Enga mellom fjella

Soup de jour

Le soup de jour:

Put a big pot of water on the stove.

Clear the sink or large pot for cleaning and rinsing.

Grab the goods. It is necessary to prepare them right, remove any stains that might mar the sight. One must scrub them with lye.

The smell of naphtha will fill the air as they soak in the stock. Leave them then till any soil that still stubbornly clings has loosened and washed away.

Change the water and rinse them well. Remove all residue of naphtha and lye. Rinse and rinse until they sparkle white.

Then boil them for 5 minutes (or until the fire alarm goes off from the steam).

But not all's what it seems on my stove.

The Norwegians among you might think of lutefisk, that rare delicacy of dried cardboard that once was fish that is soaked in lye to reconstitute it. Beware: they try to fool others to taste test.

Sicilians may mention that I forgot the garlic and olive oil; the French un bouquet des herbs fines; someone will assuredly suggest salt.

But this humble Swede knows the truth ...

and it ain't rutabagas friend ...

it's underwear!

Yep.

Sparkly white and sanitized thank-you. Wrung out and hung they will dry in a day or two. Quicker in the summer out on a line. In Montana we don't hang things out on the line in winter. Some of us may even be Norwegian, but we're not stupid!

Basic ingredients are: A big bad-ass pot. A yellow bar of Fels Naphtha soap. Water. What you put in the pot is up to you, but I suggest cotton.

Montana: 22 degrees at 23:00

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