We were hungry. We were preparing to cook beef and vegetable soup. Chopped onions, carrots and celery. The kitchen counter top was filled with bags of vegetables. Potatoes, okras, green peas, beans, kernels, diced tomatoes, beef broth and beef shanks were needed. Beef shanks looked like tough, it smelled strong and sounded fresh. Kalami, I said in my language, delicious.
She browned the beef shanks in both sides. As gentle as a lamb, I added the onions, garlic, celery, carrots and chicken broth into the tall pot. Smell of warm soup, seasoning it with salt and pepper. Adding some diced tomatoes, a waltz in the pot of vegetables and meat were dancing around, and around, because me and my mother-in-law, we're the kitchen queens, who can cook like that, like as merry as crickets and as bright as day.
Slicing potatoes with a knife that remind her, she says, how happy she was learning this recipe from her grandmother. And me remembering when I was little, my mother who cooked beef soup at my homeland in the Philippines similar to this.
We saw our dogs happily cleaning the kitchen floor. Tails wagging, happy thoughts. We love them. The youngest dog is mine. My dog Doss with eyes as black as coal, Doss of the crooked mouth and a small body shaped like a hotdog, Doss whose name that some people cannot remember, was the dog who killed two chickens and a duck for dessert, licks the other dogs asleep, toots as stinky as the breath of a vulture, was constantly licking the floor while we were cooking.
After three hours of boiling and simmering, spaghetti noodles were added last. We cut it into small, that's how we liked it. When flames were turned off and we tasted the soup we knew the vegetables continued dancing in our thoughts. Delicious, the word we said.
With all her cooking memories and all my learning that day, our love for cooking is like a growing garland. Us, enjoying between big bites and sips of soup.
Yum!
All of my dogs love to eat fresh fruits and vegetables.
Have a good one!
~Ehssa
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