The Original Vegetable Beef Soup Faux Pas

Something strange has happened. I blame the full moon. My boys are playing together without fighting or crying or bleeding!

HH has disappeared several times throughout the day. He thinks he lives at an inn, perhaps. An inn with maid service and an open kitchen. He appeared around 2:30 and asked, "That stew? Can I eat some?" Which was a bit odd, considering that there was no stew. There was a big pot of vegetable beef soup on the stove. Perhaps he was confused because I must make soup without much liquid. The reason for that is HH himself. Let me repeat the story of HH's original vegetable beef soup faux pas.

I had made another pot of soup several years ago. I was planning for it to be the evening meal, but HH decided he wanted some for lunch. I had already fed the boys, who at that tender age did not wish to partake of vegetable beef soup. I was folding laundry in the living room, and turned to say something to HH. There he was, walking to the table with a towering bowl of soup. "Wait, wait, Hillbilly Mom!" you say. "What do you mean, a 'towering' bowl of soup? That is not possible. Perhaps you've had a mini-stroke, and are not in full command of your adjectives!" Oh, but sadly, I am. HH had dredged up all the beef from the large pot o' soup. His bowl was piled high with an entire chuck roast. In fact, he did not need the bowl. For the amount of 'soup' he had, he could have used a Chinet paper plate. And it would have been only half full. Of course I had to chastise him, much in the manner of Mary Richards telling Lou Grant that that there were only 6 servings of Veal Prince Orloff, and he had taken 3. Except that my HH had kidnapped the whole Prince.

So now, when I make soup, it is a bit chunky. I put in half the water that the little packet of dry soup mix calls for, then I toss in cans of carrots, potatoes, green beans, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, a few tablespoons of sugar to counteract the tomato acid, several dashes of Worcestershire sauce, and a roast. OK, to be fair, that's not the exact recipe. I discard the liquid in the canned veggies, because I want a dry soup. And I hack up that roast and brown it and dice it into cubes of about 1 centimeter. But who's measuring. Some are cubes, some are strips, some are slices. I just want to make them small, because then it's harder for HH to isolate them and hoard them in his bowl. Oh, and I used to dip HH's soup for him, even using a strainer kind of thingy, and every time he said, "My soup is too juicy." So now he can get it himself.

I am planning chili for later in the week.