Home Made Chicken Soup

Maddison has been ill. Who do you call? Grandma - asking her to make her chicken rice soup Yummy! I have memories of walking in the door from grade school and smelling that chicken soup , fresh laundry and homemade cookies. My kids are enjoying this soup just the same. My wonderful mother would make this for Maddy in a heart beat but this week she was not up to it. "Jennifer" she said "you will have to do it" "I can do it" I repeated to myself trying to believe.

I have raised children for 18 years now- wow! that surprises me every time I say that out loud! I fed them - of course - but I never really got the hang of real cooking - like the meals my grandma and mother make- they can look in the fridge and say "I will whip something up quick, if you want to stay and eat" They would call us to the table 35 minutes later with chicken and rice and potatoes and squash and cucumbers and carrots and bread and they will even pull out dessert. For me to do that takes planning and shopping and calling my mother to ask her - what goes with rice?

My mom raddled of the recipe - boil a small chicken for an hour - remove and cool- use the juices for the stock - "stock?" put onions (make sure their small so the kids will eat 'em) carrots - celery - beans -any veggie you want really. Take the meat off the bone- put the meat in the soup add brown rice and cook for another 45 minutes.

Wait a minute....take the meat off the bone? This is really going to be made with LOVE!

Ok...If I am going to do this I want to do it right. Maddy has been sooo sick. feverish- extremely tired-swollen glands-stomach ache and nausea. If she is craving grandmas soup then I need to make grandmas soup. I went to the grocer , bought all the ingredients and started in. I was chopping green onions, yellow onions , celery, yellow peppers, carrots, fresh green beans, I even grabbed squash. I called to check in with my mom to tell her how I was doing "leave the squash out" my mom said....everything else sounds great. It sounded good to me - mom says it is a little too sweet for this soup -


Maddy was hesitant of my cooking abilities. She was watching me and keeping me company - trying to stay awake and she was drooling over the thought of fresh hot soup. She was sure to critique my every move- grandma does not do it that way. She even called my mother to check on the recipe. "Do you put green beans in your soup?"

After 2 1/2 hours of boiling and peeling and grading and chopping and slicing it was done!

Maddison took one bite and said "YUM!" "fantastic!" "what did I hear?" O nothing-with a gigantic smile on her face.

I will post the recipe...It is delish

That felt good - I think I can handle this one again. We have eaten it for two days and froze several containers too. Dewey woke up just when I was finishing up around 10 am. He was on nights and was on his way to read at Pdogs classroom. Sounded like you were chopping down a plastic tree for about an hour. I tilted my head and smiled " You could hear that honey?"

He leaned in and kissed me - That's my 'Puddin :)


We then headed for the doctor and found out she has Mono hmmm?
Love Jennifer