Southern Comfort

Nothing beckons me to reach to the back of the shelf in my lower kitchen cabinet to drag out the heaviest pot I own like a cold winter day. There’s something about a bowl of homemade soup that warms you to your core and makes the world, at least for a while, seem a little less frigid.

Mention “comfort food” to many people, and the first thing they’ll mention is soup — and for good reason. It seems soup has been a part of the human diet for upwards of 22,000 years. Soup has staying power.

According to the “It’s Souper” (itssouper.com) blog, based on archaeological evidence, it turns out the very first bowl of soup was cooked in 20,000 BC and became part of man’s everyday menu from as early as 6000 BC, when clay pots and bowls were invented.

I’m fairly certain those prehistoric broths bore little resemblance to the savory chowders, goulashes, and gumbos we enjoy today, but even then, a good bowl of bone broth likely warmed many a weary hunter as he retired to the home fire after a day in the wild.

My family (and probably yours as well) enjoys a big soup dinner several times every winter. Our taste runs toward vegetable beef, a mouthwatering concoction featuring garden vegetables my sister Deb and I canned or froze during the late summer months, and simple potato soup, not the loaded kind offered in many restaurants.

When it snows, we all gather at my sister’s house for sledding and soups. When the mercury drops below 40, Marty and I drag out that heavy pot and fill our home with the unmistakable aroma of chili or tomato soup. A crispy-crusted grilled cheese sandwich completes the cold-weather meal.

And now that the prognosticators are calling for an extended cold snap in Burke County, we may be dragging that heavy pot out this weekend. Why don’t you and your family enjoy a soup night as well?