My Mother's Vegetable Soup

I am sitting here with my mother's hand-written recipe card for vegetable soup. It is yellowed and stained. My mother died of breast cancer when I was 19, but when I cook her recipes, she comes back to me.

Men may still edge out women in big professional kitchens around the world, but go into any home kitchen, and there you will find women, mothers and daughters, grandmothers, aunts and sisters.

Look into a kitchen before any holiday meal, and there they will be--chopping, mixing, stirring, laughing. And if you look really hard, you'll also see the ghosts of great grandmothers and long-passed aunts, dancing to the rhythm of the kitchen.

My Mother's Vegetable Soup

Bring meat and bones to a boil, covered.

Add diced:
1 onion
3 carrots
2 celery
2 parsnips
1 can tomatoes
1/2 cup beans
1/4 cup barley
1 tablespoon salt
5 peppercorns

Tracy's notes: I bring 1-2 pounds of short ribs and about a pound of marrow bones to a boil in a large pot filled with 12-14 cups of water. Once the pot has come to a boil, I lower the heat to a simmer and cook the meat and bones for 1-1/2 hours, covered. I'll uncover the pot every so often to skim the foam off the top. Then I'll add the other ingredients and let the soup cook for another 2 hours or so.

Parsnips are sweet and I often leave them out. I use cannellini beans that have soaked in water the night before. I love barley, so I usually use 1/2 cup. If I can get fresh cherry tomatoes, I use them, 12-16 ounces, cut in half, instead of the canned tomatoes. I add them the last half hour. Then I season the soup to my own taste, adding salt and pepper as necessary.

I cool the soup and leave in the refrigerator overnight. This step is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY! In the morning I skim the fat off the soup. Marrow bones produce a huge amount of fat. If I want to eat the soup the same day I cook it, I omit the marrow bones.

I like to serve the soup as a first course, and the short ribs as a second course. Or I'll serve one short rib in each bowl of soup. I serve the marrow bones with fresh rye bread. I'll spread the marrow of one bone over the rye bread, sprinkle with salt, and I'm in heaven.

Serves 4-6

--Tracy Schneider