Chicken Corn Soup

My dear friend Becky Hinchliffe gave me 2 cookbooks for my birthday. She knows that I love them. She is very sneaky, i.e. she asked me at home fellowship if I liked so-called "used" cookbooks, such as ones from yard sales. I told her that I did, but that I didn't very often see cookbooks at yard sales (because I really don't, unless it's 101 Ways to use Mayonaisse and such like, and who would want that? That's why it's in a yard sale). At this point she had already gotten me these two cookbooks at a yard sale, with the intent of giving them to me for my birthday. She is a sneaky frugal planner like that. After she had given them to me, I asked her if she already had them when she asked me that question, and she said yes. I asked her what she would have done if I said I didn't like used cookbooks. She said she would have torn out the pages and wall-papered my van with them. So she is a sneaky, somewhat vengeful planner. Haha just kidding she's not vengeful, just funny. So these 2 cookbooks were both published in the early 80s, when I was like 3 to 5 years old. They have a picture for almost every recipe, which Becky says made her like them. You wouldn't think that American cooking has changed much in 20+ years, but it really has. That is one thing I like about cookbooks, is that even if you aren't going to make many recipes in them, they are so fun to read. Sometimes you read a recipe and just say "I about imagine" and things like that. Some things are timeless. I did find a few recipes to try out of these cookbooks (including a very "Julie/Julia" one--stay tuned). But also there were SO many that I was like WHAT??? There is a whole chapter on game--rabbits, pheasants, etc. How long you should hang the meat upside-down in a tree to let it rest before you butcher it, etc. So glad for pictures of dead animals in there too. Especially some of the seafood. Blech. It does remind me how far removed we are from our own food prep in America, but that's a whole different topic for another day. So anyway this is what I made today, for tonight's supper. We had this with homemade bread. It's from The New Family Cookbook, by Carole Edwards, copyright 1985. Not so new now, though. I had this recipe marked, and conveniently, have heavy cream left over from last week's Penne Gorgonzola Chicken, so the timing was perfect. I didn't have to buy anything to make this one, which I like very much. Also this recipe is right next to one for Oxtail Soup, and they are not kidding. They really mean the tails of oxes. It calls for "one whole oxtail (about 1 1/2 lbs)" and you are supposed to "trim as much fat as possible from the oxtail and brown it in 1 spoon of oil." Oh my. I won't tell you the rest. Strangely, no picture of that one. Anyway back to the matter at hand...

Chicken Corn Soup
1/4 cup butter
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
1/3 cup flour
2 1/2 cups well-flavored chicken stock (since I make my own, I don't know how "well-flavored" a professional would call it, but we like it...)
1 1/4 pints milk (how much is that in today's language? I had to look it up...2 1/2 cups...)
1 1/4 cups cooked chicken, chopped
3/4 cup frozen corn
salt and pepper
1 tbsp chopped parsley
3 tbsp heavy cream

Melt the butter in large pan and saute the onion until it is soft but not brown. Stir in the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the stock and milk. Add the chicken and corn, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 25-30 minutes. Just before serving, season to taste with salt and pepper and stir in the parsley and cream.

So obviously with the milk and cream, this was more like a chowder than a soup. It was good, everybody ate it without duress, which is always a plus. It seemed weird that it didn't have any other spices in it, just the onion and parsley for flavoring. But it was still good.