Monica’s Refrigerator Soup

October 21, 2011 by paladinipotpie 2 Comments

“Guess what I just did?” Monica’s voice told me I would never guess, so I made a few elaborate stabs. …won the lottery?… got pregnant?…

“I made refrigerator soup,” she announced. (I think I would say she announced it gleefully.)

She said, “I came home for lunch, and I was trying to think of something that would be fast for dinner tonight. Dan and I both have bible study. I was looking in the fridge and I saw some leftover spaghetti sauce. And you know spaghetti sauce is the heart of refrigerator soup.”

“Spaghetti sauce is the heart of Refrigerator Soup.” That cracked me up. And it’s pretty true, although not absolutely necessary.

I made refrigerator soup all through the kids’ childhood, when the refrigerator got too full of musgos. Musgos are the things in little tupperware containers that “mus’ go” before they spoil.

Quite simply, you just make soup out of whatever is in the refrigerator! Leftover spaghetti sauce, rice, pasta, any kind of veggies, the last few slices of Thanksgiving turkey diced up. (Years ago my friend, Pat, was shocked to find a glob of turkey stuffing on her soup spoon one day, but she had to admit it was pretty tasty!) Put whatever you have into some broth. Maybe chop up an onion, and throw in a few spices…simmer… and Voilá!

To be honest though, I didn’t think Monica had been paying too much attention back in the day. She was a dutiful kitchen helper/cook when I asked her, but she seemed to have zero initiative or interest during those formative years.

(David, on the other hand, thrived on all things culinary.)

It gave John fits. “What’s she going to do when she gets married?” he worried.

I joked that she might marry someone like David, but that was no comfort.

So here she was calling me cross country to tell me she made Refrigerator Soup. One more example of the truth of Proverbs 22:6. She explained that she had just put it together and she was calling to see if I had any ideas to add to what she had come up with.

I asked her to tell me her recipe and this is what she said.

About a cup of spaghetti sauce

About a cup of rice

A little bit of canned tomato soup

To this she added:

a can of beans

a package of frozen mixed vegetables

some dried onion flakes and some chili flakes.

She put it into the crock pot with a few cups of beef bouillon and had the setting on low.

I couldn’t think of a thing I’d have changed, except to be able to close the 3,000 miles between us and sit down and have dinner with them!

Author: paladinipotpie

Welcome! My name is Andrena Paladini and this is a blog about family and love and faith and fun. I call it Paladini Potpie because a potpie is like an adventure in a crust. You never know what might come up, but it’s always going to be good! Think of the best potpie you’ve ever eaten…hot flaky crust holding a rich savory sauce and all kinds of pieces of meat and vegetables…and who knows what? As a family, we’ve chosen to live within the parameters of God’s love and protection. This is the crust of our Paladini Potpie. The crust never changes. Within this crust, the savory sauce of family love binds it all together. That is also fairly constant. But beyond the crust and the sauce we can add just about anything! Good ideas come our way and we’ve adopted and adapted them to add to what John calls our treasure box of memories. These stories and ideas from John’s treasure box of memories are the ingredients I’m putting into our Paladini Potpie. (Okay, so this ridiculous mixing of metaphors about treasure boxes and potpies is exactly what I’m talking about. Silly and ungrammatically correct. But both illustrations work… so we’ll mix them together and it’ll be just fine!) John and I have been married for 30 years. Our children have wonderfully doubled in number since David married Amanda, Monica married Dan, and Matthew married Sarah. And the newest little treats that have been added to our potpie are six adorable grandchildren - Ethan, Angelina, Nathan, Audrey, Maleia and Caleb! I hope you’ll subscribe to my Paladini Potpie blog, and keep up with all the fun new ingredients I add. Hopefully you’ll enjoy our stories and ideas, and find something you’ll want to put into your own potpie! Bon appétit!