Faith, Folklore, and Friends

2015 came in cold, and it has been cold every day of this new year. We have had some sick days, when all we wanted to do in sit in front of the fire, under a quilt with a book and something hot to drink.  On these days, nothing is as good as hot soup for lunch. I found this recipe for corn soup that is perfect for cold day lunches and very filling, in addition to being very easy to make. Chop up about a quart of potatoes, 6 or 7 medium. Cover with water and boil until they are tender. Chop up two onions,  and saute them in some bacon fat until they are transparent and tender. When they are tender, mash up the potatoes until all large chunks are gone.  I like using this old potato masher; the electric mixer gets them too thin. Add the cooked onions to the potatoes and stir. Add a teaspoon of salt.  Stir. You will need two cans of cream style corn, whatever brand you prefer. You could use the same amount of fres...

Thankfully, we live in a world where fresh produce can be obtained all winter, but it wasn't always so.  My mom talked about how tired her family grew of canned vegetables with nothing fresh to eat.  Her family loved the first green vegetables of spring. She always planted early lettuce and onions for spring salads that we called wilted   lettuce .  It wasn't really spring until we had one.   We had wilted lettuce Tuesday for lunch.  Just in case you have forgotten how, this is the way I make mine. Bacon.  This just won't work without bacon.  The amount I use varies with how much I have in the refrigerator.  I usually use more than this, but I was in no mood to go to the grocery store Tuesday morning. Chop it up fine, then put in a skillet and cook it slow and low until it is crisp and there is a good amount of bacon fat. This is deer tongue lettuce from our garden.  We usually plant black-seeded Simpson lettuce, b...