Comfort Food

I've been wanting soup - real soup not from a can - ever since my dear friend ~koritzee~ brought her mom's chicken soup over this past weekend. We enjoyed a delightful meal together, and the soup was amazing. I don't know the name of it, it had chicken and rice, and lemon in it, and I don't remember what else, but it was awesome. I'd love to have the recipe, I just don't know if I'm allowed - it's probably a family secret...

I haven't had the strength to go to the grocery store to pick up ingredients to make any of my favorite homemade soups (vegetable beef, split pea, corn chowder) so I decided to improvise with ingredients already here today. I started with diced onion sauteed in olive oil, to which I added diced polish sausage. After these sauteed together for a little bit, I added diced carrots and potatoes, and water to cover. While this simmered together I added a bay leaf, some whole peppercorns, thyme, basil, salt, a little freshly ground pepper, and let it get comfy together. After an hour or so I was checking the flavor and decided that it really needed celery, but I didn't have any, so I added a can of cream of celery soup. This all turned into a really yummy soup, everyone enjoyed it, and I have leftovers in the freezer!

I also put the ingredients for an Italian Herb Bread in the bread machine and served that with the soup. What could be better on a cold winter night than homemade soup and fresh, hot, homemade bread? I think this was just what the Dr ordered!

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