Six Months in the Making: 100% Local Chicken Soup

I guess I had a little too much fun this Thanksgiving because I got sick. The changing weather isn't helping either; for a few weeks it was frigid and now it's humid and in the seventies again. I hear it'll go back into the fifties next weekend. Oy.

Sunday I started feeling a sore throat, then Monday it was still sore and I developed a cough, and then Tuesday morning I had a razor-blade coated throat and productive cough (are you hungry yet?) and took a sick day. I slept until 11 and got up and cooked chicken soup.

It wasn't exactly a restful way to start the day, but I'm proud to say that I made pretty good chicken soup and cornbread. I used up the chicken stock from the whole chicken I bought a few weeks ago and added half a sweet potato, two small heads of broccoli, some herbs and salt. After letting it cook until the sweet potato cubes were soft, I had a bowl. Then I realized that I had just made a 100% local meal. Joy!

- Local chicken from the Crescent City Farmer's Market



- Local broccoli from the same vendor as the chicken at the CCFM
- Local sweet potato at the CCFM
- Local oregano and thyme from Hollygrove Market and Farm
- Local salt from Breaux Bridge, LA (leftover from the Eat Local Challenge!)

That's a lot of work for local food. I guess that's what it means to eat local. It was pretty good but I can't figure out how to make chicken soup taste like boxed chicken soup. (The key ingredient is probably MSG... oh well.)

Hooray for local! Now to get better...