pork ribs | Big Little Meals

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I just ♪ put another log on the fire ♪ (did you know that Shel Silverstein wrote that song?), and I’m getting ready to make soup. It’s January. I’m looking forward to spring and re-birth – in our yard and elsewhere. Andy is having lotus/Lotus fantasies.

Soupcon. I love that word. Yes, soup’s on in our house, but our portions will be small. Could we say a soupcon of soup’s on? Admittedly, our kiddos think we underfeed them proportion-wise when they’re here.

In 1996 The Washington Post had a review of the film, I Shot Andy Warhol. The title of their review? “A Soupcon of Warhol in Every Scene.” To tie that into today’s world, the woman who shot Warhol – in 1968 – was Valerie Solanas, described by the Post as: the founder and (apparently) sole member of a revolutionary feminist sect called the Society for Cutting Up Men (a k a SCUM), and the author of “The SCUM Manifesto,” a rabid yet frequently hilarious polemic proclaiming the natural biological superiority of women and urging the eradication of the male sex. “Just because men, like disease, have been with us forever is no reason they should continue to exist,” she wrote.

But again I digress.

For your own personal SoupsOn evening, we have three suggestions.

First: a wonderful and easy clam chowder that is just ever-so-slightly adapted from my brother’s sister-in-law, Joyce. We like to keep things all in the family! Joyce reports that she in turn found the recipe in a 1967 edition – 1973 printing – of Sunset’s Seafood Cookbook….and has been making it on Christmas Eve ever since. It’s a go-to for us.

Or how about a red lentil soup? It’s Super Simple, quick to fix, healthy, pretty, delicious. What more could you want? Plus, you can tweak it so many ways.

And finally, a perfect chili for a cold winter’s night, one which we adapted from one of our favs – Melissa Clark from the NY Times.

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And Now for Something Completely Different

A David Ewing Creation

Happy 2018 from The Raggedys! In Andy’s Corner Andy has been busy ranking the great articles we posted during 2017 on Food for Thought – and I’ve been busy…..well, tidying up after entertaining family and friends for Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

To start the new year Andy and I are delighted to have a guest blogger from “The Land of Enchantment.” David Ewing is enchanting in-oh-so-many ways, only one of them being that he’s from New Mexico. Frankie, David’s wife and my junior-year roommate at CC, introduced us to David probably 45+ years ago. I might add that because David’s professional practice focused on geriatric psychiatry, it can be more-than-a-little intimidating dealing with him! 🙂

When Frankie and David’s holiday letter arrived the other day, we knew it would be filled with just enough of David’s droll sense of humor – and witticisms about life with the Ewing family – to entertain us thoroughly. And it did.

David is the perfect counter-balance to what I write and think about in regards to food and cooking. While I fill up notebooks before the Christmas holidays with grocery-shopping lists, details of every day’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner plans, daily chores in the kitchen, etc., etc., etc., David punts.

Ann’s holiday cooking lists

David’s holiday cooking list

Frankie and David

Asked to respond to “Who Am I?” David answered:

David Ewing is the husband of Frankie Keller Ewing, Ann’s Colorado College sorority sister from one hundred years ago. He is much younger than those old people, but he has used himself hard through the years and is pretty well worn out, so does not seem too out of place when he tags along to their geriatric gatherings, at least not until he opens his mouth. Frankie allows as how he does this too early and too often, but she has become more tolerant through the years. He is as rude as ever, but his outrageous suggestions have mostly become idle threats and rarely result in actual misbehavior, at least not in an organized way. It is hard to get into too much trouble when bedtime is at 9:00 PM.

Two of his surviving passions are puttering and eating. When these find expression concurrently, he cooks. Some describe him as a “creative” cook. He suspects that “creative” in this context means approximately the same thing as “interesting” when it is used to describe a dish that one actually doesn’t care for at all. The sort of “creativity” David indulges actually grows out of a disability: his incapacity for sustained attention. Ann has asked him to write something about what effect this has on his cooking.

Here is David’s blog. Read it and smile. Read it and get a whole different perspective on shopping and cooking. And then enjoy his recipes (though David warns you should not adhere to them too closely): a menu featuring Costillas de Puerco (pork ribs) in a Guajillo Sauce, Calabacitos (a New Mexico-style dish with summer squash) and a Watermelon and Tomatillo Salad (which appeared in an earlier post). Our Brooklyn kiddos received an Instant Pot for Christmas, so the Costillas recipe should get instant family interest.

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