Did everyone survive Christmas? We did. Christmas Eve felt pretty sad, honestly, but we did live through it. Part of what made me sad was the loss of our traditions. We did have a couple of different people invite us to their Christmas parties, and a local theater was playing It's A Wonderful Life. We had sort of decided to go to the movie instead of a party. However, when my son got off work he was sick and just wanted to go home. Sooo, no new traditions started on Christmas Eve. Instead it was home to rest. Christmas day was nice, though. He was still feeling poorly but we had a good time just being together. We enjoyed talking with family through text and Skype as well. It was nice and relaxing.
It does seem like my son's cold is going around. Several people I know are sniffling and/or coughing and just generally feeling horrible. Which means it is that time again. Yep. Flu season. In light of the creeping crud that seems to be...well....creeping...in, I think it is time to share my favorite cold remedy. As usual, I really really don't use a real recipe. Just add what you like. And I measure nothing. I'm sorry. But you get the general idea.
I usually start with a whole chicken. Or if I've recently made chicken broth or roast chicken, I'll use the carcass and broth I saved. You can use chicken breasts in a pinch, but to truly be immunity boosting you want the whole thing. You are also going to want to find celery with as many leaves as possible. It is simply distressing that store-bought celery has most of the leaves cut off. This is where the nutrients are! If you are lucky enough to have a farmer's market nearby that may accidentally have fresh celery, go for that! If not, be sure you open up the celery and get the leaves out of the middle of the bunch. (Just a tip: apparently you can freeze celery leaves. I haven't tried it yet, but the lady at my favorite farmer's market was telling me she does it all summer long so she'll have them for winter soups.) You will also notice I didn't say how many garlic cloves to use. I have no idea. I use several. Garlic is a natural antibiotic, so more is better! You'll want to mince or press these.
1 whole chicken
1 onion
fresh carrots, chopped
fresh celery, chopped.
garlic cloves
Spices to taste (sage, poultry seasoning, thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper, etc)
chicken broth or chicken bullion
egg noodles
Boil chicken in chicken broth or water with chicken bullion. Simmer until meat is falling off the bone, the longer the better. I like to let it simmer for 1-2 hours if I can. You want all the good stuff to leach out of those bones into your broth. Scoop out the chicken and bones. It should just fall all apart. Set the chicken aside to cool. Now add your vegetables and spices. Personally, I hate cooked onions. It is a texture issue with me. I want all the nutrients out of it, without having to actually eat it. So I simply drop a whole onion in there to boil. As my vegetables are cooking, I start deboning the chicken and putting meat back into the boiling stockpot. I don't often use all the meat so I will bag up the rest to use in a different meal later. Once your veggies are done, add a bag of egg noodles and cook until they are soft. Once the noodles are done, I scoop out the onion and press it against the side of the stockpot to squeeze out all the liquid I can. And then, yes, I throw it away. Don't judge.
This is our go-to soup when we have illness in the house. I made it ahead of time when I had my surgery a few years ago, as well. Studies came out a few years ago showing that old-fashioned made-from-scratch homemade chicken soup like Grandma used to make really does help fight cold and flu. Even if it didn't, it certainly is one of my favorite comfort foods. Enjoy!
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