I think we can all agree that this easy beer-cheese soup and rosemary-parmesan pretzel bites are an excellent cold weather decision.



Good morning from snowy Chattanooga, Tennessee!

Okay, not really. The inch of snow that we got on Tuesday has pretty much completely melted and the temperature is going to be in the fifties today….though I can look out the window and see snow in the yard across the street. That was quite an adventure, though. If you live in the U.S. and you ever, ever watch the news I am sure you have seen reports about “Snowmageddon” in Atlanta. While Chattanooga didn’t experience nearly the paralyzation that Atlanta did, our forecasters more or less didn’t see it coming and it all happened very quickly.

Driving to work at 7:30 I heard the first I’d heard about snow-flurries, which I assumed (as did everyone else) would amount to nothing more than something fun for the kids to look at through the gigantic window in my classroom. By 10:45 the school had dissolved into a mass-dismissal and I got a text from Philip warning me to be careful driving home because our road was bad. A normally fifteen-minute drive took me more than thirty, though my (not very busy) street was the only problem….getting a five-speed up an icy hill is not a lot of fun, and if you do this you will want to bash in the little warning light on your dash that tells you that the road is icy and you are skidding. Oh, really? I hadn’t noticed. All is well, though, and I was lucky….and, compared to our neighbors in Atlanta, so was everyone else in Chattanooga, even the ones who got stuck for hours in traffic. I didn’t see reports of anyone in the CHA area stuck in their cars overnight.

You guys, the South is not used to this cold! I saw a video of Jon Stewart poking fun at us and implying that we should have known to get snow tires. Why would I buy snow tires for an event that takes place once every three years if that? Can you even buy snow tires in the South? I have literally never driven on a truly icy road until this past Tuesday. I’m in my mid-thirties (and yes, I do have overprotective parents and an overprotective husband…but still). My point is, this just doesn’t happen here.

Though I’ll admit that I’ll never understand our crazed grocery store runs for milk and bread when there’s a snowflake in the forecast, nothing annoys me more than when everyone rolls their eyes at the obviously moronic Southerners who aren’t prepared for winter weather conditions….but here, winter weather conditions usually involve temperatures above freezing. I roll my eyes at people in the North who think that 85 degrees is hot. So we’re even? Let’s just agree to stop making fun of each other for not knowing how to deal with weather conditions that we aren’t used to. And that easy beer-cheese soup is an excellent decision whether the temperature is 40 degrees or below freezing. Because either way, I’m cold (I think my age must be getting to me….this winter I have complained about being cold more than I think I ever have in the past).

This meal of easy beer-cheese soup and rosemary-parmesan pretzel bites was a good idea, a Saturday afternoon baking project plus an easy Saturday night dinner. Use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth to make this vegetarian, and if you don’t like bitter flavors don’t use a deep IPA like I did (Dogfish Head 60-minute IPA, if you must know). Leave out the rosemary and parmesan from the pretzels if you want. Whatever. This easy beer-cheese soup is your meal!

If you need something hot and comforting, try this easy beer-cheese soup! The pretzel bites are on point too.

More soup from Chattavore: potato-leek soup, creamy parsnip soup, slow-cooker vegetarian taco soup

Pretzels from Chattavore: whole wheat mini-pretzels