Monday, October 25, 2010

Rain and Chicken Soup

"Maybe, just once, someone will call me 'Sir' without adding, 'You're making a scene'."
- Homer Simpson

I’m not inclined to the dramatic today. Which is just as well, because nobody has called me Sir/M’am lately. Nor have I been making public spectacles of myself. Not that I remember, anyway. Which might be a clue, but I’ve also been undergoing a bout of cluelessness lately. Anyway, I think I am coming around.

Rain helps. It seems to water my soul after the long dry spell, with its promise of renewal. Rain is pattering down just enough outside to make me want to stay inside and make soup out of yesterday’s roast chicken. I could wax poetic about the rain and/or chicken soup, but I simply can’t compete with the eloquence of Homer Simpson, so you’ll just have to imagine the scene. Misty rain outside, and rich chicken broth inside.

While vegetable simmer in the broth, I clean the bird like my Mom used to do: two bowls, the carcass, a knife. She’d sit and pick the meat off the bones, carefully placing the unadulterated meat in one bowl, cut into bite sizes with the paring knife against her right thumb. The gristle, skin, and bones mostly went into the other bowl. The fun part was what became of the uncertain bits. Those would be popped into her mouth with the crispy skin. If you hung around, she’d pop a bit of chicken in your mouth too.

When Mom ate chicken, the bones would be left looking like they’d been out in the desert a month – they were so clean they were white. Mom died 16 years ago next month. That time of year, the first snow might be falling. I’m a long way from snow, but the gentle raindrops clinging to the pine trees look like snow if I squint.

So, I’ve got winter outdoors, and some very nostalgic smells inside. Which leaves me with a very healthy “mission accomplished” feeling this afternoon. And which leaves me to conclude with another bit of questionable wisdom from Homer: All my life I've had one dream, to achieve my many goals. What Homer said.

3 comments:

chaiselongue said...

Enjoy the rain and chicken soup... and dream about achieving your goals! It's good to have rain at this time of year... a bit gloomy, but necessary, and I'm still happier when the sun comes out again.

Les said...

I worked with a woman whose favorite lunch was a fried chicken sandwich. A piece of chicken, with bones, was put between the halves of a roll. I never understood the logic of a sandwich with bones, but to her the bread was more of a napkin and conveyance for the fowl, and always ended up with just a very clean bone and nothing else.

Glad you enjoyed the rain and your memories.

Cicero Sings said...

Nothing like home made chicken soup! I have a chicken in the freezer to roast sometime ... just so I can throw the carcass into the crock pot for stewing. I'm out of broth now so I'll need to do this chicken up SOON!

As for rain, we have had a very dry and a very mild fall. My geraniums still live on my front deck ... amazing for Nov 2 in the Cariboo. We've usually had a hard enough frost by end of September to knock them out even with the protection of the eaves.

As to beavers, I too have read that about the damming of beavers is beneficial. Beavers can create a beneficial habitat for other critters as well as a water conservation area. Everything has its place in the full cycle of things ... every joint supplies.

I tried emailing you (using the email contact on your personal info page) but it came back to me. You must have changed email in the meantime.