Fall is here

First, apologies for a huge delay in blogging.  Excuses, excuses, but life gets very busy for me this time of year. 

Like the rest of the country, I'm so happy that it is fall.  Unlike the rest of the country, it is still 90 degrees here.  "Fall" is only 2 degrees cooler than summer here in Florida until about November.  I love where I live, but this time of year I do wish that it was cooler so I could cook more fall dishes.  I love to bake pears and apples with cinnamon and cardamom, but I just don't have the heart to turn on my oven when it already feels like one outside.  Doesn't this look like something you want to eat right now?

The other thing that seems to happen to me every fall (if I miss my seasonal visit to the acupuncturist) is a bout with seasonal allergies that leads to some sort of hideous head cold.  Almost like clockwork, I was sick almost exactly 365 days ago.  I have such a hard time slowing down, so when I get sick it usually takes me down for a while.  I truly believe that food is medicine, so every time I get sick I always make the same chicken soup... unless someone makes it for me.  It always makes me feel better.  Today I couldn't take another bowl of soup out of a can and dragged myself off the couch to get ingredients from the store.  Active prep time is about 10 minutes if you have good knife skills.  Once you chuck it all into the pot, you can go nap to regain enough strength to sit up and eat it.  This makes a lot of soup, but it freezes pretty well.

1 rotisserie chicken (when you're sick, this is the easiest thing), shredded
1 lb peeled carrots sliced into coins
1 lb celery sliced into half moons
1 bunch scallions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, grated on microplane
1 inch fresh ginger, grated on microplane
1 small red Thai chili, minced (or less if you can't take the heat)
1 tsp butter
1 tsp olive oil
2 boxes of chicken stock
8 oz egg noodles (I prefer extra fine, but pick what you like)

Melt the butter with the olive oil.  Add garlic, ginger, chili and saute for 1 minute.  Add vegetables and saute for 3 minutes.  Add shredded chicken and stock.  Simmer 25 minutes.  Add egg noodles and simmer another 10 minutes.  And, you're done.  Ladle into a deep bowl and crawl back under your blanket on the couch to watch TV**.

**As I type this, I'm watching Andrew Zimmer's Bizarre Foods where he is in Jamaica eating Mannish Water.  This is a soup made from goat head, goat "man parts", bananas, pumpkin and some other root vegetables.  Any takers? Didn't think so....