When I started the Desert Baroness blog about a year ago, I carved out a section on the blog for sharing stories about my family. Now that the blog is rolling along, and with today being my Mom’s 91st birthday, I’d like to officially kick-off this part of my blog by introducing you to my lovely mom, and share our old family recipe for her fabulous chicken soup.
My mom, who I always called Mama growing up, lives in a little town in Montana called Eureka, where the Mayberry R.F.D. life still exists, and where you can see the cut in the pine trees on the mountains (which is the Canadian/U.S. border) from her kitchen window. She lives in a cute little cabin on 20 acres with her little Pomeranian, Yogi and my sister, Helga, who has her own mountain cabin. They share tending a large garden, and raise chickens, goats, and sheep. It’s a simple life, but a good life, and it’s been a long life for my very special Mama!
Theresia Bauer Wagner (nicknamed, Resi and pronounced RAY-Z, like JAY-Z, but really roll that R), was born in 1924 in Beli Manastir, Croatia (then Yugoslavia). Her parents and family were descendants of ethnic Germans who put down homesteads in Hungary and Yugoslavia. They were the Donauschwaben (Danube-Swabians) who settled in the countryside of Hungary and Yugoslavia, where they built thriving farms and vineyards and prospered for many generations. They were the Bauer family and in German, Bauer means farmer – how appropriate!
World War II began in 1939 and brought with it many hardships for both my mother’s and father’s families. There’s more to tell here, but for now, let’s just say she survived the horror of WWII. After the war ended, she met and married my father, Richard Wagner in Austria on November 8, 1948. They then moved to Stuttgart, Germany where they both worked for Bosch. After years of waiting, they finally were able to immigrate to America in 1957 with their 1-year-old baby girl (my sister, Helga) and no more than $100.00 to their name. They settled in Dallas, Texas where my father’s sister was already living, and where I was born in 1961. After receiving a job offer to work at Miramar NAS, the family then moved to San Diego in 1966. Mom lived in San Diego until my father passed away in 2005, within days after her 81st birthday. Then it was time for her to make her last move to Eureka, where my sister lived, and make it her new home. 91 years later, Resi Bauer Wagner is still kickin’ – I think she’s gonna make it to 100!
Our family has the deepest love and affection for her. She’s always been there to help us through problems, listen to our woes, and bail us out of trouble when needed. We know one thing for sure: she’s always there for us, no matter what. Some things that I’ll always remember about my mom are: her strength, her courage, her kindness, her loyalty, her chicken soup, and…her beehive – the hairdo that’s lasted almost an entire century with only a few minor adjustments throughout the years.
So with that said, I’m sharing some pictures of her over the decades, along with our family recipe for old-fashioned chicken soup!
Here she is, as a young girl, in Beli Manastir:
Then the marriage:
Then in America – Dallas, Texas:
Fast forward to 1966. My father was working in Japan at Atsugi Naval Air Facility. We followed him there and lived in Japan for about a year!
1975!
1988!
Fast forward to Montana, 2011!
And me and Mom, 2014!
Now that you’ve had a chance to see some pictures of my mom over the years, it’s time to share our family’s chicken soup recipe. This soup recipe goes back at least three generations in our family. I grew up on this soup, as did my kids, and I hope my grandchildren do too! During our visit to Eureka last July, I made a huge pot of this soup on a rainy day. While the soup simmered, we all sat around the kitchen table and shared family stories, laughing and sometimes crying over the memories. Here’s the recipe for the soup!
- For Soup
- 2 TBS extra light olive oil or canola oil
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1 small clove garlic, minced
- 3 chicken breasts (cubed – approx. ¾”-1”), patted dry
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- 6 medium carrots, cut into chunks (approx. ½”)
- 2 boxes (32 oz. each) sodium free chicken broth
- 1 chicken flavored bouillon cube
- 1 tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp parsley flakes
- 1 tsp dried marjoram leaves
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup water (to add at the end when cooking dumplings – omit if just making the soup)
- For Dumplings
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup plus 2 TBS farina (Cream of Wheat)
- 2-3 tsp water
- In a large stockpot or Dutch oven, heat oil on med-high heat. When oil is hot, add yellow onions, stirring occasionally until translucent.
- Add garlic and cook for another minute.
- Add chicken and sauté until no longer pink and slightly browned, and moisture has evaporated. Add one box of chicken broth, celery and carrots. Turn up the heat slightly to bring just to rolling boil then reduce heat to medium. Skim off foam using a spoon or mesh strainer. Add pepper, parsley flakes, marjoram and bay leaf along with ½ remaining stock and chicken bouillon cube. Cover and simmer on med-low for about 45 min – 1 hour, stirring occasionally until vegetables are tender.
- Meanwhile, about 15 minutes before soup is finished cooking, prepare dumpling mixture. In a small bowl crack two eggs and gradually stir in farina. Add water and mix well. Let stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes.
- When vegetables are soft, and ready to make dumplings, remove bay leaf and add remaining stock plus 1 cup water (omit adding water if not making dumplings). Bring to a slight rolling boil. Drop dumplings by small half soupspoon fulls into soup. Cook on medium low with lid on for 20-25 minutes until dumplings have doubled in size and are soft in the center.
- To make in a slow cooker: after sautéing onion, garlic and chicken mixture, move to slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients and cook on low 3-4 hours. When ready to make dumplings, turn slow cooker to high and then follow above instructions for cooking the dumplings.