Soup Night and More

A couple of years ago the Men’s Club at my Church began a Scholarship Program. Obviously that meant we needed money to support it. We began to run some simple money raising events on Saturday evenings after our 5:00 pm Mass. Besides a few “Hot Dog Nights”, dogs with all the fixings, chili, kraut , relish etc, we also decided to have a “Soup Night”. Well, since big mouth here ran the successful dog nights, guess who ended up in charge of Soup Night. The first of what now appears to be an annual event was held last year. Big question for me was how much soup do I make? All we asked for was a donation to the fund, and did not charge for the soup. Because it was free and no tickets were sold we had no idea how many people would attend or how much soup they would consume, a real shot in the dark for me.
I got real lucky because I guessed at 150 portions which lasted to the very end. Three totally empty pots. There were three because I made 50 portions of three different soups, Minestrone, Sicilian Chicken and a Corn and Cheese Chowder. I made the same soups for this year’s event and got many request for the Minestrone recipe. Those who I’ve sent it to in the past said they really enjoyed it, so I thought I’d pass it along in today’s Blog.

Quick & Easy Minestrone Soup

2 cans (14-1/2 oz each) chicken broth
2 cans (14-1/2 oz each) stewed tomatoes untrained, coarsely chopped
2 cups or 19 oz can cooked kidney beans, drained
1 package (16 oz) frozen mixed vegetables
1/4 cup pasta of your choice (penne, elbows, orzo) uncooked
1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1 teaspoon garlic powder
A few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large sauce pan. Bring to boil on medium-high heat. Reduce to low and simmer 20 minutes or until pasta is tender. The addition of some kielbasa or cooked chicken will add to the flavor of this quick and easily prepared soup. Makes 8 to 9 one cup servings


Now as you know this Blog Site, “Rhino Roars”, was established to provide me with a platform to let off steam and bitch about all the things that annoy this old fart, so I have to get away from all that good stuff like recipes and charity events and move on. Since most of my avid…lol…readers live in Connecticut, they’re all aware of our recent batch of snow storms, some big, some small, and a few near misses. The frequency of the storms has given me plenty of opportunity to get pissed at the forecasters. There’s an old say that if you don’t like the weather in New England, wait for some short period of time, I don’t remember, and it will change. This has held true for a long time, yet these idiots have decided that they can predict and tell us about an upcoming storm seven or eight days in advance. Now tell me this doesn’t screw people up. Plans get changed, things get cancelled and super markets have to double their purchases of bread and milk. I’ve often wondered, do people drink more milk during a snow storm and won’t all that bread turn stale? And, as I wrote before, my wife Marge spends the better part of the morning preparing for disaster. Problem is most of these predictions never materialize and I end up having to drink a gallon of luke warm coffee and tomato soup

Back to a restaurant complaint. Did you ever notice that when a restaurant is not busy the service deteriorates? Just try to get that second cup of coffee. When it’s busy they are constantly walking around with pots asking if you need a refill, but on a quiet day their eyes never fall on your pleading face or notice your frantically waving hand.
Just last Saturday we, (my golfing partners) and I met for breakfast at a restaurant we often go to. Place wasn’t busy at the time. When my friend Bob came in he ordered a decaf. He was told that a fresh pot was brewing and he would have to wait. Not a problem. I had a perfect view of the pot and watched the coffee complete its journey into the pot. Well, I watched the filled pot sit there, and sit there while three waitresses were catching up on all the exciting things that happened in their lives over the past week. We finally got lucky when someone else ordered a decaf forcing one of them to look in the pot’s direction. I’ve seen this type of thing happen many times when restaurants weren’t busy. How many times have you had waiters or waitresses disappear for so long you’ve been ready to send out a search warrant.
I’ll stop now because I’ve got too, too many restaurant complaints to include here. See you again shortly.

ALREADY A PRETTY TOUGH WINTER

I finally worked up the courage to come downstairs to my cellar office and try to knock out a blog. It’s been quite awhile, but this cold cellar office is not conducive to creative writing. The small little Pelonis ceramic heater is having almost no warming effect on my frozen fingers. I don’t normally mind the usually brief, mild winters we have here in Connecticut, but this year’s winter is starting to get me down. Watching TV doesn’t help with half my screen covered with activity cancellations and the rest showing cluttered highway video with all the damn cameras they seem to have hanging on every light pole. Give me something to watch, if I wanted to see snow I only have to look out the window, and since I’m retired with no place to go, those cancellations mean nothing to me. With another storm being predicted for later in the week, this was maybe the year Marge and I should have joined all the Southington “Snowbirds” and headed south.

Marge has worked some magic during all this crappy weather. Our area of the city is notorious for losing power and certainly adds to the misery of winter weather, but not this year. When our illustrious weather men and women begin their rarely accurate predictions, I call them threat of approaching storms Marge springs into action. The nightstands in the bedroom are fully equipped with flashlights and even a battery operated lantern is made available. Boiling hot water is stored in the main thermos although I’m not sure what we would use it for since there are no women around in their ninth month. It’s probably there for a cup of tea……Marge is a tea drinker. Coffee has already been made and occupies another thermos. One more thermos of hot tomato soup is ready in the final thermos. She has not always done this, but every since she started we’ve not lost our power during any of these storms.

My confinement and absence from this desk has created one positive. My recent “Kindle” purchase has resurrected my interest in reading. I was on an extended sabbatical from any serious book reading, but since the Kindle entered my life a few short weeks ago, I’ve read twenty six books, mostly mysteries. Can’t explain why it feels so much more comfortable reading these electronic versions. Am I getting that weak so I can’t even hold books up….lol. I had to add the lol since I’ve vowed to lay off the “getting old” conversations. Another small positive has been our recent purchase of more cable channels on the TV.

The golf channel was one of the new additions and looking at all that green is helping to make our upcoming Myrtle Beach trip more of a reality for me. Almost time to clean the clubs and load the balls to help fill the South Carolina ponds and swamps.

Hate to say this, but I have to quit even before I lose your interest because these fingers are actually getting numb.

New Years Eve Celebration???

For many years now we have celebrated the coming New Year by having two of our very good friends for dinner, a couple of pinochle games, and a toast in front of the television as we watched the ball come down on Times Square. The days of church dances, out of state trips to celebrate were all in the past. When we were half way through our second game of cards we decided that this year we weren’t going to make it to watch the ball fall.

It will be the first time ever that we didn’t make it till twelve, but we agreed that the whole event is not what it used to be. The Guy Lombardo type music is history. Now every channel has nothing but load rock music with words that none of understand. I guess it’s alright for nineteen year olds, but my crowd now consists of friends in their seventh decade of life.

While discussing this I came up with a great idea……it’s time for a “Senior Ball Drop”. Since we all begin to start snoozing an hour or so after dinner we decided that there should be a separate dropping of the ball around nine or ten for us “old timers” along with music we could reminisce about. I later found out that even most of our kids never made it to twelve.

I must report that our latest celebration left me with no heart burn and nary a touch of a hangover. Some time age has its advantages…..common sense. Even made it to church in the morning in spite of the fact that this year attendance was optional….no holy day obligation. What’s with that? Too tough for us because it falls on Saturday?