peevish mama

Who would have imagined, during the first act of Soupapalooza back in February, that the fourth act would come during a stretch of 70 degree weather and popping tulips? Never mind the weather, according to the calendar, it's still soup season. For week four of Soupapalooza, I bring you a light Spring Minestrone with Chicken Meatballs. 

For week three of Soupapalooza, I was inspired by one of the few measly snowfalls we've gotten here in Minnesota to make something white and creamy. Given its availability this time of year, cauliflower seemed like the most natural choice, notwithstanding the fact that I spent most of my youth vehemently opposed to it both in theory and in practice. I didn't trust anything so stinky and frankly, so pale. But I've grown up now, and stinky and pale is alright by me.

One of my earliest food memories is of eating soup with my dad. Both of my parents were medical residents and although I don't remember feeling juggled, I know that caring for me with two punishing call schedules was an elaborate dance. It must have been on those bleary-eyed nights when my mom was on call, that my dad would pull out the Campbell's Alphabet Soup. He would serve it in one big bowl and float big chunks of Meunster cheese in it which would melt into long gooey strings. Together we would eat, our heads touching, our spoons crossing - giggling, looking for letters and trying to get that cheese. 

It's a good thing Minnesota is (typically) such a cold and snowy place as we turn the calendar page to a new year, because for the second year in a row, my New Year's resolution has involved soup. Here's a tip apropos of resolutions, people: Don't bite off more than you can chew, or slurp. Last year, I resolved to figure out a way to make a delicious vegetable soup that satisfied my hungry, winter (read: carnivorous) self and I did it! It pays to make super attainable resolutions. The vegetable stock and the soup itself are recipes I go back to time and time again, and each time I do, I feel warm, nourished, happy and yes, a wee bit virtuous. This year, as I was thinking of things in my life I wanted to change in 2012, I somehow fell right back into a pot of soup.

With juice dripping down her arm, I heard my daughter tell her younger sister that they were eating “elf strawberries.” Indeed, it seems hardly more of a stretch to imagine that the farmers market berries were grown by elves than to think they are the same type of fruit as the gargantuan strawberries available at the supermarket in protective plastic shields. There have been times when I’ve watched my kid clutch a strawberry in her fist and eat it like one would eat an apple and I’ve shuddered. It just seems unnatural. But how are they supposed to know that a strawberry shouldn’t fill your entire palm or that a watermelon is supposed to have seeds or that all apples are not round?

If you are a woman anywhere near my age and I started singing Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens . . . chances are good you would pipe in immediately with bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens! All together now! Brown paper packages, tied up with striiiiing. These are a few of my favorite thiiiings! OK, I’ll stop. But I know you’re feeling it. Try as I might, I can’t get my kids interested in The Sound of Music. I guess children in lederhosen made out of curtains singing with a nun can’t compete with the likes of Harry Potter and The Black Eyed Peas. 

When our fearless editor, Lee, sent out an email to the SGT writers asking if anyone was interested in reviewing a raw food cookbook, I jumped at the chance. I didn’t know much about raw food, aside from the obvious, and envisioned myself learning how to carve flowers out of carrots and arrange basil leaves around a plate, just so. I figured raw food was, you know, pretty. I soon learned that there are more than aesthetic reasons for eating raw foods, and Susan Powers does a great job of explaining the health and environmental benefits on her website, Rawmazing. In short, cooking food destroys or alters valuable enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that we need for our health, so preparing foods without cooking them gives our bodies what they need “to thrive, not just survive.”

I won’t even begin to discuss the weather this past week -- gray, cold, spitting rain, and even (gasp) snow? Is this fair for Minnesotans? No. Is this normal for Minnesotans? Well, I hate to say it, but yes. And yet, every year we seem to forget what we should never forget: April isn’t really spring. It can be lovely, in bits and snatches here and there with the longer days and the ever-so-slightly warmer sun, but mostly, April reserves the right to be cold and ornery.

Chances are that if you're reading this article, you already know how awesome the Mill City Farmers Market is. If you happen not to, I have three words for you: Go! It's AWESOME. Whenever we have out-of-town visitors we take them to the Mill City Farmers Market on Saturday morning because, frankly, we are huge show-offs and this market highlights all that we love about our fair city.