Back after a cold winter's night

It's been a rough two weeks! I've made and consumed two chicken stocks to finally defeat a long and nasty cold that's been circulating around NYC and hit me twice.

The last stock I made was particularly good: made with the left-over bones from a dinner at Pio Pio, carrot, and garlic, and boiled for 2-3 hours over a low heat.

I like chicken soup with a base of finely diced carrot, onion, and red chili flakes, sauted in olive oil. A good homemade broth always makes me happy, as does filling out the soup with bite-size chunks of potato. Lemon and cilantro or parsley lift the flavor at the end. Rarely do I actually add chicken to the soup, prefering the essence and flavor in the broth to the actual meat. However, a chicken soup as described above with the addition of thigh meat and a bag of frozen corn kernals was a delicious treat worth repeating. Corn in chicken soup is a Pennsylvania Dutch specialty, and reminds me of the small town of Middletown, PA where my mother was raised.