Mum's Soup

     Grandma lived with Grandpa in Hawthorne, California for many years.  Her children always called her "Mum".  I'm not sure why, but that is what they called her.  I called her Grandma.  Grandma was loving and generous and I'm told, used to be quite a funny person.  After her oldest daughter, Anna passed away, Grandma wasn't quite as humorous as she used to be.  Still, I always enjoyed going to visit them.
        On almost every visit, Grandma would take me into the hallway and open her linen closet and reach way in the back.  She'd pull out an envelope and take out a crisp five-dollar bill.  She would look around to make sure we were all alone and then discreetly tell me not to tell Grandpa.  I really didn't think Grandpa would mind, but I kept our little secret.  One time, Grandma did this, and a little while later, Grandpa did the same thing, giving me a five-dollar bill and telling me not to tell Grandma.  They really were hilarious in their own way, and I used to leave their house with pockets full of money.
     Sometimes my Dad and I would go see them for a quick visit on a Saturday afternoon.  Dad would tell Grandma that we had just finished eating and that we weren't hungry.  He didn't want her going out of her way preparing a meal for us.  He just wanted to sit and chat.  We'd sit at her kitchen table talking about this and that; all the while she'd be nodding and commenting, but she'd also be taking things out of the refrigerator and putting them on the table or heating stuff up on the stove.  My Dad would say, "Mum, I said not to get anything for us to eat."  She'd say, "I'm not."  But she would continue to put food on the table until it looked like a feast for a king.  She still was pretty funny to me.
     She would always have so much good food to eat, but the absolute highlight of going to Grandma's was her beef noodle soup.  I don't know how she would make it, but she always seemed to be making some, or she'd have some in the refrigerator or in the freezer.  When we would visit, in no time at all, she'd have a huge  pot of that soup warming up on the stove.   She would serve it in a large soup bowl with a little pepper and graded Romano cheese on it.  I would be enjoying my second or third bowl of soup, and Grandma would say, "Have some chicken or something else to eat."  I'd tell her, "Grandma, I can have chicken anytime.  I can't always get your soup, so I'm just going to stick with that."  She loved that.  She and Grandpa would tell everyone else what I said and then she'd lovingly serve me another bowl of soup.
     I was very lucky that my mother asked Grandma for her recipe and soon mastered the finer points of making that soup.  Many years later when I had married, my wife asked for that recipe.  Both my mother and my wife can make beef noodle soup that would make my Grandma proud.
     When my Grandparents had both passed away, I did not ask for anything of their estate as the family went through their things.  The one thing that I did receive was one of my Grandma's soup bowls and to me, that's all I need.  (That soup bowl is in the picture to the right of the stove.)

MUM'S SOUP RECIPE (SERVES MANY)
3 to 4 lbs. Beef cut into chunks (chuck roast or stewing beef chunks)
3 to 4 quarts water (or at least enough water to cover all the meat)
2 teaspoons of salt (add more at the end if needed)
1/8 teaspoon of pepper

Place above in a large pot.  Bring to a boil.  Cover pot and lower heat to simmer for at least two hours--until meat is almost tender.

NOW ADD:
2 stalks of Celery (peel, clean, slice)
2 carrots (peel, clean, slice)
16 ounce can of tomato sauce
1 teaspoon of Parsley Flakes


Simmer with pot covered one more hour.  Remove any large chunks of meat and cut into bite-size pieces.  Return meat to soup.  Separately, cook 1 cup of the small macaroni salad noodles or elbow macaroni and add to soup.  Serve soup with grated Parmesan or Romano cheese.