You may think I’m crazy, but I’m making chicken soup on a hot summer day. Our apartment has been sweltering for the last week. I just had to make chicken soup. It has nothing to do with the heat but my escape from the heat. I just finished a book I’ve been reading for a couple of weeks. Today it totally saved me. This really should be a testament to how amazingly powerful the mind is. The book I’ve been reading, Owl Island by Randy Sue Coburn, takes place in the Pacific Northwest, where I live. The book has illustrated how Washington is on a normal day. Grey, windy, misty or rainy, even in the summertime. If you live around here then you know that’s not what it is right now. It’s been in the 80’s and 90’s for the last few days. Not bad, normally I am very excited about it. Not this time. It needs to rain. It has been unbearably humid and hot. A very bad combination for me. Heat usually just takes the aches and pains from my body. I feel like all my connective tissue just melts and looses all it’s normal crunchiness. With humidity it seems that all those aches are made worse. I can’t breath I can’t sleep well, I feel sticky right out of the shower. Today, because I didn’t have to go anywhere, I didn’t dry my hair or put on makeup and I feel nasty. Yesterday, when I did dry my hair my scalp started to sweat and it didn’t seem to evaporate at all. I wanted nothing more than to go to a secluded beach in Skagit Valley and breath in cool ocean air. Unfortunately, we live in Snohomish County and all the beaches would be horridly packed with people and those peoples’ body heat. Yuck. So I stayed home and sat on the couch, exhausted. Running to the grocery store was a feat that only Olympians should run. I came back with a damp shirt and shiny forehead.
So why make hot chicken soup? Because, in my book a character ended up in the cold ocean. (I almost envied him, though I hate the idea of swimming where I can’t see the bottom.) He got chicken soup and crackers. I wanted some. My body was reasonably cool, there was a fan going and I was far away from sweltering Bothell, I was up just south of Bellingham, swinging my feet in a little tide pool. I’ve since finished the book and am now feeling the heat. The kitchen is much warmer than the rest of the apartment because of that simmering chicken soup.
As crazy as this sounds, a cup of hot soup on a hot day just sounds wonderful. I’ll stick my nose over the steam and it will feel better than breathing in the moisture and pollution laden air outside. It will feel hot yet healthy and rich. I’ll probably start to get hotter but it will be from the inside, I like that. Maybe I’ll have a glass of juice and settle down and start a new book, one that takes place in winter and enjoy that I am not freezing and that the chicken soup is good anytime.
Look for my recipes under the recipes category!
