1/25/12 HAMBURGER SOUP, AND IF WORDS WERE ROSES

BARE BONES BLACK WALNUT

WINTER WOODLAND TRAIL

DULL WINTER MORNING

Wednesday, 8:30 AM.  25 degrees, wind SW, calm.  The sky is overcast and there is a dusting of slippery stuff on driveways and roads.  It was a Yak Track morning.  The sky is overcast but the barometer predicts partly cloudy skies.  It is a rather dull winter morning.
        Yesterday fulfilled its promise and was a glorious day, warm and sunny enough that I managed to scrape most of the accumulated ice from the driveway in the afternoon.  While I worked at that I  let Buddy run loose a bit, whistling for him every so often and giving him a treat when he returned.  He did well enough and we quit while we were ahead. 
        The good day was topped off by one of my favorite Bayfield winter meals, hamburger soup. That’s soup, not chili.
        It is good friend Ruth Johnson’s recipe.  She and  her husband Curt now live in a retirement community in Minnesota, and I know she will not mind us passing it on:
Hamburger soup
2 tsp. Butter                                      4 celery tops, chopped
1 medium chopped onion                   parsley to taste
1.5 lb. Ground beef                             1.5 tsp thyme
1 28 oz. Can diced tomatoes               10 peppercorns
2 cans beef consommé                        1 tbsp salt
2 soup cans water                               1.5 cupS barley
4 sliced carrots (into pennies)
Sauté onions in butter.  Add ground beef, brown and drain.  Add rest of ingredients and cook covered for one hour or more.
Delicious!
Commentary on the President’s State of the Union speech:
        If words were roses, we would be living in a rose garden.  We are not.