Soup and Story Saturday!

Recently, Erin, from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs, began a new series. And, it’s exactly what the title says. It’s a post about soup and a story. Now, you and I all know, I am not a cook. So, my recipe for soup is going to be very easy. I haven’t made it in years because Nigel doesn’t like creamy soup. I know…something is seriously wrong with the man. Who doesn’t like a creamy soup every once in a while? I’ll admit there are creamy soups I don’t like, but I digress. This soup is one my mom used to make on the rare occasions we’d have chicken. I have written ad nauseum about my Grandma and Grandpa Luderman, my mom’s parents (just search for Luderman and a few posts should come up). Grandpa raised beef cattle so I’m a red meat eater from way back. Wanna know what a luxury was at our house? Chicken! That’s right. Mom could just go down to the freezer and pull out a package of T-bones, and no one of thought a thing of it. By the way, have you seen the price of T-bones? Boy howdy! Anyway, here is my recipe.

Creamed chicken…

Using a good size pot, you take a chicken and boil it until tender. I am pretty sure you could use a rotisserie chicken for this, but I never have had that (shocking, I know)! After the chicken cooks, take it out of the broth, but don’t get rid of the broth. When your hands can take it, tear that chicken apart…in other words, shred it! I have to wait a bit for it to cool. I used to have Teflon™ hands but not anymore. Now, back to the broth. You can add water or additional chicken stock. The amount you add will depend upon how many people you’re feeding or how many times you want this for leftovers. I don’t salt meat prior to cooking as I once read it made it tough. I’m not sure if that’s really true, but I don’t salt the chicken. At this point, I do salt (to taste) the broth mixture. Next, return the chicken to your pot. Using cornstarch or flour (I prefer corn starch), make a slurry with some of the chicken stock. Not sure what that is? Well, to make it, put some cornstarch or flour in a container. I use a glass measuring cup only because it’s easier to pour back into your soup. Anyhoo, put the dry ingredients in first, then mix in some of the stock and stir. I don’t know how much of anything because I just eyeball it. The cool part about this soup is you can make it as thick or as thin as you want. Once you’ve gotten all the dry stuff mixed in well with the stock, dump it into the pot with the rest of the stock and chicken. Turn the heat up and stir. It will take a bit, but the slurry you added in will eventually thicken. If it isn’t thick enough for your taste, repeat the cornstarch/flour and chicken stock step until it is. Add more salt and pepper to taste. And, your creamy chicken soup is finished.

Biscuits…

Here’s where you get to make some choices. You could probably use any kind of biscuits you want. You can use homemade or the kind that come in a can and you whack them on the edge of the counter! When my mom made this she made baking powder biscuits. I am pretty sure there was a recipe on the container, and she just followed that. My mom was a fabulous cook. She made the best tomato gravy ever as well as pot roast, Swiss steak, etc. You name it, she probably made it and made it scrumptious. I don’t have her recipe, but I found one here. It’s even called “Mom’s Baking Powder Biscuits!” You can have these made a bit ahead of time but not too much because they will get as hard as hockey pucks after time! They’re also better warm with the creamed chicken.

Assembly…

Hahaha!!! There isn’t any! Again, you get to choose how to eat this cozy, great-for-a-rainy-day concoction! I always liked to break up my biscuits a bit before putting the soup over the top. But, if you like to dunk, you might want to keep the biscuits whole and dunk away!

The story…

I wrote a bit about Camp Potawotami here. You’ll need to scroll down a bit to find that part…you’ll know you hit it when you see me with pie in my face! Anyhoo…I taught fourth grade the last half of my teaching career. Every year, we took our students to sleep away camp at the end of the year. It was an amazing field trip where the kids got to experience many different things, owl pellets, riding in a canoe, archaeology, climbing a wall, and, for all the years I taught, an Underground Railroad simulation at night. This field trip was so popular, kids AND parents looked forward to it! Those parents who had already had kids go told others so we usually had almost as many parents as kids attend. And, that was a good thing. We divided our kids into very small groups so they could really get the best experience possible. Dissecting owl pellets with 25 kids isn’t nearly as enlightening as doing it with 10 or 12.

The story continues…

At night, for the Underground Railroad simulation, we needed lots of volunteers to perform the roles of various people escaping slaves would encounter. Now, before I go any farther, I want to be completely transparent. My school was predominantly, as in 95-98%, white. These kids had no idea (nor did I if we’re being completely honest) what escaping slaves experienced. But, we had tried as best we could to prepare them for what life was like for Black people prior to the Civil War, including being a slave as well as escaping slaves. So, during this simulation, we had a character based on Harriet Tubman as well as several “conductors.” Along the way, they would encounter several different people, one of whom was a sheriff. The sheriff’s station, for some reason, always had a fire going. The camp counselors would prepare the fire and light it, but they kinda left us alone after that. The first year or two we went, the counselors performed all the roles, but that changed as they struggled to staff the camp. This would have been before most colleges had let out for the year, and these college students would be counselors at the summer camp. So, they were often short handed and, eventually, realized most schools could do this for themselves.

Getting back to it…

So, it’s dark. The kids are being led by “conductors” with oil lamps (and flashlights). They meet up with a character based on Harriet Tubman (I usually played her) and are sent on their way. Depending on the camp counselors, they either ended up across the Ohio River in Indiana, in Canada, or in jail! We never really knew, from year to year, how the simulation would end. After all the groups had finished, we’d meet at the big deck thing by the lake, and the counselors would, basically, debrief the kids. And, they really needed that time to talk about what they’d seen, done, and witnessed.

This one particular year…

One year, we were all gathered back at the dormitory where we would sleep. It was pitch black outside…you honestly couldn’t see a thing. I forgot to say there were three of us…my best friend, and a male teacher as well as me. We started talking and, for some reason, the sheriff’s fire came up. Usually, they were told to have a bucket of water and to put out the fire. We didn’t know if that had happened or not. By this time, it’s past midnight. The kids are, for the most part, asleep. Most of the parents are in the common area, either talking or playing cards. We tracked down the sheriff and asked him if he’d put out the fire. He just looked at us like we had two heads each! We then realized we had a bit of a problem on our hands. So, at midnight, in the pitch black, these three out of shape teachers go into panic mode. It had been an especially dry year. I don’t remember if it was particularly windy that night or not. But, we were convinced we were going to burn down the camp! The guy heads to the main lodge to find a couple of big buckets and fill them up with water. My bestie and I head out to try to find the fire. That’s the other part of this…the trails were not stomped down because it was just the start of the camping season. And, there were multiple trails. We didn’t know which way to go because…say it with me now…it was pitch black. I think I have purposely blanked this part from my mind because I honestly can’t remember if we ever found the fire and dumped any water on it. What I do know is all night long, we got up and walked outside to look toward the east where the fire would have been. We were looking to see if the sky was glowing because if it was, we knew we’d set the trees on fire! And, we would need to evacuate close to 100 people pretty darn quickly! Luckily, there was no fire, and we made it back to school safely the next day. We laughed about it for years…just the sight of our guy teacher (who wasn’t a big dude with muscles) carrying those two big buckets of water, sloshing around his legs, only to discover we hadn’t been able to find the daggone fire in the first place! Honestly, my friends, it was way funnier (now) than it comes across here!

Thank you!

I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for reading, commenting, subscribing or emailing! It truly means so much to me! If you’d like to follow me on Instagram, you can find me here.

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Linking up with Nancy’s Fashion Style,  Fine-Whatever, Is This Mutton, Shelbee on the Edge, Chez Mireile, Suzy Turner, and Away from the Blue as well as Deb’s World and A Fresh Cup of Coffee. I also link up with This Blonde’s Shopping Bag, Doused in Pink, I do deClaire, Mummabstylish, Style Splash and Elegantly Dressed and Stylish as well as the Senior Salon Pit Stop (Esme’s Salon) and Slices of Life. Please check out these wonderful ladies and their blogs! I also am a co-host for Ageless Style on the third Thursday of the month and Songful Style on the last Monday of the month. I co-host Traffic Jam Weekend every Thursday with Melynda, Lisa, and Sue. I also host Final Fridays on the last Friday of the month as well as 10 on the 10th on the 10th of the month! I do hope you’ll check out all of these blogs and link parties!

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