Happy New Year!

I wish everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year! So what did everyone spend New Year's doing? It's supposed to indicate how you will spend the next year. I kind of hope not, though, as I spent the day waiting on my husband to get ready to go out, grocery shopping, cooking, and doing laundry. I did manage to squeeze in a little knitting, just in case. I then fell asleep in my clothes, no less at 7:oo PM and slept for 13 hours straight. So what does say about my year?

The holidays are over, and I took my husband to the airport and dropped him off for his flight to Paris. He will be there working for at least a week, and I will fly over and meet him on the 12th, then we'll return together on the 15th. He says no more out of town work for awhile. I hope not!

I did manage to cook up my traditional New Year's dinner of pork roast and sauerkraut and I made some of Aunt Donna's Christmas soup. If any of you made a ham for New Year's (we had one for Christmas Eve, I froze it) this is a good way to use the hambone. If I was as organized as Aunt Donna I suppose I could make it on Christmas day, as she did, but I'm not so I get to it when I can over the holidays which just happened to be today. It's a great winter soup and I'm afraid it shows too much of my German peasant heritage that I like it so much. It takes all day to make, but it's worth it and I only make it once a year.

Aunt Donna's Christmas Soup

1) Combine and boil 1 hour:

Hambone

2 1/2 lb kielbasa, sliced

1 qt. sauerkraut

1/2 tsp marjoram

water to cover

2) Add and simmer 1 1/2 hours:

3 potatoes, diced

3 carrots, diced

2 med onions, chopped

1 cup celery, diced

1 qt tomatoes

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

3) In a separate pan, make a roux by stirring together 5 Tbs butter and 3 Tbs flour, cook until flour smell is gone (approx. 2 minutes), stir into soup.

Make dumplings by mixing:

2 eggs

1 cup flour

1/3 cup water

Stir until smooth, batter will be runny. Cut in small pieces into simmering soup. Simmer 1/2 hour longer.

Some notes on preparation. I usually increase the recipe by about 1/2, it makes a BIG pot of soup, but fortunately it freezes well. I also usually cut up some extra ham and throw it in as well. If you don't want to take all day to make it (I started mine at about 8:30 this morning, it was ready to eat at about 3:00) you can do step 1 a day ahead and refrigerate it over night. (Aunt Donna did this, and she would skim off the fat before starting again, so it's slightly healthier too. I can attest that the taste didn't suffer.)

Enjoy it with some good bread and your favorite lager.