Chicken Soup for Giving

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We've had a marvelous day. We cooked a chicken all morning, making the house smell just as hounds would like it to. We made soup from the chicken and ladled it into bottles for taking around. One to the neighbor, one to the cousins, one to the elders, and one for us. Four quarts.

Here's our special methodology about packing up Soup for Giving:

1. Roast the chicken and pour juices into a gravy separator - a measuring cup with a spout that comes from the bottom instead of from the top. Very handy for keeping the fat out of the soup, gravy or what have you.

2. Use the broth to make a sumptuous soup with vegetables, especially celery, carrots, and some greens. And herbs. (We used an extra container of chicken broth too, to make 4 quarts of soup - one chicken didn't give enough juice.)

3. Pull the cooled chicken from the bones and cut into chunks. Put about 2/3 cup chicken into each quart jar. (Save the rest in the freezer for a dinner of Chicken and Biscuits for when the elder people come over.)

4. Add uncooked egg noodles to the jar, about 1 cup.

5. Ladle in the (hot) sumptuous soup to the top. The hot soup will cook the noodles and when the soup is reheated, they won't be Overcooked and the chicken will still be tender.

6. Deliver it while it's still warm because it's that much more joy for the recipient.

We also made Apple Upsidedown Tart, which we'll add in the next post because it was Wonderful.