A chicken soup remedy for grief

Mother Violet holding cards
This is a picture of Mother Violet E. Bailey celebrating her 100th birthday last month, in January 2013.
Mother Violet, the lady who raised me and my brothers, passed away 10 days ago and we buried her this past Monday. The grief of losing her has been overwhelming, and has taken its toll on me physically. I’ve had a growing desire for some strong, nurturing soup and having been gifted a whole chicken recently, decided to take it out of the freezer and put it to good use today. What could be a better remedy for mourning and melancholy?

chicken soup in pot
Kimi’s chicken soup for a grieving daughter
Ingredients
1 bunch of Chinese celery, chopped
4 stalks of cilantro, chopped
4 scallions, chopped
8 quarters ginger
splash rice wine
2 x-large carrots, chopped in big-bite sized pieces
1 large onion, quartered
2 sticks cinnamon
Combination of 4 large potatoes: can add sweet or regular
3 zucchini
Sea salt read more

Chicken broth & soup recipe

My latest chicken broth & soup recipe produced the huge amount of very flavorful broth I was hoping for. My younger son and I have some kind of bacterial infection this week that’s been making us woozy and weak, plus Ari’s throat has been paining him like crazy so plenty of healing broth is exactly what we need. I have recently been scraping the bottom of my store of frozen chicken broth for cooking too, so I’d like to replenish it. Here’s how I got both:

Ingredients
5 good sized leg-thigh-back combos, separated (by the butcher this time, who did a fabulous job)
1/2 lb. really bony oxtail, sliced into 1″ chunks
3 chicken backs
1 lb chicken hearts
1 lb chicken gizzards
1/2 lb chicken liver
2 medium zucchini (would have liked 3 or 4) cut large chunks
2 ears corn separated into 3 pieces
5-7 medium carrots cut medium chunks
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 bunch cilantro
8 leaves cilantrĂ³n (cimarron)
plenty of cut ginger
1 bunch scallions
plenty of rice wine
sea salt
ground white pepper
(optional) potatoes read more