Chicken Soup for All of Us

Last year, thanks to Laurie, one of the guys who writes the Chicken Soup for the Soul books sat on me.

There are photos. I will not be publishing them. Ever.

Laurie might. You'll have to talk to her about that.

There is a point to this. The Chicken Soup books are all about giving comfort.

I am in short supply of comfort this week as I've been sick, and frankly, a little down.

I say "down" because for me, the word "depressed" takes on considerably serious meaning in my life. Just ask my patient husband. Depressed means curled up in fetal position for a good number of months self-isolated from all human contact having not showered in far, far too long.

I am a long and terrible journey away from "depressed".

I am a little down. It will indeed, pass.

I haven't always known this but when I am "down", the urge to isolate myself hits me like a ton of melancholy bricks and yet, what I need is to be taking active steps to comfort myself. To nurture myself.

Nurture is a concept for me that claws at my brain.

Nurture is care and kindness and support.
Nurture is development, creativity, education and cultivation.
Nurture is nourishment, sustenance, refreshment.

All of these things have never been a problem for me to provide to others but are nearly impossible to accept for myself. I have been known to feel virtuous for denying myself nurturing and yet should I ever deny it to anyone else, it would be mortifying to me.

The trick here is, in nurturing another, I nurture myself. Just go with me on this one, OK? I love taking care of others. It is embedded in (whatever passes for) my soul. It is a part of my being. I sometimes forget myself in taking care of others, which becomes a hazard. This week, during this time that I am not abundant with resources, I promise not to forget myself.

I also promised a recipe for chicken soup. (nice segue, huh? I thought so!)

This, just so you know, is not your grandmother's chicken soup recipe. I, personally, do not have 12 hours to boil a carcass just for broth. Therefore, this is the 21st century happy homemaker's chicken soup. Mmmm mmmm, good.

Faith's 21st Century Balabusta's* Chicken Soup

The night before, order Chinese food. Get brown rice. Trust me. The brown rice never gets fully eaten and sits in the fridge because you don't want to throw away perfectly good brown rice. You'll use this.

Then, the next day, go get:
One grocery store roasted chicken. Pre-roasted. Preferably garlic or rosemary. Not BBQ. OK?
2 quarts of chicken broth (I use boxed)
Six or seven whole peeled carrots
One stalk of celery (not one stick, the whole bunch)
One bunch of chives (or about 2 tbsp. dried chives)
Two bay leaves
Parsley flakes
Garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste.

Pour all the broth into the crockpot. Take all the meat off the chicken, shred it into edible chunks and throw that into the crockpot. Get rid of the skin, you won't use it in this recipe. Cut up the carrots and celery into about 1 inch pieces. Throw that in too. Put in the chives, parsley flakes, garlic powder, salt, pepper and bay leaves. Cover and leave on low for about 5 hours or until the carrots are cooked to the softness that you like. In about the fourth hour, put the brown rice into the crockpot.

Eat soup.

Careful, it's hot.

*Origin: Yiddish–noun: Informal.
A capable, efficient housewife, esp. a traditional Jewish one, devoted to maintaining a well-run home, good homemaker