Soup in the Engine House

My career has been based on cooking for crowds, not railroading. While railroading has been a pastime since childhood, my comfort has always come from commercial kitchens. My pending retirement (in a year or two) from the California prison system will give me an opportunity to cook again.

EDWRF Vice-President Keith Berry told me one day two summers ago that they often made chili on the pot belly stove in the engine house. So when I joined the El Dorado Western Railway in August 2005, it made sense to bring my chuckbox to the engine house on occasion. (I secretely think that's the main reason Keith recruited me!)

I thought a thick potato soup with leeks would warm the trainmen at the El Dorado Western engine house around noon. Like the loggers who ate in the camp kitchens of the California Door Company, our workers appreciate a hearty meal that fills the belly and warms the soul.

Yesterday was the second time I've brought my camp cooking gear to the engine house. The first was to cook chili and cornbread for a rare Saturday board last February.

Keith and I are already talking about a second soup fest on one of our larger volunteer weekends.

The recipe for potato leek soup is found on my personal blog at 'Round the Chuckbox. The recipe and blog about the chuckwagon chili is found here.