Today we continue our Holiday Season Extravaganza.  Between now and December 25, we will share what it means to celebrate the holidays — Life in Pencil style.

Posted by Elizabeth

This week of the year is always a strange one for me.  Thanksgiving is a fading memory, but the holiday season hasn’t yet shifted into high gear.  The week after Thanksgiving feels like the holiday hinterlands, the afterglow just before something new emerges.  We dredge the past rather than creating something new, pilfering the remains of a forgotten holiday meal before the parade of parties and feasts begins.  Yesterday I found myself contemplating what to make of the final bits of our coveted heritage turkey (the ones that Maikael would prefer that I save for sandwiches, but that I can’t help but refashion into a new dish for dinner).  Because my mother is never far from my thoughts this time of the year, I felt inspired to make her very simple recipe for chicken noodle soup.  It is a dish my family often enjoyed on lazy Sunday afternoons, or whenever some leftover poultry was in need of a second life.  The recipe is not entirely of her creation; my mother was a magpie, searching for the shiny bits amongst recipes and gathering them to make her own version.  But my mom had a way of recreating something that always tasted better than the original recipe, a gift I did not inherit.

As the late autumn afternoon cast long shadows on the kitchen table, I followed her recipe to the letter, tossing rounds of carrots, thick slashes of celery, shards of turkey,  and flakes of parsley into the amber broth.  My cast iron pot, the color and girth of a battleship, happily simmered on the stove while I rolled a long, stretchy sheet of dough.  As I cut the dough into imperfect ribbons, I remembered the day, just weeks before she died, that she taught me, with unexpected urgency, how to make this soup.   It was if she knew on some deep, internal level that her time was growing short.  A few weeks later a dear friend’s husband died, young and without warning.  At a loss for what to do or bring, I took my solo, maiden voyage into the world of my mother’s soup.  What could be more curative, I reasoned, than chicken noodle soup?   I recall with precision clarity the cold, grey day that I dashed through my neighborhood farmer’s market collecting crisp apples the size of baseballs and handfuls of fresh walnuts, which I knew my friend loved, to accompany my modest offering.

When I think of that particular late-autumn I think about this soup, which I made often during that period.  I made it upon returning from my friend’s, where I commented in my diary, “I feel as if the other shoe is about to drop.”  I made it a few days after my mom died, lacking the energy or appetite to fix much else.  And I continue to gravitate towards this soup when my heart longs for my mother, when both my body and soul are in need of nourishment.   Last night, as I sucked fat, rustic noodles through my lips and sipped spoonfuls of the most flavorful broth I’d ever made, I found myself completely content, the waves of memory lapping against me.  It dawned on me that this soup, more than any other dish, is a touchstone of my mother.  Nowadays I rarely make this soup, and I don’t know why, because there is no easier way to connect to her spirit than through such a simple pleasure.

If you find yourself needing to use those final bits of Thanksgiving turkey, or discover that your body – or soul – is in need of some warmth, please make this chicken noodle soup.  I guarantee it will set you right again.  What foods connect you to your past this time of year?

Sheri’s Chicken Noodle Soup
Serves 4 -6

Soup base:
Two (2) cups of precooked chicken (anything will do – rotisserie or leftover) or two boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and then shredded

Twelve (12) cups of chicken stock (store-bought, homemade, or bouillon cubes added to water)

Four (4) large carrots or six (6) small carrots, cut into thick rounds

Three (3) celery stalks, cut in large slices

A handful of parsley, chopped

Noodles:

Two (2) egg yolks

½ of an egg white

1 ½ Tbsp. water

½ tsp. salt

1 cup flour

Directions:

If using precooked chicken, measure and set aside.  If not, bake chicken breasts in 375 degree oven for 40 minutes.  Once chicken is prepared, place in large stock pot with chicken stock, carrots, celery, and parsley.  Simmer for one hour.  While soup base is simmering, prepare noodles, combining all ingredients with a fork until well-mixed.  Flour a countertop and knead dough until no longer sticky.  Roll dough very thin, into a 14”x14” square.  Carefully transfer onto a cutting board.  Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut dough into strips (approximately ¼” wide and two inches long).  Lay the noodles on the board to dry a bit.  Once stock has simmered for an hour, add noodles to the stock, stirring to distribute.  Bring stock back to a boil, and gently boil for 20 minutes.