for a cold or your soul

quite a few people lately have asked me how i make my chicken soup. it's really quite simple, and there are a few ways you can go about doing it. personally, i like to add my veggies into the broth right before it's ready to be served that way they don't turn to mush. i hate mushy veggies. blech!

how do you make the stock???

the first thing you do is get a whole chicken and cook it up however you like and have that for dinner. the next morning, take whatever meat is left on them bones and put them aside for later... the bones is what you want right now. put them in the biggest pot you've got, cover with water, toss in a bay leaf or two, cover and turn the burner on low. every hour or so, remove the lid and scoop off the bubbles and oil and discard, you don't want that in your soup. be careful to not let the water boil as tempting as it is... it will cloud your stock. you can also use turkey bones or beef bones if you're into that. of course, you can also just skip this step entirely and use prepared stock, there's nothing wrong with that!

what kind of vegetables do you put in???

we like a lot of veggies in our soup, but you don't necessarily need to add as much as i do, or as many, but the soup is better with more veggies! my mouth is watering thinking of this...

i usually chop up a yellow onion, 4 garlic cloves (or less if you don't like garlic), 4 good sized carrots; you can just slice 'em, or dice 'em, 4 stalks of cellery, a cup of frozen corn and cup of frozen peas (i use fresh when it's available). i also add some basil and salt and pepper (to taste) to this lovely batch of goodness in a deep sided pan. start with the onion and garlic in some butter, then add the carrots and cellery, etc... take some of the stock and cook the veggies in that. when it's all cooked up, add it to the stock (don't forget to strain the bones!), and boil up some tiny pasta or egg noodles either in the soup or alone and add it in like i do.

by the way, check out my friend Gabrielle's blog. she's a writer and has a great chicken soup story...

sweet cornbread

whenever i make soup, i like to make either buscuits or cornbread. during the time when we didn't have a printer i wrote out every recipe and this sweet cornbread is one of them. i can't remember which site i found it on, so i can't give the thank yous i should. i made them tonight to go with my roasted fall vegetable soup. it goes great with the soup and is exceptional with chilli. the next time i make it i think i'll add an extra egg to it in hopes that the end result isn't so crumbly.

sweet cornbread

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup cornmeal

5 tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup whole milk

1/3 cup canola oil

1 egg, lightly beaten

preheat oven to 400F. lightly grease an 8 or 9" square pan, or line a muffin pan- set aside.

whisk dry ingredients and form a well in the centre and add milk, oil, and egg. stir until just combined- small bits of flour is okay.

pour batter into prepared pan or muffin tin and bake 24-30 mins for square pan, 15-18 minutes for muffins, or until slightly brown and knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. best served on the day they're baked.