ode to potato and dumpling soup.

there are some pennsylvania dutch meals, and ones inspired by the heritage of this food-making, which if you haven't tried, might mean you really haven't lived. i learned about some of these foods once i became an adult, like hot bacon dressing on a salad and bottomless corn pie.

and this isn't to say they're healthy or great choices of what to eat. but once in a while, they're very worth it flavor-wise and in terms of comfort via the spoon or fork. and they brim with local history.

one meal i thankfully knew since childhood days is potato and dumpling soup. i'm sure it may be known in different variations, too. it's known in berks county and probably different sections of montgomery county and other counties, too. maybe even beyond that. if only we had serious food history maps.

my sister made a batch of my mom's old recipe of potato and dumpling soup in recent days, a loaded version with extra cheddar and gluten-free dumplings at the request of you two youngest nieces who downed it for breakfast yesterday morning.

by the way, to be most accurate in pronunciation, you'd say, po-tay-tah for potato, really fast. po-tay-tah and dumpling soup.

after picking up the batch saved for me, i ate three bowls in two days. shh.

i forgot until i talked to my sister later that you are supposed to add milk the next day to thin it out because it becomes so thick, once another 24-hour stretch of time says goodbye. and i don't keep milk in my house regularly, so i wouldn't have thought of this necessity, anyway. but i probably hadn't eaten it since kid-days. i will remember the next-day milk add-on for whenever there is more soup for the taking.

and it's still delicious, even if incredibly thick, minus the more-milk step.

here is an ode to the this delectable soup knitted into our local heritage.

*

bowls full of old joy

the spoonfuls of half-guesses,

potatoes or dumplings, some

surprise always full of the lure

of a happy tongue. we called the neighbor 

girl, danielle, when a new batch of potato 

dumpling soup steamed in our kitchen. 

she bolted across the street for that soup, 

a fan of it like our family, pots of it never

made on the stove in her own home. i’d 

get yelled at for hogging up

those dumplings, taking too

many for myself. nommm.