Soup of the Day

It’s funny how your carefully-planned and organized day can be upended on short notice.

This was not on today’s agenda.  

I woke to a dark, dank, damp and dreary day to haul a barrel of recyclables and three bags of trash to the local dump. On the return trip I was to fetch vanilla coffee creamer. 

In any event, the butcher at our local grocer had smoked ham hocks in the same isle as the coffee adjunct and considering the weather in an instant of inspiration I grabbed some of those smoky porcine knuckles along with a couple of bags of Navy Beans.

 

Navy Beans are small, oval-shaped beans with a white skin. They have a mild, delicate flavor. These are the beans used for my mother’s infamous baked beans. These white beans were named Navy Beans because of their inclusion in the U.S. Naval diet during the second half of the 19th Century.  But I digress.  There was soup to cook and the dang house smelled pretty good as the day progressed. 

There is a long and storied tale about the year Navy Bean soup was served at deer camp. Delicious chow, it was it was a roof-raising experience.  As much as I know everyone pines for a the return of this favorite an Asian fusion venison soup is likely to be featured in 2022. But I digress again. 

In any event, after a hiatus of a couple of years Navy Bean soup is what’s for dinner at fireside this evening.  Solid comfort food.

Plenty too for the freezer. 

Raising a toast to smoked pork hocks (geräucherte Schweinshaxen). 

 

Clearing-out the rest of the garden and putting it to bed for the year can wait until another day. 

Pro Tip - My late father always added a spoonful of vinegar atop his bowl of bean soup.  Scratch your German itch and give it a whirl.