Can you believe it?!

"jmcquown" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

I got a letter in the mail today from my great aunt Winifred. Aunt Win is
Dad's older sister; she's about 90 years old. Seems her son Robert ran
across a post I made some years ago for their mothers (my grandmother
McQuown's) potato soup with rivlets and she's thrilled to have the recipe!

Wow! What are the odds. How fun to get a letter from her,
too. Happy she found that, hope your cousin has actually made
it for her. He's your cousin, right? She's your aunt?

Fun.

nancy

Nancy Young said:

"jmcquown" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

I got a letter in the mail today from my great aunt Winifred. Aunt
Win is Dad's older sister; she's about 90 years old. Seems her son
Robert ran across a post I made some years ago for their mothers (my
grandmother McQuown's) potato soup with rivlets and she's thrilled
to have the recipe!

Wow! What are the odds. How fun to get a letter from her,
too. Happy she found that, hope your cousin has actually made
it for her. He's your cousin, right? She's your aunt?

Fun.

nancy

Gee, I guess she is my aunt, not my great aunt. So yeah, he's my cousin. I
think I met him once. You'd have to understand the dynamics of having been
a military brat to realize just how little I ever saw any of my relatives.

Oh, and Grandma mac would have used water in that soup because she rarely
had chicken to make stock with back in the day. Dad does talk about
plucking a chicken on the back steps for Sunday dinner. I gather bacon was
a rarity, too. The soup was something special 🙂

Jill

"jmcquown" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Nancy Young wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Wow! What are the odds. How fun to get a letter from her,
too. Happy she found that, hope your cousin has actually made
it for her. He's your cousin, right? She's your aunt?

Quoted message said:

Gee, I guess she is my aunt, not my great aunt. So yeah, he's my cousin.
I
think I met him once. You'd have to understand the dynamics of having
been
a military brat to realize just how little I ever saw any of my relatives.

Yeah, I know about that. Raise you three older brothers I never
knew I had and have never met. Close family. (laugh)

Quoted message said:

Oh, and Grandma mac would have used water in that soup because she rarely
had chicken to make stock with back in the day. Dad does talk about
plucking a chicken on the back steps for Sunday dinner. I gather bacon
was
a rarity, too. The soup was something special 🙂

So I should try making it?

nancy

Nancy Young said:

"jmcquown" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Nancy Young wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Wow! What are the odds. How fun to get a letter from her,
too. Happy she found that, hope your cousin has actually made
it for her. He's your cousin, right? She's your aunt?

Quoted message said:

Gee, I guess she is my aunt, not my great aunt. So yeah, he's my
cousin. I
think I met him once. You'd have to understand the dynamics of
having been
a military brat to realize just how little I ever saw any of my
relatives.

Yeah, I know about that. Raise you three older brothers I never
knew I had and have never met. Close family. (laugh)

LOL Just got off the phone with Mom and turns out I never met any of them.
I have a cousin Karen who lives in Arizona; go figure!

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Oh, and Grandma mac would have used water in that soup because she
rarely had chicken to make stock with back in the day. Dad does
talk about plucking a chicken on the back steps for Sunday dinner.
I gather bacon was
a rarity, too. The soup was something special 🙂

So I should try making it?

nancy

Just got off the phone with Dad... he was surprised his older sister doesn't
know how to make rivlets. He remembers his mom mixing egg with flour and
salt and "cutting it" until it resembled peas with a fork, then putting it a
jar on a shelf. Huh. I think the health department (or food police!) would
have something to say about that these days. Then (he says) she'd just add
a couple of spoonfuls when she made her soup.

The soup really is good. It's potato soup but you have to like potato soup,
if you get my meaning. These days everyone wants to add cream or milk.
This was basic 1930's feed my family depression era potato soup. And yes,
it's tasty!

I'm writing back to my Aunt Win; very happy your son was able to tell you
how your mother made rivlets by finding my post on the Internet! LOL

Rivlets are a Pennsylvania Dutch sort of thing and grandma Mac was German
(Lena Ruffner) and her parents were the Reithmillers and they lived in
Pennsylvania so the whole rivlets thing makes some sort of sense. The Frug
wrote about "rivels" in one of his books; he was talking about rivlets.

Jill

jmcquown said:

I got a letter in the mail today from my great aunt Winifred. Aunt Win is
Dad's older sister; she's about 90 years old. Seems her son Robert ran
across a post I made some years ago for their mothers

Isn't the internet great! How fabulous! Sounds like reunion time. 🙂
And I've never heard of... what was it called? R-something? (can't see
original post right now)

--

Karen MacInerney
Kitchen experimenter, family chauffeur, and culinary mystery author
www.karenmacinerney.com

Karen MacInerney said:

jmcquown said:

I got a letter in the mail today from my great aunt Winifred. Aunt
Win is Dad's older sister; she's about 90 years old. Seems her son
Robert ran across a post I made some years ago for their mothers

Isn't the internet great! How fabulous! Sounds like reunion time. 🙂
And I've never heard of... what was it called? R-something? (can't see
original post right now)

Rivlets. It's simply a mixture of flour, eggs and salt; teeny tiny and very
dry pea sized granules to drop into the bubbling soup.

Jill

In message <[email hidden]>, jmcquown
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Karen MacInerney said:

jmcquown said:

I got a letter in the mail today from my great aunt Winifred. Aunt
Win is Dad's older sister; she's about 90 years old. Seems her son
Robert ran across a post I made some years ago for their mothers

Isn't the internet great! How fabulous! Sounds like reunion time. 🙂
And I've never heard of... what was it called? R-something? (can't see
original post right now)

Rivlets. It's simply a mixture of flour, eggs and salt; teeny tiny and very
dry pea sized granules to drop into the bubbling soup.

Jill

Do they remain as cooked 'entities', or do they thicken the soup, like a
beurre manié?
--
Chris Hughes
"Reality is that which, when you cease to believe, continues to exist."
http://www.epicure.demon.co.uk

jmcquown said:

Karen MacInerney said:

jmcquown said:

I got a letter in the mail today from my great aunt Winifred. Aunt
Win is Dad's older sister; she's about 90 years old. Seems her son
Robert ran across a post I made some years ago for their mothers

Isn't the internet great! How fabulous! Sounds like reunion time. 🙂
And I've never heard of... what was it called? R-something? (can't see
original post right now)

Rivlets. It's simply a mixture of flour, eggs and salt; teeny tiny and very
dry pea sized granules to drop into the bubbling soup.

Jill

Someone gave me a book with Pennsylvania recipes and Rivels is one of
them. It is just as you say, a mixture of flour, eggs and salt,
rubbed between the fingers into tiny (pea sized) dumplings and dropped
into boiling broth. The soup for which the Rivels are meant in this
recipe, is Amish Corn and Chicken Soup.

jmcquown said:

Karen MacInerney said:

jmcquown said:

I got a letter in the mail today from my great aunt Winifred. Aunt
Win is Dad's older sister; she's about 90 years old. Seems her son
Robert ran across a post I made some years ago for their mothers

Isn't the internet great! How fabulous! Sounds like reunion time. 🙂
And I've never heard of... what was it called? R-something? (can't see
original post right now)

Rivlets. It's simply a mixture of flour, eggs and salt; teeny tiny and very
dry pea sized granules to drop into the bubbling soup.

Jill

Jill, are they anything like spaetzle?? I've never made spaetzle

biig said:

jmcquown said:

Karen MacInerney said:

jmcquown wrote:
> I got a letter in the mail today from my great aunt Winifred. Aunt
> Win is Dad's older sister; she's about 90 years old. Seems her son
> Robert ran across a post I made some years ago for their mothers

Isn't the internet great! How fabulous! Sounds like reunion time. 🙂
And I've never heard of... what was it called? R-something? (can't
see original post right now)

Rivlets. It's simply a mixture of flour, eggs and salt; teeny tiny
and very dry pea sized granules to drop into the bubbling soup.

Jill

Jill, are they anything like spaetzle?? I've never made spaetzle

I've never made spaetzle so I don't know!

Margaret Suran said:

jmcquown said:

Karen MacInerney said:

jmcquown wrote:

> I got a letter in the mail today from my great aunt Winifred. Aunt
> Win is Dad's older sister; she's about 90 years old. Seems her son
> Robert ran across a post I made some years ago for their mothers

Isn't the internet great! How fabulous! Sounds like reunion time. 🙂
And I've never heard of... what was it called? R-something? (can't
see original post right now)

Rivlets. It's simply a mixture of flour, eggs and salt; teeny tiny
and very dry pea sized granules to drop into the bubbling soup.

Jill

Someone gave me a book with Pennsylvania recipes and Rivels is one of
them. It is just as you say, a mixture of flour, eggs and salt,
rubbed between the fingers into tiny (pea sized) dumplings and dropped
into boiling broth. The soup for which the Rivels are meant in this
recipe, is Amish Corn and Chicken Soup.

Dad says his mom used a fork to mix the ingredients and it came out the
consistency of small peas. Rivels are the same thing, I think, but grandma
Mac called them "rivlets". She was of German descent and raised in west
Pennsylvania.

Jill

jmcquown said:

biig said:

jmcquown said:

Karen MacInerney wrote:

>jmcquown wrote:
>
>>I got a letter in the mail today from my great aunt Winifred. Aunt
>>Win is Dad's older sister; she's about 90 years old. Seems her son
>>Robert ran across a post I made some years ago for their mothers
>
>Isn't the internet great! How fabulous! Sounds like reunion time. 🙂
>And I've never heard of... what was it called? R-something? (can't
>see original post right now)

Rivlets. It's simply a mixture of flour, eggs and salt; teeny tiny
and very dry pea sized granules to drop into the bubbling soup.

Jill

Jill, are they anything like spaetzle?? I've never made spaetzle

I've never made spaetzle so I don't know!

They are very much like Spaetzel. It is flour, eggs, salt and some
water, so the dough is moister. You make it by pushing the dough
through a Spaetzel maker or cutting the dough with a knife and pushing
the small pieces into the boiling waiter or broth.

Margaret Suran said:

jmcquown said:

biig said:

jmcquown wrote:

>Karen MacInerney wrote:
>
>>jmcquown wrote:
>>
>>>I got a letter in the mail today from my great aunt Winifred. Aunt
>>>Win is Dad's older sister; she's about 90 years old. Seems her son
>>>Robert ran across a post I made some years ago for their mothers
>>
>>Isn't the internet great! How fabulous! Sounds like reunion time. 🙂
>>And I've never heard of... what was it called? R-something? (can't
>>see original post right now)
>
>Rivlets. It's simply a mixture of flour, eggs and salt; teeny tiny
>and very dry pea sized granules to drop into the bubbling soup.
>
>Jill

Jill, are they anything like spaetzle?? I've never made spaetzle

I've never made spaetzle so I don't know!

They are very much like Spaetzel. It is flour, eggs, salt and some
water, so the dough is moister. You make it by pushing the dough
through a Spaetzel maker or cutting the dough with a knife and pushing
the small pieces into the boiling waiter or broth.

Aahhhh, so spaetzel is wetter than rivlets????

The Major wrote on 25 Mar 2006 in rec.food.cooking

Quoted message said:

Do they remain as cooked 'entities', or do they thicken the soup, like a
beurre mani‚?

Think tiny dumpling or soup noodle.

--
-Alan

biig said:

Margaret Suran said:

jmcquown said:

biig wrote:

> jmcquown wrote:
>
>> Karen MacInerney wrote:
>>
>>> jmcquown wrote:
>>>
>>>> I got a letter in the mail today from my great aunt Winifred.
>>>> Aunt Win is Dad's older sister; she's about 90 years old.
>>>> Seems her son Robert ran across a post I made some years ago
>>>> for their mothers
>>>
>>> Isn't the internet great! How fabulous! Sounds like reunion
>>> time. 🙂 And I've never heard of... what was it called?
>>> R-something? (can't see original post right now)
>>
>> Rivlets. It's simply a mixture of flour, eggs and salt; teeny
>> tiny and very dry pea sized granules to drop into the bubbling
>> soup.
>>
>> Jill
>
> Jill, are they anything like spaetzle?? I've never made spaetzle

I've never made spaetzle so I don't know!

They are very much like Spaetzel. It is flour, eggs, salt and some
water, so the dough is moister. You make it by pushing the dough
through a Spaetzel maker or cutting the dough with a knife and
pushing the small pieces into the boiling waiter or broth.

Aahhhh, so spaetzel is wetter than rivlets????

Sounds like it. You don't add liquid (other than the egg) to
rivels/rivlets.

Jill

"jmcquown" <[email hidden]> hitched up their panties and posted
news:[email hidden]:

<snippage for space, tater soup recipe saved>

Quoted message said:

I got a letter in the mail today from my great aunt Winifred.

Isn't it great to get a letter from a relative looking for a recipe?

Quoted message said:

Heh, grandma didn't have a recipe, really. It was from the 1930's,
depression era food (talk about stretching a meal!) dontcha know.
Took me years of attempts to reproduce it until Dad finally said "Yes!
That's my mom's soup!" 😄 Now my aunt Win has it and her son Robert,
too. Isn't that cool?

The recipe (which fed grandma and 4 kids):

Nice story and I'll be keeping the recipe. I wish Steven's mother was
still alive. I've got many of her old cookbooks but sometimes I have
trouble reading her scribbled in notes.

Michael

--
"The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she
served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been
found."

--Calvin Trillin

Michael 'Dog3' Lonergan said:

"jmcquown" <[email hidden]> hitched up their panties and
posted news:[email hidden]:

<snippage for space, tater soup recipe saved>

Quoted message said:

I got a letter in the mail today from my great aunt Winifred.

Isn't it great to get a letter from a relative looking for a recipe?

Quoted message said:

Heh, grandma didn't have a recipe, really. It was from the 1930's,
depression era food (talk about stretching a meal!) dontcha know.
Took me years of attempts to reproduce it until Dad finally said
"Yes! That's my mom's soup!" 😄 Now my aunt Win has it and her son
Robert, too. Isn't that cool?

The recipe (which fed grandma and 4 kids):

Nice story and I'll be keeping the recipe. I wish Steven's mother was
still alive. I've got many of her old cookbooks but sometimes I have
trouble reading her scribbled in notes.

Michael

I've kept in touch with Aunt Winifred over the years but I only ever
remember meeting her and her husband Bob once. Never met my cousins.
Grandma Mac had in her house laundry chutes and the kids, Dad included, slid
down them all the way down to the basement. LOL! She also had a fantastic
claw foot bathtub and a pedestal sink on the second floor.

In the dining room, built-in shelves for china and and drawers for
silverware and a pocket door entrance. What I wouldn't give for that dining
room! Windows and built in storage!

She died in 1983 but I've been in touch with the folks who bought the house
since then. I hear it's all the same. Unfortunately, the kitchen was teeny
tiny. Yet she still managed to bake 7 loaves of bread every Tuesday. And
she grew snapdragons off the back porch. Those are still one of my
favourite flowers!

Jill

Margaret Suran said:

They are very much like Spaetzel. It is flour, eggs, salt and some
water, so the dough is moister.

Since someone's German grandma knew of the rivlets, I'm guessing
they're another version of the same thing. Neat! I'll have to try
it...

--

Karen MacInerney
Kitchen experimenter, family chauffeur, and culinary mystery author
www.karenmacinerney.com