Chicken Soup....

Hi World,


Judging by the scarce comments on my last post, some of us aren't comfortable discussing celebrity porn. Fair enough. I feel the same exact way about the apocalypse according to the Mayan calendar, accidents involving chain saws, and Piers Morgan. There are just some subjects that do not need to be discussed in polite company.

If we're not going to talk about celebrity porn, however, I thought we could maybe discuss another subject near and dear to my heart. Food.

I love food. I especially love how eating it keeps me and my loved ones alive. On the rare occasion, I even enjoy the process of making it. Truthfully, I'd much rather you made it. And while you are chopping, I'm happy to regal you with stories and entertain you with my sparkling fresh wit. Note: Usually I am more sparkling when offered a steady stream of wine.

To a point.

But alas, other people cooking for me doesn't happen all that often. It could be that I am not nearly as witty or sparkling as I think I am. And since the people I live with do not cook, if anything remotely nourishing is going to be consumed by my family, I'm going to have to make it.

Wednesday was a snow day for many of us in Rhode Island. Any day starting with three feet of snow calls for soup, don't you think? In fact, I think Einstein observed that and proved it mathematically during his Whole Food years (you can file that under things I made up that could be true).

Anyway, so Einstein likes soup, I like soup, and men and little boys who have been out shoveling snow for hours really like soup. I scrounged around in the fridge to see what I could come up with and the result was this quick, hearty and tasty, hamburger soup.

I started with a basic internet recipe and played with it based on what I had available. I think the result is probably much better than that generic recipe. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Just like this soup will, er, stick to your ribs.

That was lame. I know. I'm no Rachel Ray.

CHICKEN'S HAMBURGER SOUP:
2 lbs of the leanest burger you can find
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrots
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 cups chopped tomato or one can diced tomato
8 cups Chix broth (or homade broth if you are ambitious)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup butter
2 Tbsp steak sauce, chimichurri, or worcestershire sauce
Finely chopped parsley if you have it

In a soup pot, brown the meat with onion, celery, carrots and garlic. Once browned, add broth, steak sauce and tomatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Turn off heat, stir in butter, sprinkle with parsley and call yo' men to the table.

Have a great long weekend, World. Enjoy the soup. Chicken likes this new image as nurturer. It is not as exciting as being a porn pusher, but it is maybe time to grow up anyway. We can't all be Hugh Hefner.

Maybe I'll learn to make candles or some crafty thing out of dryer lint over the weekend, and I can share that with you on Monday. You can call me "Auntie" if you want (shrug/smile).