Seasons in our lives come and go. It is the way of things. We are left with our memories of the past and dreams for the future. As we age, those dreams are for our children. The women in my family have been plagued with melancholy for generations. This sadness only visits in stillness but these women rarely stand in one place long enough to succumb. Perhaps it is memories that sometimes haunt them. The hardships and pain they endured that sometimes had them wonder if the cost had been too great.
In truth, I am blessed and grateful for this life I am creating. A life made possible by these women who came before me. Women who endured poverty, brutality and loss. Women brave enough to leave their homeland for the chance of a better future for their children. The rewards of their hard work and sacrifice continue to bless even my daughters today.
These women who gave so much cannot be forgotten. My daughters must know their names, their stories and traditions. We live in a world where traditions are no longer sacred. Heirlooms are damaged or sold and portraits discarded. This history is a part of us and makes us who we are.
My mother has kept those traditions alive in our family. Over meals that have been served for generations before us, she shares their stories. Their pictures hang on the wall and fill her albums. Heirlooms are lovingly preserved to be passed down to the next generation.
Now that I am settled in my home, my mother has passed some of these treasures to me. These items belonged to my grandmothers. I remember my Vava Ida’s wool hand knotted rug on her living room floor and my Vava Beatriz’s Blue Willow jug on the dresser at the base of the stairs.
Food is such a big part of so many memories. Cooking the foods my grandmothers cooked for us makes me feel connected to them again. I love to sit down to a meal they would have made and share a memory. Those meals were mostly traditional Portuguese foods. I remember eating variety of different soups and stews with bread.
I was gifted a large bundle of fresh kale, so it seemed the perfect opportunity to make Caldo Verde. Which means Green Soup. This is one of many soups that I remember. It calls for few ingredients and doesn’t take long to make at all. It is quite delicious, especially with the addition of smoked sausage.
Caldo Verde
5 medium potatoes
1 large onion
3 cloves garlic
Water or Chicken broth
2 tablespoons of good olive oil
A bundle of fresh kale (chopped frozen will work)
Smoked sausage (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
First chop onion and garlic. Saute onion and garlic with oil in soup pot. Peel and chop potatoes. Add potatoes to pot. Fill pot about two inches over potatoes with water or broth. Add a teaspoon of salt and cook potatoes. When potatoes are well done use an immersion blender to blend up the potatoes in the pot until creamy. Add in chopped kale. In a separate frying pan saute sliced sausage then add to soup pot. Soup is ready when kale is cooked.
Enjoy or Bom apetite!
