Broth !!!!

When I was in college and I would get stressed sometimes (because maybe I would have a paper due or maybe a test was coming up), I would make cookies: Wholesome whole wheat cookies, of course, but cookies nonetheless. But somehow, making them and eating them and sharing them with my roommates helped to ease the stress. The diversion of working withmy hands instead of wokring with words on paper plus the extra energy received from consuming the delicious morsels seemed the perfect antidote for stress.

Fastforward 38 years and what do I do now when I subconsioulsy feel stress and need relief and comfort? I make broth: chicken broth but with lots of vegetables used in it too. I have perfected the art! I now use a crockpot to make my broth.

Here is how I do it.
1. Buy a broasted (rotisseried)chicken from Costco. The skin is dark golden brown, and the chicken is done to perfection. You don't have to go home and bake a raw chicken from scratch when this need for comfort strikes you!

2. Put chicken on a big plated and take off the skin, and take the meat off the bones. Place this meat into a 1.5 quart tupperware or other similar item.

3. Put the bones, skin, and drippings from the tray you bought it in, into your crockpot. (or a large cooking pot) Add more water, one veggie boullion cube (or chicken boullion cube-I use Knorr)and 4 large carrots, scrubbed and cut up, 4 stalks celery, washed well and cut up, one onion or 2, chopped up, a half bunch of parsley if you have it, some twists of fresh ground pepper. Set the dial to high. (Or if in a cooking pot on stove, put it over a low flame) Put the lid on. There should be enough water in the crock pot to cover most of the ingredients. It is OK if some veggies poke out of the water.

4. As you go about your business, or even leave the house for a while, this concoction will begin to simmer and emit the most heavenly aromas!!!

5. After 4 hours, you can turn it to low and just let it sit there until you are ready to strain it. I put a colander (stainless steel one) over a stainless steel bowl and dump the contents (cooked veggies, and bones and skin and broth)of the crockpot into it. Then I lift the colander up and shake it until all the broth is drained out.

6. I will pour some into a bowl and drink it right away or cool it a bit and store in fridge and use for soup in the next few days. Also, you can drink some right away and still have some left for other meals. I, of course, share this rich broth with John.

7. For soup, I add cooked rice and cooked chopped cabbage, and some finely chopped carrots, too...maybe a bit of finely chopped onion. Yummy!!

8. I end up with 4-5 cups of good tender chicken meat that I use in sandwiches or chicken curry or burritoes. You can be creative. Or I freeze it in 1 cup packets like I do the chicken breasts I talked about in a previous post.

SO....if you see me making broth, you know I am in need of extra comfort. Be nice to me. And I will be nice back and share some broth with you!