Cooking for the Season

I recently discovered that cooking or doing anything for that matter is simply impossible if you’re also the chief caretaker of an active toddler. Our dinners and lunches have gotten progressively simpler, easier to make and healthier. The latter is due to the lack of time in preparing any sauce or anything else too fattening. Chicken, chicken, more chicken. Did someone say chicken? Of course even chicken can be spruced up and made into something special. To me, there are only two special chicken dishes: sous which is something my mother makes and homemade chicken soup.

I made this dish recently … it took a long time, but it was a lazy weekend. First, a whole chicken went into a giant pot to make chicken stock along with parsnips, onion, parsley and celery. Then, two chicken breasts were roasted whole in the oven with salt and olive oil to be shredded and added to the stock. Lastly, onion, garlic, celery, carrot and potato were sauteed lightly along with shiitake mushrooms to form the base of the soup. Mmm good! I finished off with petit peas for color and added green.