Homemade Soup

Angela Cooper

Letting the water run, while washing dishes, Grandma Cooper would talk about how she had to make it through the hard times.

I would ask her, "Why do you like making that soup? Not to say it's not good, but, Grandma, you make it all the time."

Grandma responded by saying, "It's what I know. Child, being sick on a cold day, my mom would go into the kitchen and try to find something to eat, but back then it was not that easy. It was hard times. My mom would do the best that she could, and back then we had lots of canned food. Meat was just hard to come by, unless you had a farm. My mom would get a can of vegetables, string beans, peas, butter beans, and tomato soup. She would get out her big pot and throw all that in the pot, and add her seasons. And that meal would last us for the whole week."

Grandma said by the time she got older and had a family of her own, she did the same thing, but she added hamburger to her soup. In the next room, her husand would yell out, "Don't forget my peanut butter sandwich to go with my soup!"

Now, on the cold and lazy days, a big pot from my kitchen gets pulled out and all the vegetable and hamburger and seasons get put into the pot. And just like Grandma and Mom, the soup lasts for a week. So my family's recipe is homemade soup, which goes back two generations.