Soul-warming Chicken Noodle Soup

There are some things that only chicken soup will cure. Part 1: Chop up 2 large onions. Peel and slice in largish diagonal slices 5 carrots. Slice up 3 stalks of celery. Gently bruise and then peel the papery skins off of all the cloves in a head of garlic.

Melt 1 stick butter in a large pot. Saute the above for about 5-10 min., until the onions are translucent. Add 1 large can (about 4 cups) of College Inn chicken stock and 10 fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced. Simmer for about 10 min. Turn off heat while you prepare the rest of the soup.

If you can multi-task, you can work on the other parts while the vegetables are sauteing. Otherwise, do this in steps and at the end, all will be combined.

Part 2: Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add enough kosher salt so that the water is slightly salty. (Any questions, see Marcella Hazan on salt.) Add 1/2 of a package of extra-wide egg noodles. (I think mine were Manischevitz, but you could get fancy here. The key, for me, was to replicate a chicken soup from the nearby noodle restaurant that handcuts wide, thick, chewy noodles for their soup.) Cook until still slightly chewy. Drain. Add about 1 T. of olive oil and stir to coat the noodles.

Part 3: Skin 3 chicken drumsticks. Bring a pot with 1/2 cup of white wine, 2 cups of chicken stock (new - not what you used above for the vegetables), and enough water to cover chicken to the boil. Add drumsticks. Simmer, slightly covered, for about 20-30 min., until meat starts to fall off of the bone. Remove from pot and cool chicken.

Now, to put it all together:

Part 4: Bring soup to a gentle simmer. Add noodles. Shred chicken into small bits and add. Let it get nice and hot, but don't cook it for more than a few minutes. Add 3 T. of chopped, fresh parsley. Stir. Serve immediately in deep bowls, with crackers or good bread for dunking.

Tune in tomorrow for the best hot fudge sauce ever. In the process of gathering ingredients, my husband actually said "Stop! Do you have arrowroot?" I looked at him and replied, "Now when will you ever have the chance to say that sentence again?"