatoes are cooking, break two to four eggs, depending on how much soup you want, using a whisk, beat them up, add salt and pepper for taste, then mix enough flour to make a pizza dough firmness. With fingers take pieces of dough and roll off of your fingers, allowing smaller pieces to fall in

potato water. Turn burner back up to medium heat and let all cook for another fifteen minutes. You may add butter and cream at the end for extra flavor and texture. Your flour rivals will thicken water, so make sure you start off with plenty of water covering your potatoes for cooking. This is a family recipe that my grandma always made. It is cheap in cost to make and very filling. I have also added bacon bits, a white sauce made from scratch , or cheddar cheese at the very end. Enjoy!!!!
Secrets:
Sometimes I add a can of cream of celery soup, dried onion flakes, spices of my choice, always one being curry, and I quite frequently add shredded cheese.
This post is dedicated to my good friend Bonita! Thanks for the encouragement of trying something new on my blogging!

 

 

Grandma, Memories, and her Dressing at Thanksgiving

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Apple pie

With the holidays coming up, this  brings stress to me this year as it won’t be easy to get out to buy gifts or groceries, but the house will be pretty near darn perfect in cleanliness, since I have been home so much, I am an almost perfect maid!

Along with this, I thought I would mention a little bit about the wonderful holidays I have memories of. Let’s go back in time to when I was a young kid. We would all go to grandma’s house, and at that time, it meant all the families on that side of the family. Cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, brother’s and sisters. There were no excuses as to why someone could not come, it was just a known fact to be there.

Stores were not open, not even gas stations, the world became quiet for one day. The lady of each house would take along at least two side items and so this added to the already wonderful smells when you walked into grandma’s front door. Mmmm, I can still smell the aromas.

All of us kids would go outside and play tag, and run and play. There were no video games or television on. We used our imaginations to have fun. We rode our own bikes our parents brought, or there were always spares to ride.

When mom would open the front door, and yell for us all to come in, we would wash our hands and find our assigned seats at the kids table, and the adults would sit at the grown up table, then some adult would stand up and say a prayer of thanks for our great meal.

Grandma would always make her famous chicken and dressing. She also made fried chicken, and home-made yeast rolls with apricot preserves and lots of melted butter. Along with this she always had peach, and apple ,mincemeat and pumpkin pies, and if we were really good kids, we could have that advance to pie with ice cream on top. There was always a big ham that our uncle would bring and he would slice it and give us each a nice, thick piece, and of course all of us kids fought over the drum sticks and wish bones of the biggest turkey we had ever seen.

There was corn and green bean casserole, and the famous seven layer salad, pickled eggs, lots of sliced cheeses and crackers. A humongous bowl of mashed potatoes with a few lumps in them, and lots of slithering gravy to pour on top, and a big pan of sweet potatoes with lots of brown sugar and marshmallows on it. There were also sliced carrots and bread and butter pickles, red beets, green and black olives, which I always managed to keep going back and snatching another green one.

These were the days, the best of times. Now, today, I have to email my own kids, tell them the date and time of the Thanksgiving meal. Ask them to bring one side dish, and wonder who will and not will show up. Every business in the world seems to be open, so work schedules get in the way, plans with friends by grandchildren are sometimes made, causing some to come, eat and run. I wish I could keep the tradition alive of what was expected and happened so many years ago, but thank goodness I have my memories.

This was my grandma’s favorite recipe for her chicken and dressing, and I still use it today, and now you can try it!

Cook up a whole chicken, cool and de-bone. Put small pieces of chicken in a big bowl, and to this add four to five eggs, and stir. Then cut up  small bits of celery stalks, and add some bits of onion, according to your taste. Next, add one loaf of bread, whole wheat or white, that has been tore up into bite size pieces then salt, pepper, and celery salt, and stir. Next add one can of cream of celery soup and one can of cream of mushroom soup and stir. After all this is nicely stirred together, start adding the chicken broth until you have a nice bowl of bread that holds it shape. Pop into a 350 degree oven for thirty-five to forty minutes.

This was a recipe for a big family of 20 plus. You can down size the ingredients to make it the size you need for your family. This is a simple recipe that is moist and makes you want to go back for more. Easy to make as you can cook up your chicken the day before and store it in the refrigerator. There are so many varieties of dressings out on everyone’s table at this holiday, but I always return to the super good recipe of grandmas.

Thank-you grandma for giving me some of the best memories of my life. Grandma is still alive and kicking and no longer bakes those huge, soft, home-made sugar cookies, and no more pies and big chocolate cakes, and no more dressings. In January, she will be 97 years old and she is now taken care of by a very nice nursing home. She was a hard worker, in her day, a farmer’s wife, killing and cutting her own chickens, butchering their own beef, and eating out of her own garden. We could always count on getting good food at any time of the day or evenings by just visiting grandma. I love you grandma.

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