It has become a tradition that "Aunt Priscilla" makes turkey soup the day after Thanksgiving. Since we also had ham yesterday, my husband convinced me that I should make the potato pea and ham soup that I am famous for, besides the traditional turkey soup. Yes...I am famous, in case you don't know. (Said with a smile of amusement) Here's the story behind the soup.
When Jamie and I were on our honeymoon, we stayed at bed and breakfast places in Vermont and New Hampshire. We had a fall wedding, so it was really a perfect place to go. We were wandering around Stowe, VT and went into a little country store. We immediately were tantalized by an amazing smell. It was coming from the deli section of this store....a potato soup with some ham and peas in it. It tasted amazing! We wanted the recipe. The lady in the store would not give it to us. It was her secret which she wasn't about to share with anyone. Jamie guessed at the predominate spices and the lady said, "Yeah...okay that's in it," but wouldn't give more information.
We went home and decided to try to figure out how to make that soup on our own. We came up with one that was pretty darned close. A couple of years later, I decided to mail it in to
Country Magazine. This was all before the internet, mind you. I never heard a thing from the editors of the magazine and eventually pretty much forgot all about sending it in. Years passed. We had at least two children and moved to a different part of town. One day, the phone rang and it was a lady congratulating me on the publication of my soup recipe. She had been reading her
Country Extra Magazine and noticed that one of the recipes had been submitted by woman named Priscilla B______ of Cdga, NY. She was so excited to see a recipe from someone in her town that she told her husband. He promptly got the phone book out and said he'd find out where I lived just for fun. It turned out that I lived on the same road as them! We were living on a country road at the time and they lived about two miles down the road from us. I still had never heard anything from the magazine and no longer even subscribed to it. I had to call up the magazine and ask for a back issue (March 1999).
Now, years later, you can google my name and add potato soup to the google search and it's all over the place. Looking at the published recipe is somewhat amusing because, while it is basically my recipe...I never really measure anything. I never have. The recipe has exact measurements throughout. I also changed how I create the thick and creamy milk base. I no longer use milk. Instead, I use heavy cream...which vastly improves it. More calories and higher fat, but I've never been one to worry too much about it. Everything in moderation. So, here is a link to my famous soup. Unfortunately many of the links have my first name spelled wrong and there are even some sites that refer to it as being "potatoe" soup. I can assure you, that I have never put any toes in it.
http://yumdom.com/new-england-potato-soup/12429
Oh...it was also published in a book called "The Best of Country Cooking 2000." (I think that was the year.) So there you have it, and now you can say, "I knew her when...."
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