A Family Favorite & Beautiful Little Girl

This weekend Sarah started coming down with a bit of an upper respiratory cold, so I decided to cook a family favorite!! This recipe has been passed down on my Mom's side for at least three generations...maybe more. My grandmother swore that this would help any ailment.....and as soon as someone in the family was sick, she was ready with a container of her homemade chicken soup. Even as an adult, when I am sick, this is what I want to eat.....everytime I make it, it reminds me of her.


Chicken Soup


Ingrdients Needed:

1 Whole Chicken with Giblets
Bunch of Celery
1 Onion
1 Tomatoes
1 Bay Leaf
Parsley- just a hand full
2-3 Whole Carrots Peeled
1 Tablespoon of Whole Allspice
Salt
Pepper
1 Box Orzo or your favorite small shaped pasta
1 Box of Chicken Stock
Bag of baby carrots

Season your whole chicken and giblets with salt and pepper, put it into a large pot, add 1 onion, 1 tomato, a hanful of Parsley, 2-3 Whole Carrots, 1 Tablespoon of Allspice, and 1 or 2 bay leaves. Season again with salt and pepper and fill the pot with water, just enough to cover the bird.

Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer and let it cook on low for an hour and half to two hours, or until the chicken starts to fall apart. Pull the chicken out and let rest on a cutting board. Strain the stock and put back on the stove. I toss everything that I strained from the stock. Now add your baby carrots to the stock to cook and while cooking I am constantly skimming fat off the top. At this time I usually add a box of store bought stock to make it go a little further and give it a little punch of flavor.

While the carrots are cooking in the stock, I start to pull and slice all the chicken meat. I reserve 1/4 to 1/2 of the chicken meat to make a salad, then throw the remainder of the chicken back into the stock with the carrots.

In a separate pot, boil water for the noodles. Cook as directed then combine the noodles with the stock and your soup is finished.

I always serve with a little grated parmesan for extra flavor....you know me...everything tastes better with some cheese:)



Chicken Salad

Using the chicken that I put aside, I make this delicious chicken salad....it is the perfect side for this soup. Add a piece of crusty bread and your meal is complete.

Ingredients:
Your Favorite Lettuce
1/2 of a Red Onion
Pulled Chicken
Feel free to add any other veggies of choice, we usually just do the chicken, lettuce, and red onion. Once in a while I use cucumbers too:)

Dressing:
1 TBSP Dijon Mustard
1 Clove of Garlic
1/2 tsp of Italian season
Juice of one lemon
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Hope you enjoy this meal as much as we do. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but it really is not that bad and it makes a lot, so there will be plenty leftover!!

We experienced a little warm up this weekend and got to spend some time outdoors. On Saturday, I took the kids to our favorite park and let them run around while I worked with a beautiful little girl!

A good friend of mine has a daughter who is 11 years old and was very excited to work with me. It made me so happy to capture this little girl's beauty and share the finished product with her Mom today......She was very excited to see the pictures and I think she was thrilled with the results.


I spent about 2 hours in the park with her, and then took a couple hours last night on the finishing touches......I couldn't choose which ones to post, so I made a slide show of my favorites.

Hint: Once you click play, look for the arrows in the lower righthand corner. If you click them, it will allow you to view the pictures in the full screen mode!


Can you believe she is only 11 years old? I think her Mom and Dad will be fighting the boys off with a stick!!

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend:)