My Darling Mother Made My Favorite Meal

Chicken soup with dumplings

When I lived on Midland Row, we didn’t have much but we had the love of a large family and larger extended family. My mother was the glue that held us all together. She came between our father and us if he disagreed with anything we wanted to do. Nothing showed her love for us after our birth as much as her culinary skills!  No one I knew then or since comes close to the meals and recipes she prepared.

Soup to me was heaven, even as a child! My mom made the soup from whatever was available and it always tasted like no one else’s and better than anything bought in a can or in any restaurant. It was not fattening and it contained every vegetable that was around the town at that time. Moose soup could be made at any time of the year, as our deep freezer always contained moose meat and bones. I’m sure no one had more moose heart and tongue than we did!  Mom made dumplings which stretched the soup even further. You didn’t need bread and butter, if you had dumplings, and if you’ve read some of my stories up to this point, you know I’ve written that she made bread every day, except for Sundays.

Other soups that were popular in our house were turkey neck and chicken soups, always added to with vegetables and rice. The boiler was always two-thirds or three-quarters full.  Topped off with dumplings, it was a real treat! Sometimes mom added a can of tomatoes to it and it had a unique flavour. There were no overweight kids back then, that was for sure!

But the soup that I craved, and I have no idea why, was pea soup. I asked mom all the time if she could make pea soup. She had a pork bone in it and it was always perfect. I think it was the texture with small pieces of carrot and turnip that made it divine. So it was this soup that my mother prepared for me every time she knew I was coming home from university. She made huge dumplings and if there were any left over, after the soup was all gone, we got to dribble molasses over them. They were like dessert after the main course. No one got up from the table hungry! e

There were times I came home from Memorial University without letting my parents know I was on my way.  I didn’t want to worry them unnecessarily, so I’d hike a ride and just show up. On those occasions my mother would jaw me and then she would make my favorite pea soup the next day.

After my mother passed away I searched many restaurants for pea soup.  Bidgoods in the Goulds has very good soup, and I’ve bought it often. But mostly pea soup in the restaurants I’ve frequented  have been watery, lacking in the ham or pork. And I’ve yet to find it with dumplings!

These days I depend on my husband to make the pea soup.  He makes it with small pieces of salt beef, which he uses to salt the boiler full of soup. He adds carrot, turnip, pepper and onions, and then lastly the dumplings. He has become quite the cook and I would not turn his soup down for anything.  I’ve never made it in my life, but the best that I’ve tasted in my life have been my mother’s and husband’s pea soup!

Pea Soup Without Dumplings

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