TIME TO DIG OUT THE SOUP KETTLE – News From The Hills

November throws her brown cloak around her shoulders and enters our hills, scattering dry leaves in her wake and bringing much colder weather. We have enjoyed a lengthy warm autumn, but now the trees are dropping their colorful leaves around their feet, much like a discarded party garment. The earth is snuggling down for her long winters sleep as we put away the trappings of summer and prepare for the icy hand of winter.

Hot weather salads and cool drinks give way to steaming soups and hot chocolate, prompting us to dig out the soup kettle and inspiring mothers (and grandmothers) to bake homemade cookies for the little ones—and big ones too! David Luzader sent in a recipe for chicken soup that is fast and easy.  When you are pressed for time and yet want a healthy and wholesome meal for the kids, this is the trick.

QUICK CHICKEN SOUP
Start with a 9.75 ounce can of chicken and 2 ½ cups of water. Mash chicken up with a potato masher (Does it have to be a potato masher, David?) and heat. Dump in one can of bought chicken noodle soup (juice and all,) one can of mixed vegetables and liquid. Add salt and pepper to taste.
David is one of these “dab of this” and “pinch of that” kind of cook. His recipe for French toast is different from mine. Here is his recipe in his own words.

FRENCH TOAST
Put about 20 saltine crackers, four or five eggs, and a big warp of brown sugar in a blender. Pour in enough milk until it is thin enough to dip bread in. Add cinnamon if desired. Give it a good frying in a hot, greasy skillet. Eat with sausage cakes, bacon, syrup and coffee. Sounds good to me.

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While we are on this cooking jag, Ray McCune of Fort Wayne, Indiana shares how he cooks puffball mushrooms. He peels them; slices them in one inch squares and sautés them in a little olive oil. This can be combined with scrambled eggs for a delicious dish. Fall rains have encouraged mushrooms to emerge in many places. Matthew brought in a huge bearded tooth mushroom a couple of days ago. This is a choice edible, especially when young, as it turns sour with age.

These large, fleshy mushrooms that grow on trees can be cleaned, sliced and then sautéed in garlic butter.

Any bitterness can be removed by parboiling them first. There is no danger of eating the wrong thing as there are no poisonous “lookalikes.” Before you eat any wild mushroom, be absolutely sure that your identification is correct, and it is a safe edible.

Sherri Stump of Sutton has been searching for a song that her mother cherished, and I hope I have found the one she wanted.  This is a favorite of mine too, and has a special meaning to me.

MORNING SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN
There was a girl, there was a boy
If they had met they might have found a world of joy
But she lived on the morning side on the mountain
And he lived on the twilight side of the hill.

They never met, they never kissed
And they will never know what happiness they missed
For she lived on the morning side of the mountain
And he lived on the twilight side of the hill.

For love’s a rose that never grows
Without the kiss of the morning dew
And every Jack must have a Jill
To know the thrill of a dream that comes true.

And you and I are just like they
For all we know our love is just a kiss away
But you are on the morning side of the mountain
And I am on the twilight side of the hill.
This reminds me so much of “The Road Not Taken.”

Last week I was privileged to visit our daughter Crystal who lives in North Carolina, at the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains. The mountains were covered in their garments of autumn beauty, which rivaled our own West Virginia hills. It makes a person wonder if God looked down upon Appalachia and endowed her with such spectacular beauty that we can barely take it in. I love this poem.

GOD’S WORLD
By Edna St. Vincent Millay
O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!
Thy winds, thy wide gray skies!
Thy mists that roll and rise!
Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag
And all but cry with color!  That gaunt crag
To crush!  To lift the lean of that black bluff!
World, world!  I cannot get thee close enough!

Long have I known a glory in it all
But never knew I this,
Here such a passion is
As stretcheth me apart.  Lord I do fear
Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year.
My soul is all but out of me—let fall
No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.