Soup is good food for the soul

With winter approaching, so is the cold and flu season. Now, we aren’t going to focus on sickness. But when it does happen, then we need some comfort.

We all get sick now and then. Well, at least most of us do because no one can escape all the germs floating around.

We have spray cans that protect the household surfaces and soap pumps that work automatically so you don’t have to touch them at all to get the soap out.

Hey, that brings about a point. So you don’t touch the soap pump, but you do have to touch the faucet handle, unless you are fortunate enough to have an auto-water device like the soap bottle.

They don’t talk about that point in the commercials, do they? Oh, those marketing strategies. Only those of us with a enough common sense pick up on that.

So you don’t feel good, got a headache, high fever and ache all over?

The solution is chicken soup. Well, after the pain and fever meds, anyway.

I got ambitious a couple weeks ago, cooked a chicken and turned the carcass and tid-bits into chicken and rice soup, my mother’s recipe.

I put it in freezer containers for use later. Then I bought a package of noodles so the next urge I get to make soup with chicken or turkey leftovers it will be with noodles instead of rice.

Homemade soup is so good for the soul.

I watch TV commercials about canned soups and it just doesn’t appeal to me, I don’t care how popular they are with mainstream society. Getting back to the basics of living includes learning how to make soup at home.

I’m a firm believer in back to the basics, and quality food is high on my list of priorities.

My mom and my grandma would be so proud watching me bring their recipes to life again after years in the ol’ recipe box.

Actually only a few are there as they got scattered between family members, nieces and sisters, for the most part.

But, I’m on a roll, remembering there are winter months ahead and that means lots of indoor activity.

The worst part of cooking and baking is, of course, the clean up. But immediately after the food is eaten, scraps packaged or given to Fido, the clean up theoretically should begin. I have come in from leaving the house in a hurry and returned to find piles of pots, pans and dishes in the sink.

I hate that.

I slaved over that last batch of soup, last venison stew, last meatloaf and last roasted chicken only to dive in and clean up my mess right away. What a good feeling that was to wake up in the morning, make my coffee and see a clean sink and counter.

In today’s rushing society, I’m guessing that it’s not that way in all households.

I remember walking into a person’s house and seeing their kitchen garbage can overflowing to the point that the garbage packages were stacked two feet higher than the trash container standing against the wall. Had it not been for the wall, the precarious pile would surely have toppled onto the floor.

Boy, would that have been a fun mess to clean up.

So, now I have chicken and rice stashed in the freezer, a new batch with noodles soon to be concocted and viola I’m ready for the flu.

Heaven forbid it should happen.

I like cooking on a gas range because I think the heat is better controlled. But my one burner on the stove top has a faulty igniter. It clicks but there is no flame.

I am not getting it fixed. I found a way out of that. I have a long wooden skewer stick that when lit by other burner whose igniters work, lights it just fine. The long skewer keeps my fingers from being torched.

Okay, I will get it fixed, but not right now.

I am not calling a repair service out as I just traded the old range that had a bad oven valve for this one and I could do worse. I’ll get a new range sometime down the road when I can afford it. This stove makes great soup and the oven works just fine.

It all reminds me to get out the old cookbook and see what I can concoct for future lunches and dinners. There’s nothing like a hot, tasty and simple meal on a cold, winter day.