Taking advantage of the cooler weather

Well, it was taking advantage of the weather, and also because I was going to do it tomorrow, but I changed my plans from doing, well, nothing to doing something that involves driving and meeting people.

So I made chicken soup tonight, instead of Sunday, as I’d originally planned for the weekend. There’s something about Sunday night that makes me want to cook. Oh, right. It’s that “Cook something large so you’ll have leftovers for lunch” thing.

I went shopping specifically for soup ingredients and milk, the only things I really needed. First store had no parsnips and no dill. I did not buy milk there, because my type of milk is a dollar cheaper at Kroger’s than it is at Ukrops. So, off to Kroger’s, which had parsnips, dill, and acidopholus milk. Oh, and half-price Fudgesicles, so total SCORE! (as Sarah and I like to say when we get a major deal at a supermarket).

Home, to cook the chicken and cut the vegetables and carmelize the onions (I like them much better that way than just put into the soup raw, although they do look like little worms when they’re done) and make the matzo balls. This time, I made an extra bunch of carrots to put in the soup when the matzo balls went in. I think I like it much better that way.

All in all, a delicious dinner, and enough left over for five more helpings of soup. I should have added water when I cooked the matzo balls, though. There were enough chicken and carrots left to make another bowl of soup. I just split them up among the five existing, to make extra-hearty soup. Yum. Can’t wait to have these for lunch at the new job. Or even dinner, if I’m too tired to cook one night.

You know, my mother only made soup once a year, for Passover. And she’d only really make the broth for matzo ball soup, with maybe a few carrot pieces added. I much prefer actually having chicken in my chicken soup. I don’t care much for appetizers. They tend to ruin my appetite for the meal. It’s funny, though, how my mother’s cooking and my cooking are so vastly different. She never cared much for cooking anyway, so I wound up doing most of it once I hit my teens. My father never cooked much, either, so when I lived with him, I did most of the cooking, too. The only time I got a break was when I had dinner with my brothers, both of whom can cook just fine.

It smelled a lot like Pesach here tonight. Still does, actually. And my soup is chilling in the fridge, while I try to decide whether to freeze it today or tomorrow. Probably tomorrow. I’m quite tired. Podcast is finished and sent off, so I’m off to bed.