The Soup Days of Winter

By Mary Ellen Pollock-Raneri for Hometown magazine

3-H ABRASIVE

3-H ABRASIVE COMPANY

46 SHEESLEY WAY • P.O. BOX 70 HAMILTON, PA 15744

814-938-7821

FAX

814-938-3293

GROUNDHOG DAY LUNCHEON

THURSDAY, FEB. 2ND, 12 NOON

$3.50/Call For Details!

VALENTINE'S DAY PARTY

THURSDAY, FEB. 14TH, 12:30 PM 11 am Sweetheart Bingo

BREAKFAST (Only $3.50)

Mondays from 9:30-11 a.m.

Feb. 6: French Toast & Bacon

Feb. 13: Choc. Chip Pancakes & Sausage

Feb. 20: No Breakfast/Center Closed

Feb. 27: Breakfast Sandwiches

GROUNDHOG GAMES & L UNCHEON Thursday., Feb. 2

Groundhog Games at 10:30 am

Groundhog Luncheon 12 Noon

$3.50 Reservations in advance

VALENTINE CRAFTS

Feb. 1: Valentine Craft at 12:30 pm

Feb. 7: Valentine Craft at 12:30 pm

HAM & BEAN SOUP SALE

Feb. 14th – 16th

$5 Quart/Call & Order Today

SEWING CLASS WI T H MARLENE

Monday, Feb. 6 at 11 am

BINGO with Kim from Embassy at Hillsdale

Thursday, Feb. 2, 12:30 p.m.

M A R D I G R A S P A R T Y

Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 10:30 am

Wear your beads & parade with us!

SUPER BOWL PARTY

Thursday, Feb. 9 at 12:30 pm

Wear Your Favorite Team Apparel

HYMN SING with Kay Young

Thursday, Feb. 23 at 11 am

P A MEDI COUNSE L OR

Thursday, Feb. 9 at 11 a.m.

BLOOD PRESSURE SCREENING BY ANEW HOME HEALTH

Thursday, Feb. 2 at 11 am

FEED THE BIRDS

February 8 & 22

My relationship with soup goes back a long way – probably to when I was in the womb, when my mom had a craving for red soup – a watery broth made with beef, homecanned tomatoes, onions, and carrots. Yes. Our home always had a big bubbling pot of soup on our white gas range. Mom’s go-to pot was typically a black and white speckled enamel one. You know the kind from back in the day. It had a matching speckled, black enamel lid topped with a thin metal rod with a piece of wood that served as the handle. Typically, that pot was used for everything where Mom stewed up anything that contained a carcass or several bones. Chicken, turkey, ing skills from my grandmother, who was Italian. Now, we didn’t eat many fancy meals, especially when it came to soup. I recall the big soup pot on my grandmother’s gas stove that was filled to the brim with either chicken broth or beef broth. That brew always had a tomato base that was watery and embellished with a carrot or two. If we were lucky, there was an onion – whole with the yellow skin coat still on it. Then too, you would see a long rib of celery with the leaves drooping from one of the ends. Mom said the leaves gave the soup the flavor. Noodles, pastina, and sometimes anolini were served on the side because my mother thought the pasta sucked up too much of the precious broth.

Our soup was not limited to one meat either. Sometimes, the chicken soup - Continued on page 15

Mom’s Beef Noodle Red Soup

1 lg. beef soup bone

1 - 2 lb. chuck roast (you can also add a couple chicken legs, chicken back or feet if you are so inclined!)

3-4 qt. water – enough to cover the bone and all the meat

1 or 2 ribs of celery

1 onion whole

4 carrots, cleaned. Just put them in soup in large pieces

1-2 qt. tomatoes mashed up. (Depends on how “tomato-y” you want the soup

Salt and pepper

Grated Romano cheese (for sprinkling on your bowl of soup)

Homemade noodles or prepackaged noodles and beef broth always simmered in THAT pot; however, her heavy cast iron soup pot was reserved for chili and bean soups.

We had it all. Sausage soup, vegetable soup, potato soup, chicken soup, turkey soup, green and wax bean soup, chili, red soup, lentil soup, pea soup, and minestra . Mom saved every bone from any meat we ever ate. The ham bone was sacred. Somehow, my mother always managed to skin every fleck of meat from that bone. If she wasn’t ready to make soup, she carefully wrapped it and froze it for a rainy soup day. In addition, the big beef knuckle bones were treasured items in our house; my mother seemed to always find the most perfect ones from the local butcher. Of course, how could I ever forget the sacred turkey carcass at Thanksgiving? My mother’s most valued rack of bones of all time was carefully stewed in a few quarts of water, with an onion and some carrots, a few days after the holiday. After the hot turkey sandwiches, turkey salad and turkey tetrazzini days were over, we enjoyed Mom’s turkey soup for another week.

My mother learned most of her cook -

In a large soup pot, cover the soup bones and chuck roast with the water, about 3 inches above the bone and meat. Simmer SLOWLY – at least 1 1/2 hours. During this simmering, skim off the fat/foam from the meat that will float to the top. Throw away this debris. If you need to add more water, do it. Then, add the tomatoes and other vegetables. Simmer for at least another hour. Skim as needed. Remove the bone and meat. Cut off any good meat from the bone and put it in the soup. Trim the chuck roast and put small pieces in your broth. Prepare your noodles and cook according to the package or the directions on the recipe. Put some noodles in each person’s bowl and add broth. Make sure everyone gets a piece or two of the carrot and the meat. Serve with a little grated cheese.

Mom’s Noodles

2 cups flour

1/3 cup water

1 egg

Mix all ingredients well and knead. Roll out on a floured flat surface with a rolling pin. The dough should be 1/8 inch thick at most. Then, cut the dough in thin long strips (about ¼ inch wide). Drop noodles in boiling hot water (2 qt). Toss gently while cooking for about 20 minutes or until desired tenderness. Makes about 23 servings. •

The coke ovens at Walston stretched a mile and a half in a continuous line. In 1886 more than 500 ovens were in operation. One newspaper described them as resembling Dante’s vision of Hades. These beehive ovens spewed by-products into the atmosphere, which later ovens captured and turned into products that could be sold. (postcard circa 1900, courtesy of Punxsutawney Area Historical & Genealogical Society)