A New Year and Chicken Noodle Soup

Happy new year, friends.  I hope so far 2017 is treating you well.  It's always hard going back to work/school/routine after the holidays.  I already miss those Baileys in the coffee mornings, the guilt-free chomping on Toblerone (it's the holidays!), and the merry-making.  Christmas chez Renée was super fun.  My lovely mom helped me make dinner on Christmas Eve, where my handsome beau was also an attendee.  My tiny dining room was all aglow in candlelight and the food, well, the food was delicious.  For future reference, if you don't already brine your turkey, I highly recommend you do so.  So flavourful!  So juicy!  My mom and I both swear it's the best turkey we ever tasted.  And that counts the year that she wrapped the bird in bacon.  Afterwards, we opened gifts and the cats had the best time in the boxes and wrapping paper.  So easy to please those furkids.  New Years was quiet, just me and the guy.   Movies and homemade pizza.  Cuddles and champagne wishes/kisses.  New Years Day we went for a long walk in the cold, though popped into a fancy hotel for boozy hot chocolates halfway through.  Time spent with your perfect person is really the best gift.  And then I got sick.

And I'm still sick.  With an incessant cold that just won't quit.  It's pissing me off and cramping my new years style.  Have any of you had it yet?  I'm so congested, and staying close to my neti pot, which helps, but oh how I long for the days when I could breathe out of my nose.  And the cough.  I swear I've eaten a pound of raw, unpasteurized honey and yet to no avail.  Hack hack hack.  And the night time is the worst.  I've done all the things you're supposed to do.  Rest, drink ginger/turmeric tea, rub Vick's on my feet, rub tiger balm on my chest and up my nose, plenty of fluids, expectorants, decongestants, the whole shebang.  I've also been eating loads of chicken soup, of course, and this one is something my mom would make for us when we were kids.

It's very simple.  Bring chicken (or turkey) stock to a boil, make a soft egg-noodle dough, drop the dough into the stock, add diced tomatoes, loads of dill, a bit of lemon juice, and that's it.  So good.  I managed to wrangle the recipe out of my mom, who of course, does not use a recipe.  She just does it, like she's done it countless times before.  I made a pot of this soup last week, and it freezes really well.  It's what's for dinner tonight, because let's face it, I don't feel like cooking.  My guy has been the sweetest, coming to see me and my germs every night.  Somehow he had evaded this plague, and I'm grateful for his company.  It makes the horrible bits a little bit better.  And you know it must be true love if he has seen you at your absolute worst (the hack! the snot!) and still comes back for more.  While this hasn't been the way I wanted to usher in a new year, it's what I've got.  In the end, it's really not so bad.

Lorna's Chicken Noodle Soup

12 cups chicken or turkey stock
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1 1/3 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 pepper
pinch nutmeg
2 cups canned, diced tomatoes
juice of half a lemon
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
2 green onions, chopped
1 tsp sugar

Bring the stock to a simmer over medium-high heat.  In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, eggs, water, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.  You want the consistency to be like a paste.  Use a large spoon and drop the dough into the simmering stock, swirling as you go.  The noodles will go to the bottom of the pot, and then float, so it's important to keep stirring.  Once all of the noodle dough is used up and they're floating, bring the soup to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low, stir in the canned tomatoes, lemon juice, dill, green onions and sugar.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Makes about 10 servings.