Читать книгу Beyond Delicious: The Ghost Whisperer's Cookbook - Mary Ann Winkowski - Страница 16

WHETHER THEY PUT IT ON THEMSELVES or not, young brides always feel pressure to please their in-laws, and Nancy was no different. She was also quite sure she wasn’t being overly sensitive. She’d was a New York City girl, born and raised, and her husband was Swedish. Needless to say, there was some culture clash, but the one thing she hadn’t expected was that some people in Sweden still “promised” their children to wed the children of other families. Not arranged marriages, exactly, more like an anticipation or an expectation. Jon, her husband, had been so promised, a small thing he had failed to mention when they met at a youth hostel.

“It’s ridiculous anyway,” he said dismissively when it came up later. “Nobody really follows that stuff anymore.”

Still, it was rough visiting his family. To say she was shunned might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it was certainly how Nancy felt. No one in the family even tried to speak English to include her in conversations, and something in the way they laughed and glanced at her told her they were making fun of her in a language she didn’t understand. All except Helga, Jon’s aunt. She was the exact opposite. She went out of her way to make Nancy feel welcome, to teach her useful phrases and words, to show her around when they were there.

Then the baby came along. The baby not only forced the Swedish family to come to terms with it—that the marriage was real and was for good—but it also meant they were going to visit them in New York. Nancy was petrified. Not only was she a new mother, but Aunt Helga had recently died and so she would not be there to comfort Nancy. And to top it all off, their house was suddenly haunted.

Nancy and Jon had lived in the same place for years, and Nancy had lived there before that “forever,” and there had never been anything amiss before. Now, however, she could hear footsteps in the house when she knew she was quite alone, and things would move. Sometimes when her back was turned, she’d hear a scrape or a whoosh, and when she’d turn back, a chair would be pulled out from the table or a pot or pan would be taken down from the pot rack. Not to mention the baby, whose eyes seemed to follow the air as if watching someone walk by.

This was too much for Nancy, so she called me and I went out to visit her. Nancy expected the worst, like a demon or something—too much TV, I suppose—but what she got was the best: Aunt Helga had been hanging around and she still wanted to help.

“They’re coming to visit,” Aunt Helga explained. “My sister and her husband are convinced Nancy doesn’t keep a good house, and they are quite certain she isn’t a good cook. They will pick and pick and pick at her when they’re here.”

“So what can she do? How can you help?” I wondered.

“Pea soup,” Aunt Helga replied with a proud smile.

“Pea soup?”

She nodded dramatically. “They love my pea soup. If Nancy makes them my pea soup, she will win them over for good.” I opened my mouth to reply, but Aunt Helga held up a hand to stop me so she could finish. “Maybe not at first. Maybe not right away. But trust me, that soup will win their hearts.”

“Okay,” I agreed. “Give me the recipe.”

Aunt Helga made sure I took it down with exacting detail—she was very sure this soup would help. I called Nancy back a few weeks after I knew the in-laws would be gone, to see how it went.

“You wouldn’t believe it!” she said. “Aunt Helga was right! They loved the soup and they were so surprised that I’d gone out of my way to learn to make it that they melted almost after the first bite. Jon’s mother even hugged me when they left!”

Swedish Pea Soup

1 medium onion, diced fine

2 celery ribs, diced fine

2 carrots, diced fine

2 leeks, diced

¾ pound butter

¾ pound green split peas

3 quarts chicken stock

1 ham hock (fresh, not smoked)

2 bay leaves

2 teaspoons thyme

Salt and pepper

1 medium potato, diced fine

In heavy sauce pot, simmer onions, celery, carrots, and leeks with butter over low heat. Add peas, chicken stock, ham hock, spices, and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Add potatoes and simmer slowly for 2 hours. If soup is too thick, add more stock.