Rainy Day

I love the change of seasons. I even love an occasional rainy day. If I have nothing to do, but putter around the house anyway, a good, cool rainy day is a nice change of pace. It calls to me, to settle in, hunker down, bake bread or make soup. I like to light a crackling fire in the fireplace or burn some candles. I like to put on my wool clogs and a cozy sweater.

One of my favorite soups to make is this rustic chicken soup. It always starts with a leftover roast chicken, bones and all. The rest is pretty much up to what I have on hand. It's thrifty and can make a ginormous batch, so be prepared to freeze the leftovers or eat it until it comes out of your ears.

Chicken Dumpling Soup

I have no idea how many WW Points each servings is. I should really figure that out, shouldn't I? I apologize, but every time I make this it involves different ingredients. Soups are traditionally very low in Points if you skim the fat and keep the meat portion down. Sometimes I leave the dumplings out and just make a fabulous chicken vegetable or add rice or pasta in place of the dumplings.

These are not light, fluffy dumplings, but more dense, extremely filling. Everyone we've served this soup to love them, even though they weigh a ton!

1 leftover whole roasted chicken, remove the skin if you have time

Several stalks of celery, chopped

Several carrots, chopped

a heaping TB of minced garlic

1 large onion chopped

2-3 bay leaves

Place all of the above in a large pot, cover with water, and let simmer for several hours. Strain out chicken and remove and discard bones. If you have time, you may want to strain out all the vegetables, cool the broth, and skim off any fat. Chop any meat and return to pot, along with any escaping vegetables that have come out with the chicken.

Now, for the use up any vegetables that may be lurking in your fridge or freezer part.

Add as many vegetables as you wish. I love adding turnips, more carrots, rutabagas, cabbage, peas, corn, green beans, fresh tomatoes, you name it! I usually clear out the vegetable bin in my fridge and sometimes I keep a bag in the freezer that I dump in small leftover amounts of veggies into just for this purpose. Yes, the bag looks a little gross, but mark it as Soup Veggies, and put in those couple of tablespoons that are leftover after dinner and before you know it, you'll have lots to put in your delicious soup!

If the veggies are fresh, simmer until tender, about 20 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. If you're adding rice or pasta, add it now. Don't add rice or pasta if you're making the dumplings.

Dumplings:

6 eggs

a big splash of milk (1/2 to 3/4 cup)

a dash of salt

enough flour to make a stiff dough

Sorry, this is my mom's "recipe". It's the best I can give you and it really works. Just mix it all together until it's like very soft biscuit dough. Drop by spoonfuls into simmering broth. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Uncover and cook 10 minutes more.

Enjoy!