Fall Family Traditions...Comfort Food!

 Autumn Soup

Some of my favorite memories of Fall are of hurrying home from school on a blustery day and finding Mom hard at work making pumpkin cookies or cinnamon rolls.  While dessert was getting ready for the oven, a pot of soup or chili would be bubbling on the stove.  I'm noticing that many of my favorite memories involve food.  But isn't that how we as mothers show how much we love our families?  A neighbor of mine doesn't do crafts, but boy can she cook!  She shows her love and friendship with gifts of cookies and other yummy treats.  She would deny it is a talent, but I always wish I were more like her.

Recipe for Autumn Soup 
This is simple fare...no frills...but filling.
Ingredients:
1 lb. Lean Ground Beef
1 Chopped Onion
Carrots ( I used a small bag of baby carrots--12 oz. or so)
3 Stalks of Celery, Chopped
6 to 8 Russet Potatoes, Peeled and Cubed
2 Cans of Beef Broth ( or equivalent Bouillon and Water)
1 Envelope Onion Soup Mix

Brown the ground beef, onion and celery together in a large stew pot.  Add potatoes and carrots.  Season with seasoning salt and pepper.  Add more bouillon or broth to taste if needed.  I didn't have any celery, so I dumped in a jar of the green beans I bottled last month.  We like to eat the soup with corn bread.

Rhea's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
I was feeling nostalgic, so I made both the Autumn Soup and the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies for supper last night.  I'd forgotten just how much I missed my parents and five brothers and sisters and our family life.  Fall is a season of reflection...of looking back, so we don't forget where we came from.  This cookie recipe is pretty good...I think...and it makes a LOT!.

Mom's Cookie Recipe
Ingredients:
1 Cup Butter or Margerine
3 Cups Sugar
2 Eggs
1 16 oz. Can Pumpkin
2 Tsp. Vanilla
2 Tsp. Cinnamon
2 Tsp. Nutmeg
5 Cups Flour
2 Tsp. Soda
1 Tsp. Salt
2 Tsp. Baking Powder
Nuts and Chocolate Chips  (As many as pleases you!)
Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes.  Makes about 6 dozen.

What Makes a Comfort Food?

 I wonder why so many of our childhood memories seem to have food attached to them?  Good times and good eats go together hand in hand...like Trick or Treat and Sloppy Joes.  Autumn garden harvests bring corn on the cobb and toasted bacon and tomato sandwiches.  One of my favorite garden comfort foods is stuffed green peppers.  We had a bumper crop of peppers this year, so I have been making this dish at least once a week.

My Stuffed Green Peppers Do Not Look This Pretty!

My happiest memory of Stuffed Peppers comes from early in my marriage.  I was feeling lonely.  My husband had a part-time job loading trucks after classes at BYU...working nights.  When the baby went to sleep, I had no one to talk to.  Just when I was feeling the most sorry for myself, my mother came to the door with a plate of Stuffed Green Peppers swimming in tomato juice.  She said she couldn't stay, but she had felt that I needed a little something.  Nothing ever tasted so good!  "Comfort Food"...says it all!

Bless Your Family with Love and Comfort Food.

Have a Vintage Autumn!