Perfect Soup Day

Today is a crappy day.  I love the rain because I feel like it washes the world clean, but right now I hate the rain.  I want to dig in my dirt and plant things so bad that I cannot stand it. I want to make my yard NOT look like the "poltergeist pool" it is. For those of you who remember the horrible swimming pool in the movie Poltergeist... you get my meaning.  For the rest of you...well lets just say, its very muddy and I keep waiting for things to rise to the surface!

So, instead, I am making soup and bread!  What can be better than homemade chicken soup and garlic chive wheat bread?  I love to let a huge pot of love simmer all day and then ladle a huge bowl of yummy comfort.  I always have a hard time waiting until dinner and of course I make sure I "taste" throughout the day...just to be sure nothing has gone sideways! 

For the soup, I start it off just like your normal veggie soup, saute until translucent onions (one whole large chopped), celery (3 or four stalks, diced), carrots (3 or four diced) and lots of garlic in a bit of butter (maybe 2 tbsp) and olive oil (just enough to coat the bottom of whatever pot I'm using).  I'm really not kidding when I say lots of garlic.  I probably used an entire head.  There is nothing better in my humble opinion than garlic.  Well, maybe chocolate.  But truly garlic is one of my favorite things.  Which is why as soon as my yard dries out a bit, I will be planting quite a bit of garlic this year.

Okay, back to the soup.  I toss in some half salt (does the same thing but better for you than regular salt) some sage, some oregano, a few bay leaves, some fresh ground black pepper and some chicken better than bullion. I really have no measurements for these, only that I taste as I go.  I know what I like, and you know what you like.  Just add what feels good to you.  Except if your really not sure about the salt, wait until the last to add it.  You can always add, but if you over salt, you either toss the whole thing and start over, or do what I end up doing and keep adding potatoes until it is tolerable. I add four or five frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts and add hot water to cover the chicken.  Now I only make this much because I freeze it in individual servings.  It makes it super easy to toss a soup in the lunchbox and have a good meal at work.  

I let all of that simmer a way until the chicken is tender and then I remove the chicken, shred, and put it all back into the pot.  I of course taste to make sure all is right and sometimes add a few more veggies like mushrooms and frozen corn an peas at this point.  Then, its a low slow simmer until dinner.

This is my basic recipe for chicken soup, and I do change it up a bit.  Sometimes I add curry and garbanzos (I puree these so my husband doesn't know they are there).  Sometimes I go more southwest adding chili powder, cumin and cayenne.  It all works great and again, its really what you like!