Chicken dinners

This month Peter was sick, then I was sick, then Phoebe was sick, then I was sick again, then Phoebe was sick again. When Peter was first sick I thought he needed chicken soup. I trawled the internet and put together this version based on the best bits of all of them. I recommend you whip this up for the invalid in your house.
Into your stock pot, put one whole chicken, onion wedges, 3 cloves garlic, 1 carrot roughly chopped, bay leaves & a sprig of thyme, some lemon wedges, a couple of sticks of celery roughly chopped & some pink peppercorns (you can use black if you like). Your Le Creuset Dutch oven would be ideal if your chicken fitted in it. Mine didn't.
Cover the chicken with water. Cover the pot, & bring to the boil, turn off & leave for an hour without peeking. After an hour remove the chicken & set aside to cool, just until you can handle it. Add saffron strands to the stock pot & bring back to the boil. Remove the chicken meat from the bone & return the carcass to the pot. Simmer 3 hours to reduce & concentrate the flavour. When you're ready to serve boil a small quantity of egg pasta or noodles. Not a full serving - just a small handful per invalid. Steam seasonal vegetables. I used carrots, courgettes & broccoli - something colourful. You could probably poach these in the strained stock but I was concerned to retain the colour so I blanched & steamed. Strain the stock & reheat. In each soup dish put a handful of pasta, a handful of shredded chicken, a selection of the vegetables and pour over a couple of ladlefuls of the broth. This was everything it promised to be.
Use the left over chicken in a salad, risotto, pilaf, on sandwiches. I know a boy who would love a chicken sandwich with cranberry sauce or blueberry chutney. And freeze the left over broth for stock.
This got me thinking about the roast chicken and what a perfect meal that can be. Have a look at Jamie Oliver's perfect roast chicken. Carefully separate the skin from the meat so that you can put your hand under the skin and push in a handful of chopped herbs. Drizzle a little oil in. This will take your roast chicken to new heights. With our roast chicken we had carrots from the garden with beans & a selection of roast veg.
Then you have at least one more meal. This time I made a chicken pie (May 2009). Phoebe learned to make pastry & I think she'll be good at it as she has cool hands. And of course another batch of stock.
I have to tell you about our quince conserve. Remember those poached quinces last month. I kept some of the left over poaching liquor in the fridge and I discovered it has set so I transferred it to a jar and we're eating it on our toast. I have some quinces & am going to have a go at bonafide Quince Jelly this weekend so I'll let you know how I get on.
Last weekend we had people to dinner & Peter made herb bread sticks from a recipe in the latest Dish magazine. In the picture there was a red drink that reminded me of Campari soda in the seventies. So we served our bread sticks with Campari soda with a twist of lime & a sprig of mint.
As well as the carrots, which have been stunning (we have 3 colours - orange, white and a purple outer with orange inner), we've had a good rhubarb crop this summer. Peter has been eating stewed rhubarb every day for his breakfast. The tomatoes are making progress but it has been a disappointing year and I foresee an autumn batch of green tomato chutney coming up.