Notes on Chicken Soup

     I am a lover a soups. My favorite would be the classic chicken soup. I make it every couple of weeks or so. It is always different because I make it with what is in my fridge. I made chicken soup two days ago and this time used one whole raw organic free range chicken and the bones of the same kind of chicken that I had roasted the day before. I would have to say it had the best flavor of all my chicken based soups so far. I got the idea from watching an Oprah show. She had one of her favorite chefs on, I can’t remember her name at the moment. On the show, they were making several things a couple of things out of chicken. I remembered the chef mentioning that the best chicken stock is made with roasted chicken bones. So that is what I did. It is true. If you want to make the best chicken soup or stock, use roasted chicken bones.
     On a side note, my husband Rick said that he loves that we use everything when cooking. Bones do not go to waste unless there is not enough bone to make a soup base. I was proud as well. This might sound silly but it makes me feel like I’m living like a woman a hundred or more years ago that let nothing go to waste. Remember Little House on the Prairie? When I was a little girl I used to pretend that I had to make everything by hand. I would pick wheat in the fields around our house and pretend to dry it. Then take the bird food we had and separated out each grain and made my own “flour” by grinding it between stones I found. I felt so romantic.
     That little girl only looks older. I love feeling like a romantic heroine in a story when I cook and make sure that everything has a purpose. As crazy as it sounds, I can hardly wait until we have a home. I will start canning things and stock them away in their Americana Mason jars in my own “cellar”. I may even be lucky enough to have an old enough house that has a real root cellar. They are great fun in the summer.
     Happy cooking to all! Remember, the “real” Americans were not nearly as wasteful as we “modern” Americans. We should take lesson from our past.