the two things i know about soup

on monday the weather got nasty, so i decided to make some chicken soup.

this was the first truly successful soup i've made, and i have to attribute my success to two people: carroll barlow and joey mayes. the two things i know about soup, i learned from them. they are probably things everyone knows already. but i didn't.

from carroll: if a recipe says to put in one bay leaf, you had better put in two, if not three. i put in four.

from joey: all the good chicken flavor comes from the fat under the chicken skin. when using chicken meat, better keep the skin on. this soup was extra chicken-y because i let two great big bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts cook in my pre-made broth.

while the chicken was cooking, i chopped up an onion, a few carrots and celery stalks and sauteed it all in butter with garlic and salt. cook's illustrated said to stir in some flour with the vegetables to thicken the soup. i followed their advice. it worked. half a cup of heavy cream helped it along too.

once the soup was good and thick (or thick enough, since i was getting impatient by this point) i dumped in a bag of frozen peas. i forgot how tasty peas are. normally i hate eating them because they're just impossible to get off your plate--they roll around too much. in soup, though, they're perfect.

then i made some dumplings. i was a little nervous because i had never done this before. but it is so easy. you would not believe how easy dumplings are. here's what you need:

flour
baking powder
salt
heavy cream

stir those four things--four things!--together. make little balls from the dough. drop them in your simmering soup, cover your pot, and in fifteen minutes you have more massive, puffy, delicious dumplings than you could possibly eat. but you do anyway, and you are full and happy.

it's magic.