The Monastery’s Chicken Soup
The monastery’s recipe for chicken soup still is the best I have ever tasted! They use real chicken stock, diced celery, onion and carrots, solid white breast meat, salt, pepper a dash of thyme and a generous hint of mint or dill. To separate the rice or egg noodles from what your cooking, make sure to cook them separately and keep them to themselves until its ready to serve. Then place them in the bowl. No sogginess here! Round out this meal with cheese, homemade bread and lots of fresh fruit.
At the monastery, I especially enjoy this meal after evening services. Inspired by the rays of sunlight at dusk as they cascaded through the refectory widow, our conversation became heightened from the mundane work of the day. When I’m back at home using that same chicken soup recipe, it lets my mind wander back to a nice, quiet serene moment. Isn’t it wonderful that both body and soul thrive on chicken soup? Lifting us from our daily drudgery and pedestrian travails, our book publishers ought to know that a fitting metaphor for stories, sayings, and advice, is good food.
We all know the healing power of chicken soup when we have colds or the flu. So, too, we need to find the best recipe for chicken soup that fills and uplifts our souls. What about a chicken wing recipe? Chicken wings are really expensive to buy at restaurants especially when you can buy a whole bag of frozen ones for five or six dollars and you get sixty or seventy wings in a bag. You can buy fresh ones and its usually three or four dollars for twenty or thirty wings. I dont have a fryer so I usually place the wings on a foil lined baking sheet and brush them with vegetable or olive oil to help them crisp and cook them in the oven.
I usually turn them once when I am cooking them and brush the other side with oil as well. The oil usually helps keep them from sticking to the pan. After they are fully cooked I usually toss them in a store bought wing sauce with ranch dressing on the side. If you like your wings a little hotter you can sprinkle some red pepper flakes or other spicy seasoning on them after brushing them with the oil. Now that summer is here you can cook outdoors more often instead of slaving away in a hot kitchen. You can make a quick healthy inexpensive diner by firing up the barbeque and making some boneless skinless cubed grill chicken on skewers with fresh garden vegetables like mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers and onions.
You can marinate the chicken and vegetables first in a zesty Italian salad dressing for seasoning. You can serve it on top of rice or pasta and have a fresh salad to go along with it. Baked potatoes are delcious made on the grill. You just clean them and cover with foil. Place them directly on the coals for at least 30 minutes depending on the size of the potato and save yourself having to heat up your oven on a hot day. You can season the spuds with the dressing as well for a healthy alternative to butter and cream cheese.