The Confessions of a Very Part-Time Carnie
And a recipe for TLC in a bowl
For our family, this past Monday just so happened to be one of our most favorite days of the year. Of course, first place definitely goes to Christmas Day where we lay around in our pjs, play boardgames, and watch “Klaus” on an endless loop while eating the goodies that Santa hid in our stockings the night before. And second place probably goes to Thanksgiving Day, sharing the cornucopia of casseroles and pies it brings in the company of grandparents and uncles and aunts and cousins with a constant soundtrack of football in the background. But I think I can say with a fair amount of confidence that this past Monday is our third favorite day of the year.
It has nothing to do with the actual date, mind you. September 25th doesn’t hold any particular significance for us, unless it happens to fall on the Monday after the end of The Great Frederick Fair, which it did this year. And because of that, we in the Smucker household were all smiles and rainbows and twinkle-toed optimism on that day.
Because only five, short but very long weeks ago, we started our annual “fair season.” While this time of year might represent the “back-to-school” rush for some folks or “the-end-of-summer” mourning for others, for us it means lacing up the oldest, cruddiest (yet most comfortable) shoes from our closets, slipping into red t-shirts that smell of an odd combination of Tide detergent and Swiss cheese, and working our tiny little tails off for five weeks of 14 hour days at our family’s PA Dutch Foods fair stand, where we specialize in making and selling hand-rolled soft pretzels and a variety of other Dutchy favorites.
I share this with you for various reasons.
First, it’s a confession of sorts. I wish I could say that at our fair stand we served fruit salad and veggie dogs. In my dream world, we would, and we would make mountains of money doing it. But in reality, this business was handed down from my husband’s grandfather to his father and now to him, and let’s just say that none of them have the same dietary convictions that I do. But in adherence with my first WFPB Swimming Tip from a few weeks ago, my #1 priority in this family business is to support my husband and his desire to carry on a much-loved family heirloom.
So, yes, I spent the past five weeks serving the good people of Maryland pretzel-wrapped hotdogs and ham and cheese sandwiches. And I’ll do it again next year, and the year after, and as long as my husband desires to keep this business alive. As a WFPB devotee myself, there’s a moral rub in this, and I know folks who have serious convictions about vegetarian and vegan diets might find issue with my choice to take part in my husband’s business. I can understand why. But it is what it is in my eyes. And in the wise words of Forrest Gump, “That’s all I have to say about that.”
The second reason I share this with you is because it’s a beautiful and significant part of our family’s story, and sharing some of our story is part of what I’m doing here at Mai Time in the Kitchen. On the dusty grounds of those fairs, family memories have been birthed where they could not find life anywhere else. From our children taking naps in empty food bins as babies to them standing among the rush of fairgoers handing out soft pretzel samples wearing white aprons that reached to their ankles and eager smiles on their faces. Now, it’s the late-night clean ups where all of us belt out “Folsum Prison Blues” as Johnny Cash sings from the speaker atop the microwave while we scrub down countertops and Windex sneeze guards. And then there are our fellow standholders, who we see only once each year but we hug like the old friends that they are and catch up on each other’s family news while washing dirty pans in the aroma of Dawn dish soap at the sink out back. It’s a different kind of kitchen than the one I talk about here. But it’s just as dear to our family.
Lastly, I share this with you because during our five weeks of fair life, our family spends days on end away from the wholesome, healthy foods that I love to cook in our home kitchen. Instead, our meals come from the food stands around us. Which means lots of dinners of French fries and ice cream, buttery soft pretzels and pillowy whoopie pies. By the end of the fairs, our bodies feel soggy with all the grease and sugar we’ve consumed, and they ache for something homemade and nutritious. “I can’t wait to eat something green,” my oldest daughter always moans on the last day, and even my junk-food junkie 14-year-old nods solemnly in agreement.
And so, today, I present my TLC Vegetable Soup. You don’t need to do a five-week stint as a carnie to appreciate this soup. It’s our “go-to” for anytime we’ve spent a little too much time overindulging. This is a perfect post-Birthday Bash, post-Girls or Boys Night Out, post-Raiding Your Kid’s Trick-or-Treat Bag recipe. It’ll give your body the vitamin injection it needs to get out of the Gluttonous Swamp you found yourself in and back on to solid ground. Friends, it’s time to dish out some tender loving care!
Mai’s TLC Vegetable Soup
Alright, let’s get one thing straight from the beginning. The key to a delicious vegetable soup is that all the delectable veggies don’t cook down into an indistinguishable, unpalatable mass in the end. In order to avoid such a catastrophe, you have to stagger the entry points into the soup pot for your vegetables. Some of the sturdier ones like carrots and celery can handle heat longer than broccoli or potatoes. So as much as you might want this to be a dump and run kind of recipe, it’s not. It will require a little more babysitting than that. Not necessarily the attention a toddler might need, but definitely enough to keep a 9-year-old from burning the house down. Enough said. Let’s get on to the good stuff.
Ingredients:
1 c. diced onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 c. potatoes, cubed
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. dried basil (or if basil isn’t your thing, my kids also like this soup with 1 tsp. of Herbes de Provence)
4 c. vegetable broth
2 c. broccoli, chopped
1 c. green cabbage, chopped
1 c. frozen corn
28 oz. can diced tomatoes
1, 14 oz. can great northern beans (or any other white beans you might have on hand—cannellini or garbanzo would be great substitutions)
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
As I’ve mentioned in previous recipes, I don’t always like to sauté with oil. Sometimes I just like a bit of water to get the cooking going, and that’s what I prefer here. In a pot over medium heat, add ¼ c. of water as well as the onions, garlic, and celery (but if you’d like to use olive oil to sauté with, go right ahead.)
Sauté for 3ish minutes and then add the carrots. Continue to cook for another 3-4 minutes and then add the potatoes, bay leaf, basil, and vegetable broth. Bring this mixture to a boil and cook for 4ish minutes before adding the broccoli. Give it another 3 to 4 minutes of cooking and then add the cabbage. Cook at a confident simmer for about 5 minutes before adding corn, tomatoes, and beans. Continue with the simmer until all the veggies have the right tenderness, it could be a matter of a few minutes or as many as ten depending on what kind of heat you’ve been using. I like to test out the goods as various points in this stage to see how all my veggies are getting along. Once it achieves the tenderness you desire, add salt and pepper to your liking. Then, pull the pot off the stove, ladle up the soup, and get ready to feel human again.