January Thaw-Soups 'on

Beautiful Soup by Lewis Carroll

BEAUTIFUL Soup, so rich and green,
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!

Beau--ootiful Soo-oop!
Beau--ootiful Soo-oop!
Soo--oop of the e--e--evening,
Beautiful, beautiful Soup!

Beautiful Soup! Who cares for fish,
Game, or any other dish?
Who would not give all else for two
Pennyworth only of Beautiful Soup?
Pennyworth only of beautiful Soup?

Beau--ootiful Soo-oop!
Beau--ootiful Soo-oop!
Soo--oop of the e--e--evening,
Beautiful, beauti--FUL SOUP!

A chilly, snowy day in January doesn't seem so bad when served a bowl of warm, tasty and nourishing soup. Recently I was lucky to have lunch at a friend's house and she served Sirloin Vegetable Soup. It was the perfect meal for the day and she graciously supplied the recipe which is posted at the end of this blog.

It got me thinking about silly poems and ones written about soup. Have you heard the poem above by Lewis Carroll Beautiful Soup? I have also seen it titled Turtle Soup. I love the poem for its repetition of words and sounds. Lewis Carroll was the pen name for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He mastered the genre of literary nonsense. Not only is he known for poems with nonsensical lyrics but also the story Alice in Wonderland which truly made him famous. But few know that he also was a church deacon and mathematician. As I was doing a bit of sleuthing on the Internet I found a wonderful reading on the You Tube site of this poem Beautiful Soup by Nigel Planer. You can get to this site by going to Lewis Carroll You Tube and this site also has a reading of his famous poem Jabberwocky.

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Sirloin Vegetable Soup

from Elaine's Sirloin Soup Food.com

adapted by Dennie

Ingredients:

• 1 TB butter
• 1 lb. sirloin diced
• 2 TB. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup water
• 4 cups beef broth
• 1 cup V8 juice
• 1 can tomatoes (Contadina brand)
• 8 large carrots diced
• 3 ribs of celery
• 1/2 onion cut and diced
• 2 cups diced sweet potatoes
• 2 medium red potatoes cut and diced
• 1 tsp. McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning

Directions:

• Cook sirloin pieces in butter and saute with onion about 5-7 minutes
• Sprinkle steak seasonings and Worcestershire sauce over meat cook a few minutes longer till browned
• Pour in water, broth, V8 juice and vegetables
• Bring to a boil and simmer on low heat 1 hour to 2 hours ( a crock pot on low would work well with this recipe for several hours )
• Cook till vegetables tender
• optional adding 4 oz. egg noddles the last 10 minutes of cooking