Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Chicken Soup


On Thursday I woke up with a good dose of the common cold. I was still able to function through a normal day but by evening I was pretty beat. My husband came home from work with all the appropriate cold remedies & a bouquet of flowers to brighten my spirits. On Friday morning he woke up with the flu, so we spent the weekend into Monday in turn playing nursemaid to one another. I spent my day Friday running up & down the stirs with Jell-O, water, & chicken soup. Monday it snowed all morning & we spent our day wrapped up in quilts by the fireplace. I made the best of things by flipping though magazines & reading a book I have had for some time, but had not yet read. If you like historical fiction, you may enjoy this one-Thirteen Moons by Charles Frasier. I read Cold Mountain when it first came out. I found it a good read, but a bit grisly at times. Thirteen Moons was excellent & I’d love to see another book from Charles Frasier. Here is one of our favorite “comfort” foods.

Mom’s Chicken Soup

12 cups chicken broth or 2 large cans 49-1/2 oz each
Hand full of baby carrots cut on the diagonal- about 1 cup chopped
1 stalk celery-cut on the diagonal plus leaves finely chopped
Freshly ground sea salt & pepper to taste
¼ teaspoon marjoram – (dried)
1 teaspoon dried or 1 TB fresh-(chopped) parsley
1/8 teaspoon celery salt
1/8 teaspoon garlic granulated
¼ teaspoon granulated onion
1/3 bag of egg noodles

I usually fly-by-the-seat-of my-pants when I am making this recipe, but have tried to measure for once instead of a pinch of this…a dash of that…
I always find it is good for “what ails you”, and if you use a thicker egg noodle, it re-heats well again & again. You can add shredded chicken if you are making your broth from “scratch”

Bring broth or stock to the boil. Add chopped carrots, celery & seasonings. Reduce heat to low, maintain a gentle boil until carrots & celery are fork tender. Sample a spoonful of broth & add more salt/pepper to taste. Add noodles & simmer till noodles are al dente, about ten minutes. You can adjust the amount of noodles to your liking. Remember as they cook, they absorb the broth.

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