Soup's On!

A page from my mom's handwritten recipe journal

Sunday is the first night of Rosh Hashanah. This dinner marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year and brings with it the beautiful weather of Autumn. After a string of hundred degree days, we can finally take a nice long walk. Murray and I love piles of colorful leaves and not much bothers us. Even the bugs go into hibernation. Unless we get snow before Halloween, which has happened in New Jersey, I look forward to a long and delightful walking season.

Also known as football season to the guys in my house, fall is perfect for Papa's chili and any kind of soup, my favorite bowl of all. There is nothing like delicious soup to make everything better. Soup cures it all, from the sniffles to a cut on your finger. A big, hearty bowl with a piece of crusty bread is dinner. Nothing else needed for pure culinary bliss.

In January it's so nice,
While slippin' on the slidin' ice
To sip hot chicken soup with rice
Sippin' once, sippin' twice
Sippin' chicken soup with rice

In February it will be
My snowman's anniversary
With cake for him and soup for me!
Happy once, happy twice
Happy chicken soup with rice

- Songwriters: Carole King / Maurice Sendak

I have many recipes for chicken soup and some of them will be on my Rosh Hashanah table. Most of the family will be enjoying traditional soup as both Ina Garten and my mom suggested. They would put a whole chicken in a pot of water with an onion, carrots, celery and whatever else lurks in the refrigerator. They let the huge pot bubble away on the stove all day for the most wonderful, heartwarming, homemade stock. Ina keeps containers of her stock in the freezer, just in case. Such a good cook that Ina.

Then there are also my recipes for matzah balls, both traditional and gluten-free. For the only vegan in the house, I will be having GF/V matzah balls also known as fake matzah balls in vegetable broth, no dead chicken or her eggs required. To me, it is all delicious and worthy of a holiday. Sam even wrote a song about how to roll a matzah ball. This you can find on Youtube.

We've come a long way from standing in the kitchen with our grandmothers and learning their ways. They stirred a pot without a recipe and without measuring things. My grandmother, Baboo, made tomato soup with rice for our holiday meals. My mom wrote it down in her recipe file so we would always remember it. Baboo called for a half a pot of water. I don't have the same white enamel pot as we used to have, but somehow my soup pot and my pinch of salt work just as well. The taste brings back memories of Baboo. Her recipe is one filled with tradition and love.

I donated most of my cookbooks to make room for my newest cooking obsession, my Instant Pot, perfect for a big serving of winter soup. It is so easy these days to just Google any ingredient for a recipe of your choice or you can scroll through videos on Youtube. I can now cook along with someone on my iPad, a modern adaption of how I cooked with Baboo. I will spend this afternoon in my kitchen with my iPad, a pot of soup on the stove, and a brisket in the oven. And my family will gather around the table and welcome in the old traditions of a Jewish New Year. Maybe we'll even take a walk after we eat. 

L' Shana Tovah to our friends and family!

(Here is the link to Sam's Matzah Ball song... Bagels on the Wall)