Week 18: Chicken Soup for the Sick Doctor Friend’s Soul and Health

Background:
Two weeks ago, my doctor friend posted on facebook that she's having to eat soft foods because she recently had to get braces after her teeth were knocked out of allignment when her beloved (big) dog accidentally headbutted her chin. I offered to make her some soup and asked what kind she'd like. She said I'm so sweet and that's such a nice offer, and my friends rave about my soup, and she'd take anything mushy with no bits to chew, and her phobias are Lima beens, water chestnuts, okra, and mushrooms, so she's sure any soup without those would be delish. I told her I'd peruse my Soup cookbooks and see what I could come up with and I'm sure I'll find something delectible for her. I knew she was going to be out of town for a few days and asked when she'd be back, and she said Sunday, but no hurry because the braces will be on for awhile. A couple of days later, she posted that she had a bad head cold, and a couple of days after that she said thanks to a strong dose of ibuprofen she just ate her first meal consisting of solid food in nine days. I wanted to fix some soup to have ready for her when she returned from out of town, but I had a busy weekend and didn't have time to get it done. The next couple of days, she posted that she had sinusitis, and she couldn't remember being this sick in a while, and she was glad her mom is here to take care of her. I was home sick myself for a couple of days and thought about fixing her some soup while I had time, but I realized it probably wasn't a good idea to cook for someone else while I was sick myself.

So, finally, this past Friday night, remembering that, back in Week 7, I'd made a yummy Chicken Soup for a friend who was sick, I asked her how does Chicken Soup for the Sick Friend’s Soul and Health sound (if her mom hasn't already nursed her back to health with chicken soup this week), and she said thanks--that sounds really nice! I had a busy day Saturday, so I decided I could go grocery shopping Saturday night and cook the soup after church on Sunday (today) and take it to her in time for dinner. I sent her a note to make sure she was going to be around late Sunday afternoon so I could bring it by. She responded that she and her mom were going to see "The King's Speech" at 1:00 Sunday afternoon and invited me to join them. I'd heard rave reviews of the movie, and since the Oscars were going to be on Sunday night and I hadn't seen any of the nominated movies, I was excited to see it. It was already late Saturday night, and I hadn't done my grocery shopping to get my ingredients, so I looked up the entry for Week 7 and discovered I don't have a recipe for the yummy soup--apparently I'd combined a recipe for Indonesian Chicken Noodle Soup from my Soup cookbook with one for Easy Chicken Tortellini Soup from the box of Chicken Stock I'd bought and, while I had a description of it in the blog entry, it wasn't a complete recipe. Since Week 7 was about seven years ago, I knew the recipe on the box now wouldn't be the same as the one back then. So, I made a list of ingredients as best I could from the Soup cookbook recipe and the blog entry, and went to the grocery store:
--carrots (already had)
--celery
--baby zucchini
--onion
--fresh dill weed (to serve)
--fresh basil
--chicken stock
--boneless, skinless Free Range chicken breasts
--pasta (already had Rings)
--loaf of soft bread (I picked out a Baking Stone Bread Asiago Batard) 

I got up this morning and got ready for church, then had about an hour to start prepping the ingredients. I peeled, sliced, and/or chopped the carrots, celery, onion, and zucchini and put them in a bowl in the fridge. Although my blog entry from Week 7 (seven years ago) said I'd prepared the zucchini by finely slicing it diagonally with a vegetable peeler, I couldn't figure out today exactly what that meant, so I just sliced it into circles. I then needed to poach the chicken breasts. My Soup cookbook said to bring the stock to a boil, add the chicken pieces, reduce the heat, and poach gently until tender. But it seemed kind of hard to cut the raw chicken breasts into pieces, so I Googled how to poach chicken and found the following instructions:

"Place chicken breasts in bottom of a small, heavy-bottomed pot. They should fit in a single layer but fit quite snugly. Cover chicken with broth or water. Add herbs and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then quickly reduce heat to low so that the water is barely at a simmer. Partly cover and gently simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off heat completely, and allow chicken to remain in hot water for 15-20 minutes. Slice or shred chicken."

I did that (except I didn't have a bay leaf), and I even thought to use my new (from a few weeks ago) skimmer to skim off the foam that formed on top of the water. It was time to leave, and I didn't have time to cut up the chicken, so I put it on a plate in the fridge and left for church. When I got back home an hour and 15 minutes later, I had 45 minutes to boil the chicken stock, cut up the poached chicken breasts, add them to the stock, add the veggies, basil, Sea Salt and cracked pepper and, finally, the pasta rings. I hadn't cooked the pasta because I thought I remembered M telling me back in Week 2 (seven years ago), that pasta can cook in the stock. (I didn't take time to look that up, and it turns out I should have, because when I looked it up just now, I discovered it was rice she had said that about. Oops.)

I hadn't left time for the soup to cool down before I put it in a container to take to my friend's house, and I couldn't find my soup storage containers I'd bought 5 or so years ago anyway (I think I must have donated/temporarily loaned them to the kitchen at work when we moved into our new building a couple of years ago). I had made a double batch so I'd have some for myself, so I poured half of it into a slow cooker pot to transport it and put the other half in my fridge (in the pot I'd cooked it in). I grabbed the loaf of bread and the dillweed and drove over to Doc's place. She and her mom met me outside, and we put the soup in her trunk and figured it would be ok for a couple of hours while we were at the movie since the temperature outside was in the mid-thirties. On my way home from the movie, I realized I'd forgotten to give her the bread and dillweed, so I swung by her house and dropped those off. Then I swung by K-mart and bought a new set of soup storage containers so I'll have those for future.

I fixed a bowl for myself for dinner (with dillweed sprinkled on top), and I was disappointed in the soup--the flavor was good, but the consistency of the stock was too thick because of the pasta which was all mushy, much like my Souper Bowl soup a few weeks ago. (I don't think that's what Doc had meant when she originally said she'd "take anything mushy with no bits to chew"!)  She sent me a message saying she and her mom enjoyed the soup and bread very much, and it was very yummy! I thanked her for saying so, but told her I was disappointed in the way the stock and pasta had turned out. She said the flavor was great, and that they ate some and wanted to stretch it out so they added some Rachael Rays chicken broth, so the consistency is a little thinner now and it tastes really good.

I Googled how to keep pasta from getting mushy in soup, and found a tip that said to "store the soup separately from the (rice or) pasta. If you mix them together, the rice or pasta will drink up the broth. Chicken soup freezes great!"

The bread was delish. The soup, though nutritious, wasn't delicious. I'll work on getting the pasta to cook right and try again sometime.

Update 2-28-11
When I went to fix dinner tonight, I remembered I have some chicken-flavored boullion cubes in my cabinet, so I boiled two cups of water, added two cubes, and poured it into the chicken soup to help thin it out.  It worked!  It's delicious!!  I forgot to have a piece of bread though, so I'm gonna go fix another bowl of soup and warm up a slice of Asiago Batard to have with it.
"Scientists say they have confirmed what grandmothers have known for centuries -- that chicken soup is good for colds....Some researchers have suggested...perhaps the steam from the soup, or the chicken fat, may play a role in soothing inflamed airways. (Dr. Stephen) Rennard said this was possible. He also said there could be a 'TLC'...factor. 'If you know somebody prepared soup for you by hand, that might have an effect.'"