Pickle Soup and dealing with Pickle People

People say you crave pickles when you are pregnant.

*Let me clarify,

this is NOT an announcement.*

I never craved pickles when I was pregnant.

Tapioca pudding, yes.

Egg drop soup, ranch doritos, whoppers, tacos from Taco Bell, 

and the other two common ones:

ice cream and watermelon.

(Now I am hungry.)

But I never craved pickles.

Pickles have such a strong flavor.

They remind me of some people:

 they are bold,

making everything around them smell like pickles,

everything they touch tastes like pickles.

Once they're in the midst,
there's no avoiding them.

Pickle people are like this, too.

They seem to be "in your face,"

(and in everyone else's for that matter).

They do everything the "right" way,

or at least they think so.

And because that is not good enough.

they want you to know how to do it right, too.

The funny thing is,

they typically are very good at what they do:

they tackle their duties and expectations with determination

and there is no stopping them.

I think this may be, often,
what makes them so hard to take.

As much as I hate to admit this about pickles:

they do their job,

and they do it well.

One thing I have learned

(and keep learning in life)

is that God has a reason for everybody.

The church is such an example of this:

so many different talents and needs are there,

mixing.

It's easy sometimes to take offense,

to compare,

to gossip,

to think of ourselves as better.

After all, nobody sincerely walks around saying,

"Just blame me.
  I'm wrong all the time.

I pretty much know nothing."

It's much easier to think that somebody else is the wrong one.

Anybody else, for that matter.

But it's easiest to think that about the pickles
while

pickles seem to think that about everybody else.

But, we need them.

We need pickles to spur us on to think about what they're saying,

to push ourselves,

to check to see if there is any truth to their spice and zippiness,
to run it through the ingredient list of what the Bible says is right.

Often there is truth,
if only they'd learn to approach the unpickled with a bit less
spice and fervor,
if that is possible for a pickle.

When there is wrong in the mix:

gossip, bitterness, malice, self-glorification,

God cannot be pleased.

So it's up to us,

all of us,
to guard our ourselves: our motives, our tongues
and

to practice the verse that I find myself quoting

whenever a pickle enters the room:

"Great peace have they which love thy law

and nothing shall offend them."
Psalm 119:165

It's a wonderful truth.
Not always easy for any of us to practice,
but really useful when it is.

After all, there may be people who think of us
as the pickles in the mix.

Of course,
they are wrong...

That being said,

I love pickle soup.

Pickle soup is exactly what I'm talking about:

it's pickles, under control, mixed with the blander vegetables,

but the pickles enhance the taste of the pot of soup.

Talents and gifts all working together to make soup.

My Russian grandmother used to make Pickle Soup,

and when she died,
I grieved her.
Part of that was all of the wonderful dishes she made

that were so much of what I remember about her.

I came upon a recipe one day over at Time Warp Woman Blog

called Summa Borscht,

which, I think, means Summer Borscht.

I love Borscht and was curious what Summa Borscht was.

As I read it, I grew excited and happy,

and a bit sentimental for my Grandma.

I was reading what sounded like Pickle Soup.

I made a batch, and changed it up just a bit

to be more like what I remembered about my Grandmother's soup.

For those of you who like a dilly taste,

in the beautiful moderation of soup,

here is is.

8 cups of water

1 pork roast (mine was about 2 lb)

(all the other recipes I read used ham; I prefer the taste of roast)
3 Tbs of dill (or more to taste)

2 Cups of spinach leaves/swiss chard leaves
1 Cup of chopped green onions
10-12 Potatoes

three dill pickles, shredded,

1/4 cup of the juice from the pickle jar
Salt to taste, pressed clove of garlic, and kelp (optional).

Saute roast, searing both sides and then ad water to pot.

Bring to a boil,

turn down, and simmer for about an hour.

After about an hour,

add the dill: seeds or weed,

I just use what I have.

Wash and roughly peel the potatoes,

but leave whole.

Add these to the soup.

I always ad a clove of garlic to nearly everything

because it is so good for the body.

I also add kelp to anything that I can 

for the same reason.

It has a slight seafood taste,

but is not noticeable in small quantities.

I added about 2 teaspoons.

I use Real Salt: that's why the color looks a little dirty.

I store my green onions in the refrigerator in a glass with water just under the roots

and then put a plastic bag loosely over it.

This seems to keep my onions longer.

(If you have a successful way of storing them,

I'd love to know!)

Some recipes use spinach,

some don't ad any greens at all.

I had Swiss chard on hand,

so I used it up.

In the final stage, it tasted great.

I felt my first attempt was lacking for this soup,

so I add three dill pickles.

In this recipe, I just cut them up,

but next time I will shred them to integrate them into the soup more.

Add the 1/4 cup of pickle juice.

After the roast is cooked,

remove so that it can cool
and be cut up into bite-sized pieces.

While the roast is cooling,

the potatoes should be done cooking,

so scoop them up...

and break them up with a fork.

This gives a nice texture to the soup.

Add the bits of meat back to the soup,

dish up,

and enjoy.

My grandmother always served her soups with Rye and Pumpernickel breads.

Sour dough bread is scrumptious with this as well.

Pickles in soup may not sound appealing,
but I dare you to try it.

Although I do like eating them,
pickles in soup is scrumptious!
(for printable recipe, click >HERE<)

Linking up to:

Beyerbeware: Hunk-of-meat-Monday
Funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com 
Gnowfglins.com: Simple-lives-Thursday

Little Daisy May: What I'm Loving Wednesday

  Savvy Southern Style 
*Blue Cricket Design
*Be Inspired - Room to Inspire

*Power of Paint Party - Domestically Speaking

 *Tea Rose Home
*Someday Crafts
Restore Interiors 

Sew Much Ado

Primitive & Proper

My Backyard Eden

A Beach Cottage

Raising Homemakers: Homemaking-link-up

Wearethatfamily.com
Theprairiehomestead.com: Homestead-barn-hop
Thehealthyhomeeconomist: Monday-mania
 Hiphomeschoolmoms.com
Abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com
Northerncottage.net