I’m trying to rush fall, a bit.   I’m ready for the fall foods.  Grocery stores are all set up with butternut and acorn squash, gourds have appeared.   Mother Nature is taking her time.  It was sunny and 78° today.  Actually, it was perfect weather.  I’m not complaining.  Really.  I just want to make a pot of soup.

Yesterday, I boiled a whole chicken.  I got a gallon of great broth for a few future projects and a full chicken for a few meals.  Tonight, I took a bit of that chicken, a bit of that broth, a few mushrooms and some fried hot peppers and a dolop of mascarpone and made a creamy – and ever-so-slightly-spicy – chicken that I served atop mashed potatoes.

It was just the ultimate in comfort foods.  Something my mother would have put together to feed the lot of us back in the day.

I hate to admit it, but I actually cleaned that plate.

It was really good.