recession chicken soup

adding "recession" in front of things makes it funny. i was going to note yesterday about my reasoning for sharing this recipe with you...forgot.

i don't think avoiding talking about this economy will make it go away, but constantly obsessing and always talking about it also isn't going to make it better*. you gotta carefully and casually walk the line. you don't want to become known as

"the recession guy"

or

"the girl that always talks about the economy problems."

(yes that last one was not nearly as eloquent or as savvy a reference to my favorite thursday night tv show, but alas, it conveys the general gist.) but i have also found that people regard each other a little higher when they know what each other is doing to "tighten the belt," as it were. here's how i am...

unless you are actually in charge of the economy, like the president, etc.*

last night, [my roommate] jenny and i made chicken noodle soup. this chicken soup was the best chicken soup i have ever had or made. honestly.

chicken soup ingredients
whole chicken: $2.22
produce and chicken stock: roughly $6-8
purchased at fresh & easy and ranch 99 and olive tree market
[including, onions, celery, carrots, lemon & chicken stock]
other stuff on hand: flour, eggs, seasonings, buttah, and olive oil

all in all: about $10 soup. going to last for like 10 meals.

the chicken roasting went well. after brining the chicken for about 8 hours, we prepped it for roasting--put fresh roasted garlic & some butter on the skin & then some salt, pepper, rosemary, and fresh lemon. i'd say it roasted for about an hour and 15 minutes. after about 4 freakish meat thermometer readings (i'm obsessed with that thing. breast temp. 165F and thigh 175F.) it was finally ready for pickin'.

here is the wee chicken preparing for the oven alongside the roasted garlic:

meanwhile, on the vintage-inspired frigidaire stovetop, the chicken stock had been patiently simmering for an hour or so with lots o carrots, thinly sliced onions & celery. just a-waitin' for the goodies.

whilst amid chicken roast, jenny and i made homemade egg noodles. they were pretty good. just standard egg noodles. the only thing that could have been improved upon in the recipe. i would do an egg-less recipe next time. i think they were a little heavy, almost, for the soup. still tasty though.

we just threw the noodles into the simmering chicken stock, let em cook up for a few minutes, then added the chunks of chicken from the whole roast chicken that i deboned with almost as much skill as my friend michelle flores. nimble fingers. and then...{secret recipe info ahead} since the chicken stock was like 98% fat free and just basic, it needed obvious seasoning, so we chose to put the chicken's roasting...juices (?)...and it honestly thickened up the broth and added the most phenomenal flavor.

this chicken soup was stellar!

but you see, the most glorious part of this chicken soup ordeal is that it was also serving a secondary and yet equally important purpose. making this chicken soup (from conception to preparation to consumption) took 2 days. the actual prep took hours. we were painstakingly laboring over this chicken soup. and all the sudden, we had entertainment taken care of for friday night. you're laughing at me. i know. but you've read this far.

[blame it on the economy.]