Old People Love Soup
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I’ve been hanging out with the painters at Kim’s house. I like these guys - they’re interested in everything. Not just football, hunting, and fishing, and in fact neither one of them likes to hunt or fish. Backpacking, gardening, cooking, art, all kinds of music, guitars, trucks, birds. Quite refreshing, actually.
Subject of food came up and Mike said he’s started making soup and loves it. He commented that his friends and family think that’s very strange - old people love soup, his generation (he’s about 40) not so much. As proof he offered the fact fast food outlets don’t sell soup.
Old people love soup! Well, I’m old and I love soup so that tracks.
Hardly ever ate it before I retired, now I eat a ton of it.Then I saw a Reddit post asking what to serve a group of her parents and their friends for dinner. 8 people total with all sorts of likes and dislikes. The universal recommendation was pot roast- because everyone knows that old people love pot roast! Even the fussiest geezer will eat post roast - you’ll see. Not only that but it’s tough to screw up, not fussy about timing, doesn’t require much in the way of sides and can be extended to feed a crowd by adding more veg.
I had no idea that was the case, although if you served me pot roast for Sunday dinner I’d certainly be happy about it.
So what other things do old people like that I don’t know about?
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Add me to the soup brigade. I usually have at least ten containers of soup in the freezer, anywhere from two to four varieties. Split pea, Roberto, veggie and bean, potato leek....
The two of us old people love meat loaf. And one pot dishes that aren't soup. Minimum fuss and fewer pots and pans to wash.
I saw this recipe last night and it sounded like a possibility. I could probably skip the bacon and just do the beef.
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Funny you should mention that recipe.
We were talking to someone (a waitress, maybe?) and she told us that she cooks for her father and his favorite recipe is cowboy spaghetti. I’ve never heard of it and it looks like something to try.
I might bulk it up with whole wheat or chickpea spaghetti, possibly add corn, but the base recipe looks great!
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I just went back and looked at the Taste of Home version; it has you cook the spaghetti separately.
Some of the cowboy spaghetti recipes just have you break up the uncooked spaghetti and toss it into the skillet, cooking for about 20 minutes. Bit more liquid so the spaghetti has enough to cook in...
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I'm sure you can put together the equivalent more cheaply by buying the individual components, but I'm getting lazy in my dotage.
We love this blend for a veggie soup:
I've made it as specified on the package, but lately I've been leaving out the zucchini and using some green cabbage instead.
When I first started buying it, it had alphabet pasta in it. Now it's orzo, which is still good, but I miss the little letters.
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I make a vegetarian soup about once a week or every other week. For regular soup I use the food processor to chop carrots, onions and celery to make the soup base, then add broth and main ingredients. Another fave is miso soup, which is incredibly easy…I usually add scallions, mushrooms, tofu, maybe Japanese radish.
But I also liked soup before I got “old.”
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I’ve made soup from a dried mix. The Hurst “ham bean” one.
No bueno. The big beans stay hard and the small beans turn to mush. I’ll have to try the Bobs version. His stuff is generally solid
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I make a vegetarian soup about once a week or every other week. For regular soup I use the food processor to chop carrots, onions and celery to make the soup base, then add broth and main ingredients. Another fave is miso soup, which is incredibly easy…I usually add scallions, mushrooms, tofu, maybe Japanese radish.
But I also liked soup before I got “old.”
@RealPlayer
How do you heat miso without killing the bacteria that is supposed to be in it? -
I’ve made soup from a dried mix. The Hurst “ham bean” one.
No bueno. The big beans stay hard and the small beans turn to mush. I’ll have to try the Bobs version. His stuff is generally solid
@Steve-Miller said in Old People Love Soup:
I’ve made soup from a dried mix. The Hurst “ham bean” one.
No bueno. The big beans stay hard and the small beans turn to mush. I’ll have to try the Bobs version. His stuff is generally solid
We made the 13 bean chili recipe that's on another Bob's soup mix. Came out great.
Just a note...the Bob's soup mixes don't have anything but real ingredients. No salt or seasonings, so you can really make them your own.
Some of Bob's recipes for the 13 bean mix:
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There is a localish company called Mitchell’s soup that we really love for bean soups. Their split pea soup is heavenly - it doesn’t get thick and gloppy like some do. They tell you to add ham or bacon but honestly next time I won’t bother. I usually fry an onion in the bottom of the pot as well. I’ve never been a huge soup fan but over the last couple years have gotten more into it. I turn 50 this year so perhaps I’m part of the old people phenomenon?
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Did anyone else grow up eating Riviera brand minestrone soup? My favorite growing up but none of my friends would eat it. Company went out of business years ago but I see someone has bought the name and it looks the same in the picture on the label. I’ll have to hunt it down.
It’s “San Francisco style” - nothing like regular minestrone. Very dark gravy, very thick. Very distinctive flavor and aroma. Copycat recipes make it look like a real project to scratch make but it might be worth it.
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No canned soups when I was growing up. We did occasionally have Mrs Grass or Lipton chicken noodle soup mixes.. I thought the Mrs Grass was better than the Lipton.
Mom made borscht (hot and cold) and a barley/kidney/pickle soup. And even though I grew up in the middle of a bunch of Italians, never had homemade minestrone until I was in my 30s.
Here's someone's attempt at duplicating your Riviera minestrone. Didn't look too hard to make.
https://www.quarterwaterfoods.com/2020/03/riviera-minestrone-2020-coronavirus.html
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@RealPlayer
How do you heat miso without killing the bacteria that is supposed to be in it?@CHAS said in Old People Love Soup:
@RealPlayer
How do you heat miso without killing the bacteria that is supposed to be in it?You don’t really deliberately heat it up. But you have to mix it into a hot liquid to create a broth. We add miso at the end of the cooking time. Take some hot liquid from the soup, put it in a separate bowl or Pyrex cup, dissolve the miso in that, stirring with a spoon. And then add to the bulk of soup. Or heat up a cup or two of water, dissolve miso in that, then add to the soup.
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Not soup but I can tell you by observation old people love to play games. Not only shuffleboard but also about ten other games. I didn't know how one of them was played until a few weeks ago. I don't know any of the rules. It's like watching children at recess. I say good for them! Not my thing.
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Not soup but I can tell you by observation old people love to play games. Not only shuffleboard but also about ten other games. I didn't know how one of them was played until a few weeks ago. I don't know any of the rules. It's like watching children at recess. I say good for them! Not my thing.
@Daniel I admit that games can be fun and contribute to cognitive health and social connection, but I think robust activities like travel, attending concerts or museums, practicing an instrument, vigorous exercise, auditing a college-level course, etc., can more strongly enhance well-being.
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@realplayer I agree. One of the first things on my to do list is to visit The Dalí Museum in Saint Petersburg again. I haven't been there in a long time. I want to find a nature preserve. Rural Florida is unique and beautiful. I want to create an exercise program for myself. I want to buy a desk, an office chair, a bookshelf, a desktop computer, and a printer. It's been a long time since I could sit down and write letters, etc., use software instead of a phone, and print anything. I want to buy a Pixel 10 XL and experiment with the camera. I might want to buy a digital camera at some point. I want to find an online college level course to learn Latin.
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An ode to pot roast:
https://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php%3Fdate=2014%252F04%252F11.html
