Sunday nights are soup night. It started back when I had rehearsals on Sunday afternoons for a community choral group. Mr. Garner would watch the game on the TV in the kitchen, chop ingredients, saute, stir and simmer until I got home. Catching a whiff of delicious cooking smells as I turned the key in the door, I would drop my music on the piano, and head to the kitchen where we would all sit down to a wonderful family dinner.
During the summer, we don’t make soup. Sometimes we grill. In the coastal South there is ever-present humidity, and it doesn’t make sense to make it worse with a hot kitchen! So when the leaves start looking a little golden around the edges, and the sun’s path is lower in the sky, and the sky takes on a Maxfield Parrish blue, I start leaning toward a shift in the menu, anticipating, in particular, the return of Sunday Soup. Sunday Soup also provides plenty of yummy leftovers which is helpful for Monday night’s more hectic dinnertime pace due to GraceNote ‘s American Heritage Girl meeting.
Now that Autumn is here, the slight chill in the air keeps uninvited mosquitoes at bay. Last night the weather was fair, so Mr. Garner set chopped pecan wood in the firepit on the back patio, while GraceNotes and I set the table on the back porch, served up the soup, cut the bread, and lit a few candles. Then we all sat down to thank God for the blessings of the day, enjoy dinner, the sunset, the crackling of the fire, the crisp air, the serenade of a few remaining crickets and to wait for the Harvest Moon to emerge from the glowing clouds.
We miss our son. We texted him a picture.
Our favorite Chicken Noodle Soup and Beef Stew recipes come from The New Best Recipes by Cooks Illustrated Magazine. Our Sourdough bread comes from Panera. GraceNotes is enjoying Welch’s Sparkling White Grape Juice, and Mr. Garner picked up a bottle of DeMarco Prosecco to celebrate Sunday Soup Night!
Do you have a favorite soup recipe?
Rabbit Trails 