A stack of packages from Amazon sat on the end of my dining room table when I came in from shopping. Good, I thought—things I ordered for Christmas! However, when I ripped open the first package, I discovered a cookbook that I had definitely not ordered. Darn, I thought—a return already? [I hate to return anything.] Then I spotted the packing slip and the Merry Christmas! note that this was a gift from my fellow author friends Carolyn Wood and Mary Jane Zabinski.
What a pleasant surprise—especially since it was a cookbook! I love cookbooks, needless to say, and this note said it was their very all-time favorite soup cookbook—The New England Soup Factory Coookbook. The smallish, square, glossy as beaten egg whites pages, the gorgeously staged photographs, and the scrumptious-sounding recipes lifted my mood. Something to enjoy starting on (reading and cooking) in January, I thought; something to cheer me and get me writing and cooking and excited in spite of my husband Bob’s advancing Parkinson’s disease, and the bound-to-be two months of porridge skies and used teabag humidity.
Of course…I could not wait that long—a whole week away—and so I found a great beef stew recipe, began to cook, and sat down and wrote this. The best way to start a New Year, I think, the is year before—that way you really do hit the ground running, and cooking, and eating, and reading, and sharing—Thank Foodness, and, that ya’ll, Mary Jane and Carolyn!
Note: As usual, I adapted the recipe for what I had on hand, and what my family likes, and what additional flavors seemed to be called for.
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