Basic Carrot Soup

Soon after Mom died, a friend brought me lunch. In that lunch was carrot soup. I hadn't had carrot soup for a long time. Now, I can't quite get enough of it.

Below is my go-to carrot soup recipe. It's very good even in its most basic form (especially if you use homemade chicken broth--yum). But if you want to dress it up a bit, you can season it with ginger, curry, dill,  smoked paprika, roasted garlic, Italian seasonings, or even nutmeg or cardamom. (Note: I haven't tried all of those, but they all sound great. I've done curry, dill, and ginger--curry is my favorite of the three, but I like them all.)

It's nice for this time of year because, not only are carrots in season, but that little vitamin boost (you wind up eating quite a few carrots in a bowl of soup) does a body good as the weather starts to cool.

Basic Carrot Soup
adapted from some children's book I once got from the library for my kids; I love trying recipes from children's books
Makes 4 servings
Prep time: 5-10 minutes
Cook time: 20-30 minutes

1 lb carrots, peeled and chopped
1/2 onion, diced
1 generous Tbsp butter
28 oz. chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste.

Melt butter in a pot on medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until somewhat soft. Add carrots and cook a couple minutes more. Add broth. Cover pot and simmer gently for 20-30 minutes or until the carrots are very tender.

Let cool just a bit and put in a blender. Process until smooth.

Taste for salt and pepper and add additional seasonings if desired (I like to add a different sprinkle of something to my bowl each day at lunch. It keeps life interesting.)

PRINTABLE RECIPE

A Few of My Mother's Favorite Things

My mother had a sweet tooth. Or several.

Two weeks ago, my siblings and I all went to see her and to say our good-byes. Mom had not had an appetite for several months and had been eating very very little (but still managed to joke that she wasn't losing weight). While we were there, I made spaghetti alfredo, my sister made chocolate chip cookies, my brother made cookies and cream and pretzel bark. Mom ate it all, sometimes with especial pleasure. I can still see her on her bed, enjoying every bite of that cookies and cream and then asking for more. It was good to feel we could bring her some small pleasure through the foods we made--foods that she had taught us to make and made for us in our own times of celebration or heartache.

Below, you'll find four of Mom's favorites:

1. Cookies and Cream. This was a family recipe. We made it whenever we could find the elusive Nabisco Chocolate Wafers. I'm kind of glad they weren't easier to find. It kept it so that this treat was always a really special one.

2. Chocolate Chip Cookies (her favorite is my sister's recipe; it's close to this one and I'm still perfecting it, but I'll get it up here when I do). These were our go-to sweet growing up.

3. Cinnamon Rolls. Mom made these on special occasions, like Christmas. She also tended to make them when her grown children would come back home to visit.

4. Alfredo. This was something my mother absolutely loved, but often felt guilty eating because of its high fat content. I remember watching her eat it occasionally when we went out to eat (which was very occasionally when I was younger). It always seemed so fancy and indulgent when I was a kid. You'll notice, if you care to look at such things, that of the 12 things listed under the label 'pasta,' on this blog, four of them are spins on Alfredo recipes.

Peach Pie with My Mother

I made my first peach pie several years ago. It's crust was approximately 1/2 inch thick, maybe more. Yup. My mom was here helping me. All I had was this dinky little rolling pin that was about 6 inches long and was kind of like rolling out pie crust with a glass cup. Other mothers would have run out and bought me a decent rolling pin. My mom, being plenty cheapskate just like me, just went with it and smiled about it. She probably also said "Geesh." My mom was always saying "Geesh."

Since then, I've learned a few things about making pie. Since then, my mother has suffered from a brain tumor and this past weekend she passed away.

Life is short, my friends.

Make ugly (or not) homemade cakes for your children.
Roll out pie crusts with your daughter's crazily insufficient kitchen tools.
Have dinner together, especially on Sunday nights. And don't worry too much if a can of mushroom soup went into it.
It'll give you something to smile about when the need for smiling comes around.
It'll give you pictures to laugh at and memories to sigh at.
It'll give you life that can't be got back once it's gone.