Chicken Soup for the Soul

It’s cool outside and that means I’m making Chicken Soup. Soups, and their heartier cousin stews, top my list of favorite foods. Soup and stews are so versatile. They can be anything they want to be, cold, hot, sweet, salty, spicy, sour or all of them at the same time. It’s also extremely forgiving too. It is a great dish for new cooks to experiment with different textures and flavor pallets.

I was recently reading the book Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson and it got me to thinking about legacy and inheritance. Making soup for me is definitely a legacy my Mom has passed down to her children. Her soup is amazing. Her flavors are rich and she never makes it the same way twice, and yet it still feels familiar every time.

Each time you have a bowl of her soup, you can tell she is striving for the best flavor composition she has ever achieved. Every bowl tastes like snow days, watching football in front of the big T.V. with the fireplace roaring, footed pajamas, Scrabble and R&B music playing in the background on Christmas break. Every bowl teleports me back to the kitchen stool where I rambled on about my 10 year old thoughts while my mom buzzed around the kitchen adding vegetables here and garlic there.

My oldest son, Dalton, is the chef. He’s a good cook and he helped me make soup a few weeks ago. I’m annoying to cook with but I loved every moment he spends with me in the kitchen. He handles me so well, taking all my demands in stride. He’s always been an emotionally intelligent child. It makes me happy that a sacred piece of our family legacy is being passed down to the next generation.

I’ve tried and have gotten close to recreating her soups. My Mom tries to give me tips to help me out. Sharing some technique she uses or seasoning she adds but I never get the flavor exactly like I remember it. What is it, magic, fairy dust, wisdom? I finally figured it out when I was in the kitchen with Dalton. It’s a mother’s love. That was the missing ingredient. Her soup will always be uniquely flavored with her love, the way mine will be sprinkled with my love and my son's with his.

And just because... (if you know this, you are my people, lol)