Cold day, warm soup

This is the 3rd day that it has been cold and foggy outside.  Our crockpots have gotten a workout lately.  I use crockpots a lot--in the summer the crockpots keep the heat out of the kitchen as they are far cooler to use than the stove.  During the winter, it means we can always have something warm ready to eat.  In the last few weeks we have had cheese dip, soups, chili, and pork roast.

Yesterday, I made a home made chicken and rice soup.  Usually I do chicken and homemade noodles, but I got a late start on it as Elizabeth had a dental appointment in the morning, so I went with rice instead.  (Noodles have to dry out after you cut them before you can use them, or else you get a gummy mess)

First I boiled a chicken in my large stock pot full of water and saved the brooth.  I removed the chicken to cool before I picked and cut it, and ran the brooth through a strainer to remove any bones or skin.  After the brooth cooled, I skimmed the fat off the top with an ice cube.

Then, I added back into the brooth my cut up chicken, 3 cups uncooked white rice, 2 diced onions, 6 large finely cut carrots,  8 stalks of diced celery, two bags of frozen corn, salt, pepper, garlic powder.  I set it to simmer the rest of the day and basically ignored it except to give it a stir every now and then.

Normally this will be gone in about 3-4 days.  Any that is left will be put into the freezer, as it freezes very well.  I usually make about 5 gallons at a time for our family.  Any small amounts of chicken and rice soup sometimes get added into chicken gravy when we have chicken and mashed potatoes--sounds weird, but its good.  (Same thing with leftover beef stew and beef gravy)

For desert, Elizabeth made a cherry cheese cake.  Yum...........

Tonight, we eat at church (our custom before Wednesday night Bible study.  Normally it is a potluck meal, but tonight we are having leftovers from the Love banquet on Sunday evening).  Elizabeth made a lemon cake to take, as deserts were not leftover.  For an easy cake topping, she took a wooden spoon and poked holes into the cake, then filled the holes with lemon pudding, and then poured the rest of the lemon pudding on the top of the cake, instead of frosting.  This makes a very moist cake that usually goes over well.