December 17, 2018
Cooking At Home: One of Life’s Delights
Living Your Best Life
We all know this feeling. Whether we’ve been traveling and spending an extended stay away from home, there is nothing like a home-cooked meal. Dining at restaurants can be enchanting. Eating in a hospital or rehab facility can be decidedly less so. Nothing compares to the soulful enjoyment, the intoxicating aromas, and satisfying taste of home cooking.
Cooking at home can be challenging as you age or recover from illness or surgery. You may need someone to help you. Or you may simply need someone to do it for you—working off one of your favorite recipes or following your detailed instructions. And of course, there’s the shopping to do. All of this—the food shopping, the prep, the cooking, and the clean-up—can be accomplished with the aid of a professional caregiver. Someone who goes beyond the usual tasks of daily living, and helps gives true flavor to your life.
Sometimes there’s more than one cook in the kitchen. In the case when the family gets together, or a child or grandchild wants to be part of the cooking, a caregiver will intuitively know when to step in or when to step away. A trained caregiver is there to facilitate and assist, not intrude. The whole idea of home cooking is to make you comfortable in your own home.
Food brings us together, it comforts, it delights. Below we share a recipe for chicken soup from one of our clients. It’s a recipe that’s been handed down through generations. We hope you enjoy.
Grandma Gloria’s Chicken Soup
- Bunch of parsley and dill
- Small turnip
- 3-4 carrots
- 2 stalks celery
- Large onion
- A few cloves of garlic
- Herbs de Provence
- 4-5 lb whole chicken (Grandma G prefers a poulet, but a young chicken will also do)
- Salt, pepper
Chop vegetables. Put chicken in large stock pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. A film will start to form around the edges of the boiling water. Skim. Repeat skimming until water runs clear. Add herbs and vegetables. Add more water or chicken broth to fully cover. Bring to a full boil. Turn flame down and maintain a low boil for 3 hours.
Place a strainer in a large bowl. Place chicken in the strainer. Any broth that seeps into the bowl should be put back into pot. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Chicken can be shredded into the broth or reserved for chicken salad. Serve soup hot.
Freeze any leftover to savor another day or put in plastic containers share with your favorite family and friends.