waiting for soup and bread

It seems all I ever do is wait. I wait for morning. I wait for night. I wait for those salad lunches. I wait for phone calls and I wait for email. I wait for regular mail. I wait for packages. I wait for everyone to go to work and I wait for everyone to come home. I wait for the wash to finish. I wait for the dryer to finish. I wait for contractors and people to read meters. I wait for holidays and I wait for vacations. I wait to see people. I wait to hear from people. I even wait to hear about people. So. While waiting I made a pot of chicken soup and a loaf of whole wheat, oat bran, flax bread. Breakfast bread I call it because that's what I eat for breakfast. My family loves this chicken soup so I decided (since I'm waiting anyway...to give you the recipe). The first thing you need to know is that I use organic chicken and organic grass fed beef. It makes a difference...to me. But I'm sure the soup will be delicious no matter where your farm animals were raised.

The first thing you do is tie your chicken with three pieces of string so that when you lift the chicken out of the soup to pick it the chicken doesn't fall apart in the soup. Then (even though this is chicken soup...I put, like my grandmother before me, a piece of beef shin bone in the pot). Next 2 stalks of celery, chopped in only a couple of pieces, 3 carrots chopped (I used those tiny already cut carrots...lazy today) likewise. two chopped leeks, and a parsnip. You'll notice that my chicken and shin bone are frozen. Totally okay. It's going to cook all day while you're waiting after all.

After you have settled all of that into the pot cut up a small head of cabbage. Slice into long thick slices and drop into the pot. Then put two cloves of garlic through your garlic press and into the pot along with about a 1/4 cup of dried parsley and salt and pepper to taste. I use coarse Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Add about 12 cups of water and turn it on to start a boil. Once it starts to boil...turn it down to simmer S-L-O-W-L-Y. Remember...you're waiting. Be patient. Patience is a virtue.

Now just put on that pot's lid, adjust to a simmer, and wait, wait, wait (say five hours or more!)

So the afternoon goes by. I put things away. I do laundry. I make beds. I blog. Waiting. Waiting for the phone to ring. For a car in the driveway. Something. Because here's the thing. No one can tell me for sure when they're coming home. Around that time. Give or take. And so I wait. Hesitant to get started on something bigger than chores because I like to see my family. I like to talk with them. So I don't want to be elbows deep into something when they finally arrive at the back door. (Or maybe that's just an excuse to keep from finishing my novel...that I've been working on (and off) for six years). Hmmm.

Anyway. While I'm waiting for soup I make bread. I have a Panasonic SD-YD250 bread machine that I love. I mean it. If it broke today I would buy another immediately. I don't buy bread. I make it in the YD. So, for those of you reading who have the Panasonic SD-YD250 here is my very own recipe for Whole Wheat Oat Bran Flax Bread: 4 oz. bread flour, 5 oz. oat bran flour, 5 oz. whole wheat flour, 3/4 oz ground flax seed, 1 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 1/4 tbsp. sugar, 1 1/4 tbsp. dried milk powder, 1 1/2 tbsp. unsalted butter, 10 oz. water, 1 tsp. bread machine yeast. Put it on the sandwich bread setting. Push the button and WAIT for 4 hours. Bread! I eat it for breakfast...toasted with a little Simply Jif spread on top.

The soup is done. And while I'm waiting I pull out the parsnip and throw it away. I pull out the chicken and clean the meat off the bones. I toss some back in the soup and some I put on a plate to eat (we're have sandwiches with the soup...got to find some place for more lettuce!). I take the marrow out of the shin and toss it in the soup along with some of the meat. Some of the beef I just eat while I'm finishing the soup...cook's treat. I strain the vegetables and throw some carrots, all leeks, all celery, some cabbage back into the pot and pulverize them with an immersion blender. Then I toss the rest of the carrots and cabbage back into the pot along with a can of rinsed and drained small white beans.

So I've waited all day and got some chores done and soon the house will no longer be quiet. I've blown another afternoon that could have afforded me time to write my novel. Instead I've made soup and bread for my family. Somehow...as much as I hate to wait, sitting down to dinner with my family makes me content. I can finish my novel tomorrow...while I'm waiting.