Apparently my blogging hiatus was a bit longer than expected – my apologies, but I’m back. I’m back with recipes that will give you a glimpse of my childhood and my Ukrainian heritage. The following is a recipe that my mother shared with me, and one that I will pass on to my girls.

Let me start with Chicken Soup, which I grew up eating and enjoying on a weekly basis. My mother was of the mindset that soup was the starter for almost every dinner meal as it was good for the soul, and healthy for the body. So here’s to a comforting bowl of chicken soup!

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You will need:
2 split chicken breasts, skin on and bone in
2 whole legs
16 cups of water
2 teaspoons salt
10 peppercorns
2 bay leaves
6 – 8 large carrots, peeled
3 – 4 celery stalks (two of which have leaves)
2 medium onions cut into wedges
2 medium potatoes cut into large pieces
additional salt and pepper to taste

Rinse chicken under cold water. Place in large stockpot (I use my 5 ½ qt. Le Creuset) filled with 16-cups of water. Bring to rolling boil and skim foam off the top. Continue cooking on high for about 3 – 5 minutes until all foam has been removed. Reduce heat to medium, add salt and 10 peppercorns, Bay leaf and continue cooking chicken for about 30 minutes. Take chicken out, remove skin and put chicken back into the pot, cover and resume cooking on medium low for about 1 hour. Add celery, onions, potatoes and cook for an additional 20 minutes; add carrots and cook for another 10 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Remove bay leaves before serving.

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I like to serve the soup with angel hair pasta, and Mike likes to add in grated Parmesan cheese. Must be an Italian thing!