EASY ON THE WINE :

Chicken soup for the tummy: Making chicken soup is as good for you as eating it (Sara Bir , 11/21/02, Sonoma Bohemian)

Believing that chicken soup comes from a can is like saying babies come from the stork. But the real-deal chicken soup--that's like when you say "Mommy and daddy love each other very much, but sometimes they love each other a lot. . . ." In both instances a child is the result, but in the latter, there is both process--a wonderful process!--and result.

So it is with chicken soup. It is a thing of rare satisfaction to put a chicken in a pot with vegetables and water and, four hours later, find yourself with soup. It's a closed circle with perceptible origins: the miracle of creation! The act of making chicken soup is both wholesome and empowering, and while there is nothing too ethically wrong with preparing chicken soup via can opener, every eater of chicken soup should, at least once, see his or her own chicken soup evolve from chicken to bowl. Which does take time, but it's not demanding of time; chicken soup more or less makes itself as its chef vacuums the rugs, folds the laundry, and drinks the wine.

First, you get a chicken...

One hardly knows whether to cook or kiss the chicken. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 6, 2002 8:04 AM