Saturday Night Chicken Soup
Like it or not, I’m following on the soup idea for today’s posting. My sinuses are stuffed, leading to the medical condition I like to call “Bowling-Ball Head.” (Yes, Mom, I went to the doctor and am on some meds.) This lack of post-nasal drip has required me to drink a lot of tea, and eat soup. The freezing weather is not helping matters at all. Thankfully, my son had a birthday party to attend to, so I could make some homemade chicken soup. (More on that later.)
There really isn’t a recipe for this. It is more of an assemblage of ingredients on hand, in hopes that that it will make me feel better. This is how the process went:
Defrost lonely single chicken breast in microwave. Chop a small onion.
Cube chicken, season with salt and pepper. In large pot, add some olive oil. Cook chicken.
While chicken is cooking, peel and chop 3 small carrots (giving ends of carrot to dog who runs from the other end of the house when he hears me peeling a carrot or apple.)
Look for any celery in crisper, none to be found. Pick though packages of herbs which were required for other recipes. (Hubby bought me Rachel Ray’s new cookbook for Christmas – the girl is into fresh herbs, big time!) Scavenge some thyme, rosemary and flat leaf parsley.
Removed chicken from pan. Add a little more oil, stir in onions and carrots. Pull out 2 pints of frozen chicken stock, nuke to defrost.
Chop thyme and rosemary, place in metal tea-ball (easier than cheesecloth, or picking out the herbs). Onions are beginning to smell good. Chop parsley, put aside.
Answer phone call. (“Uh-huh…. Sure…. ok…..”) Add chicken stock and chicken to pan. Add more salt and pepper. Add bay leaf and tea-ball with herbs. Doesn’t look like enough liquid, add another cup of water. Hang up phone.
Look for stray bags of veggies in freezer, find peas. Look for stray bags of pasta, only find orzo (little itty-bitty pasta). Shrug and go with the orzo, even though it will be the smallest thing in the soup. Remind self not to place entire bag of orzo into pot, or the whole thing will be a sticky mess.
Soup looking good, boiling away. Add orzo, peas and parsley. Boil for 6 more minutes – more or less. Take picture with digital camera, which now must live in the kitchen to record great culinary events, such as this. Pick out bay leaf and tea-ball.
Eat with hubby while watching a Food Network special “Mario Full Boil.” Add more salt. Watch Mario Batali have a hard time keeping within his ten-million dollar budget for his “world class” restaurant in Manhattan, and tasting a new dish on his menu featuring duck balls. (And no, those are not like meatball.) Wonder how many stinkin’ times they are going to say “world class” or “4-star.”
Finish off soup with hubby. Start to watch “Giada's Italian Holiday” Get extremely jealous of skinny woman eating her way through Italy. Laugh at her inadequate description of Nutella gelato. “Vanilla ice cream with mounds of chocolate fudge and a hint of hazelnut.” Oh please, that comes no where close to describing such an orgasmic experience. Hubby notices that she never pays for anything, and is therefore a free-loader. Feel slightly better.
There really isn’t a recipe for this. It is more of an assemblage of ingredients on hand, in hopes that that it will make me feel better. This is how the process went:
Defrost lonely single chicken breast in microwave. Chop a small onion.
Cube chicken, season with salt and pepper. In large pot, add some olive oil. Cook chicken.
While chicken is cooking, peel and chop 3 small carrots (giving ends of carrot to dog who runs from the other end of the house when he hears me peeling a carrot or apple.)
Look for any celery in crisper, none to be found. Pick though packages of herbs which were required for other recipes. (Hubby bought me Rachel Ray’s new cookbook for Christmas – the girl is into fresh herbs, big time!) Scavenge some thyme, rosemary and flat leaf parsley.
Removed chicken from pan. Add a little more oil, stir in onions and carrots. Pull out 2 pints of frozen chicken stock, nuke to defrost.
Chop thyme and rosemary, place in metal tea-ball (easier than cheesecloth, or picking out the herbs). Onions are beginning to smell good. Chop parsley, put aside.
Answer phone call. (“Uh-huh…. Sure…. ok…..”) Add chicken stock and chicken to pan. Add more salt and pepper. Add bay leaf and tea-ball with herbs. Doesn’t look like enough liquid, add another cup of water. Hang up phone.
Look for stray bags of veggies in freezer, find peas. Look for stray bags of pasta, only find orzo (little itty-bitty pasta). Shrug and go with the orzo, even though it will be the smallest thing in the soup. Remind self not to place entire bag of orzo into pot, or the whole thing will be a sticky mess.
Soup looking good, boiling away. Add orzo, peas and parsley. Boil for 6 more minutes – more or less. Take picture with digital camera, which now must live in the kitchen to record great culinary events, such as this. Pick out bay leaf and tea-ball.
Eat with hubby while watching a Food Network special “Mario Full Boil.” Add more salt. Watch Mario Batali have a hard time keeping within his ten-million dollar budget for his “world class” restaurant in Manhattan, and tasting a new dish on his menu featuring duck balls. (And no, those are not like meatball.) Wonder how many stinkin’ times they are going to say “world class” or “4-star.”
Finish off soup with hubby. Start to watch “Giada's Italian Holiday” Get extremely jealous of skinny woman eating her way through Italy. Laugh at her inadequate description of Nutella gelato. “Vanilla ice cream with mounds of chocolate fudge and a hint of hazelnut.” Oh please, that comes no where close to describing such an orgasmic experience. Hubby notices that she never pays for anything, and is therefore a free-loader. Feel slightly better.
posted by Christine | 10:26 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home