Vegetable Beef Soup

It has been a rainy, wet, and relatively cold day here in Hawaii. Reminds me very much of my home in Florida. It was quite wet and wild last night, too. This inspired tonight's dinner, Vegetable Beef Soup.

My paternal grandmother passed away just about six weeks ago. Everyone talks about her cooking, and how great it was, and how much she loved to do it. And they are partially right. She cooked out of necessity. She loved it when an experiment turned out. And, to hear her tell it, she couldn't boil water when she was first married. By the time I came along, you couldn't tell.

Anytime it got the least bit cool, she'd get out her big canning pot and make Vegetable Beef Soup. She'd start with the cheapest cut of beef she could find, bones if that's all she could get, add a "Sweet Vidalia Onion," and a jar or so of her home grown, home stewed, and home canned tomatoes. Add potatoes, carrots, and more home grown, home canned green beans, salt and pepper, and let it simmer. If green beans weren't available, she'd substitute English peas.

And she knew I loved the stuff. If she had leftovers in the fridge she'd let me know and I'd take them home. Tonight's meal was supposed to be like hers. Only, I didn't realize when I started that I had only one can of tomatoes. Luckily, my husband had mistakenly picked up a box of vegetable stock at the commissary last week, so I was able to substitute. Only, while it still tastes great, it doesn't quite taste the same and makes me miss my grandma even more.