By Rose Meeks Jones

What’s the one good thing about really freaking cold weather: it’s perfect soup weather. Soup is hot, filling and comforting all at the same time. There’s nothing better than a hefty pot of chicken soup bubbling away on the stove. It makes your home smell divine. I love soup. I could live on soup. I enjoy soup when it is 10 degrees outside and 90 degrees. Soup to me is not just food. It is home; it is comfort; it is love. 

Mama was the queen of soups and stews. No one could touch her in that department and with four kids to raise and all of us with healthy appetites, soup was a necessity. Soup is easy to make and great if you are on a budget. You take all your ingredients and plop them on the stove in a big pot, slap on the lid and let it simmer for an hour or three. All you have to do is stir it a few times while simmering and voilà — you’ve got a hot, hearty, one-pot meal for a family of six. 

Growing up, there was nothing like coming home on a super cold wintry day to a house redolent with the divine aroma of the simmering soup pot. The first thing I would do was stop, close my eyes and inhale. Even now, that is my first response when in the vicinity of one of these bubbling pots of yummy. The inhale test would tell me what was on the menu for supper. Mama was talented and it could be one of many different soups or stews: beef vegetable soup, chicken soup (sometimes with rice or noodles), potato soup, tomato soup, chile, soup beans or our all-time favorite — Mama’s Oven Stew. Waiting for supper was hard. It was just plain torture to have your mouth watering for another hour or two until it was ready. 

Along with hot, steaming bowls of soup would be tall glasses of cold milk to drink and the old standard — saltine crackers, of which my brother James could put half of a sleeve in one bowl. Sometimes there was cornbread — slightly sweet and moist, sliced in half with a pat of butter slowly melting. Sometimes, Mama would make biscuits — hot, heavy and filling — also with melting butter. Then there was always the “pièce de résistance” — grilled cheese sandwiches. We adored grilled cheese sandwiches. They were always made with plain white bread and cheddar or American cheese, whatever we had on hand. Mama would use her waffle iron which converted to a pancake griddle. She would butter the sandwiches on both sides, plop them on the griddle and close the top; just like a modern panini grill. There was nothing better than an ooey, gooey, melty grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of Mama’s soup. Mama’s soups and stews made us feel warm, loved, safe and special; not everyone’s mom could cook like ours. She could make just about anything. 

So now, when the weather dips into the frigid digits, my culinary instinct turns toward creating a pot of one of these winter staples. It makes a house feel like a home. It speaks of family gathering around the table in a wonderful messy gaggle of eating, talking and laughing. It takes me back to that time as a child when I was fed my Mama’s love with a spoon and a bowl full of yummy. 

Rose’s Chicken Noodle Soup 

Ingredients: 

• 1.5 cups of shredded rotisserie chicken (you can use two pouches StarKist premium white meat chicken.) 

• Three large carrots, diced 

• Three large stalks of celery, diced 

• One large onion, diced 

• Three medium potatoes, diced 

• Two 32-ounce containers of chicken bone broth or chicken broth 4-6 cups water 

• One-two tbsp Mrs. Dash seasoning blend 

• Dash of salt 

• Pinch of red pepper flakes 

• Half of a 12-ounce bag of egg noodles 

Combine ingredients, except the egg noodles in a large pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low. Cook on low for one to two hours. Fifteen minutes before serving, add your egg noodles to the pot and let them cook.