Soup's On!

Chicken soup with pasta.

During the fall and winter months, it's so nice to have soup for dinner.  In past years, we designated Tuesday night as soup night.  I haven't gotten into the Tuesday groove yet, but we've had soup several times now.  Homemade chicken soup is the best, and the easiest to make!

At our farmers market, Fernando and I visit Eric and Samantha from Nature's Choice Farm.  They raise 100% grass-fed cattle, plus free-range chickens and pigs.  We buy their farm-fresh eggs and whatever meat we can afford  Their prices are high, but as I've heard, good food isn't cheap, and cheap food isn't good.  This time, I asked Eric for the biggest chicken he had.  Well, they raise 'em big on their farm--it was nine pounds!

On Sunday evening, I put it in a large pot, covered it with filtered water, and simmered it all night.

Chicken simmering on the stove.

About lunchtime, I removed the chicken and bones from the stock, and let everything cool down a bit.  I strained the stock, return in to the pot, and de-boned and chunked up all the chicken.  I froze three portions of cooked chicken for future meals, and saved a portion for my soup.

Late afternoon Monday, I got the stock boiling again, with a little salt and organic chicken soup base added.  Once it was boiling, I added carrots chopped by Joe!  He was so sweet to help me pull out the rest of our garden carrots and wash them, too.

I kept this soup simple, but I love to add chopped onion, celery, and any other vegetables that I have on hand.  The stock simmered for several minutes until the carrots were tender, then I added cooked whole-wheat egg noodles (I like to cook my pasta separately, then add it to the stock).

Since you can't have chicken soup without herbs, I picked some fresh garden parsley.

Thomas, my official kitchen helper for the year, added the parsley.  Not only is he my kitchen helper (it's home-ec class!), he has become my photography assistant, since I can't add parsley and take a picture at the same time.  :)

When we have soup for supper, we always have a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich.  This tradition was established growing up in my family, and it is now cemented in our own family--no matter the soup!

More recently -- chicken soup with orzo!

Truly yummy -- leftovers all week long!!

Back to life,
Christine

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