Chicken Soup

I don't cook like I used to. I used to come home and start cooking something that I had taken out the night before. Every meal revolved around the type of meat I was having. The side dishes reflected the meat choice. I have changed that routine. Now, when I have a couple of days off, I do a whole day of cooking. Yesterday, it was all about chicken soup. I bought one of those grocery store rotisserie chicken a couple of days ago, and used the meat for a variety of dishes...mainly yummy chicken-veggie wraps. The carcass was looking quite sad, so I decided to make some soup. I started cutting the onion, and carrot, and celery after breakfast...threw everything into the pot with a couple of bay leaves, and some peppercorns, and let it boil for an hour and a half. My whole apartment smelled very grand-mothery...and after I strained out the bones and boiled veggies, I put it back on the stove and added some chopped celeriac, potatoes,carrots,and some green onions. After the veggies were soft, I pureed the whole thing in the blender, and added a can of Romano beans, and pureed that as well. Seasoning was a little salt and pepper. I had a small bowl for lunch, and it was smooth and creamy and tasted very nicely of celery, and of earthy beans. The beans turned it an interesting dusty rose color...and I had a weird flashback to a former house of mine that was painted many shades of pinky purple/rose!
Now that I was warmed up...I also made a pot of California brown rice, as well as blanched some broccoli, for the P-Man's lunch. Then I made a Manhattan style fish chowder, from a mix I purchased at the supermarket...that was created in Sechelt! Yay local! I discovered I had no canned tomatoes (sad, considering my current place of employment!) so I substituted a cup of chunky salsa and a cup of white wine. I also added some small peeled shrimp, a jar of clams with juice, and a piece of red snapper, cut into chunks. It turned out really well. The P-Man is NOT a fish person...but he went back for seconds. I also baked a couple of potatoes, a sweet potato and some beets. I baked a couple of lamb chops and two chicken breasts...and the day was done.
Not bad for a day's work...we will be well fed until the weekend.