4 Times the Fun and Months of Chicken Soup

About two months ago my computer started to blue screen (one word or two?). I would start it up and it would bluescreen on me and then I would restart it again and it would be fine. It was slightly annoying but I just ignored it. This is not a rational thing to do, but I saw no immediate harm. Around this time, in the heat of the last weeks of June, I got a hankering for chicken soup with dill. The soup is a pretty basic chicken, celery, onion, potato, and carrot affair with bits of salt, pepper, and dill thrown in. I added cheery tomatoes at the very end.


By mid-July the computer was bluescreening whenever I tried a complicated maneuver, such as opening extra files or looking at the monitor disapprovingly. This was more worrisome. I ran scan-disk and it seemed I had a lot of hard-drive problems. I suspect finding usable hard drive space was like a game of Minesweeper for my computer - one wrong move and it was all over. I also got in the habit of running my anit-virus software and ad-aware every other day or so. I was also enjoying the chicken soup for my daily lunch and making it every weekend. By this point I had replaced the potatoes with yams or sweet potatoes and added squash. When I was making my containers of soup to bring for lunch I always topped them off with some pre-cooked lentils (thanks Trader Joe's) or wine-cooked noodles.

With the arrival of the hottest days of August my computer decided it had had enough of these bluescreen shenanigans and refused to boot to windows. I had backed everything useful to a backup hard drive (useful toy, I suggest you get one) earlier so this was annoying but not oh-my-whatever-will-I-dooo wail inducing. I lived through August in my third-floor walkup without air conditioning by making mint & lime icees (mint+lime+ice+blender!) while enjoying hot chicken soup during the day in my over-conditioned windowless lab.

Usually I made the soup on Sunday night to prepare for the week ahead. I was often too tired by the end of cooking to divide it into containers for the week's lunches to come. So the large soup pot was then shoved onto the top shelf of the fridge which is shared with the roommate. This worked initially (June, part of July) as she was out of town and I had the apartment to myself. Once she was back I have occasionally found bottles of cranberry juice or milk shoved onto my lower shelf as I am taking up an inordinate amount of space on the top. Over time the condiments have migrated to the fridge door to the point where they jump out every time it is opened. It adds a nice bit of adventure, I think.

[As a side note: I also tried making Gazpacho for the first time. I followed Lobstersquad's basic version from her gorgeous blog but used asiago/olive bread as that was the only bread I had around and balsamic vinegar (likewise, only type around and please forgive me Ximena). Further, instead of adding a lot of water I blended it with ice. I have had gazpacho once before in a Spanish restaurant years ago and barely remembered it. For a tomato lover this is eye-poppingly good stuff. I finished off the whole batch in a few hours, purring contentedly. ]

After a few weeks of a computer-less existence at home, I took action. It sometimes takes me a while to get something done. I often go into web-surfing lazy mode once I get home. Without a computer I had Vanity Fair to distract me. But my subscription ended with the September issue and I haven't decided if I will renew. They are trying to charge me twice the rate of my original subscription. How rude. So instead of sending Conde Nast Publications $15, I decided to fix the computer and spent a good $130 (after taxes etc.) for a 160G hard drive. On the soup front I have found that with the addition of squash pieces, a little cinnamon is heavenly.

And yippie skippy the damn computer works again! And my old hard drive was a puny 40G! I am now wealthy with four times the space! I can open multiple programs once again!

With the new hard drive the hot spell of summer seems to have broken. It feels like fall, a few days short of September and I have lost interest in chicken soup for now. However, after having made it six or seven times I at least have a good idea of the order and timing I like for it. Yea new hard drive, yea changing weather, and yea new recipes to come!

Simple Chicken Soup:

1 Whole chicken, cut up or 6 chicken thighs*
2 large carrots peeled and cut into 3-inch pieces
2 onions peeled and quartered 3 tomatoes (or 16oz cherry tomatoes, yum)
1-2 stalks celery cleaned and cut into 3inch pieces
1-4 large sweet potato cut into thick slices
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1Tbsp dill pepper

* I found that I preferred a lot of sweet potato and not so much chicken. I ended up cooking 2 split breasts and taking a few pieces for my lunches.

1. Take a half teaspoon salt, and a bit of pepper and salt the chicken: Lay the pieces out on a plate and sprinkle salt over the chicken with a dash of pepper. The chicken should be very lightly covered.

2. Prepare veggies: While the chicken sits, scrub veggies clean, and chop. They should be largish hunks, perhaps half the size of a fist. Most will be tender once cooked so they do not need to be bite sized and too much chopping will mitigate the ease of the recipe.

3. Cook: In a large stalk pot place hard veggies of yams, carrots, and celery (add celery later if you plan to eat it, I find it unpleasant in this recipe so I usually discard). On top of veggies place chicken, add dill and cinnamon, and cover with water and bring to boil. Then reduce heat and simmer 15 min. Add onion, squash, and cinnamon and simmer another fifteen min. Finally, add tomatoes and cook another 5 min.

4. Skim fat and taste to correct seasoning. Remove celery if you want. Serve and enjoy!