Im sick, you're sick, everyone is sick! Weeeeee! You guessed it, it is officially cold and flu season. Complaints abound on Facebook, Twitter, via text and email, and even a couple of phone calls. Everyone has their favourite recipes, but growing up in a Jewish household there is only one thing we crave, and that is our go-to to make ourselves feel better when hit by a bad bug. Mom's chicken soup. In my older age I have been adopting many new cold fighting techniques, to varying levels of success. One such thing is garlic, and lots of it! Chopped fine and swallowed with some water, really simple, and it will also scare away vampires (sorry, I couldn't resist). 

It seems that when you are sick there is no soup to be had, and sadly neither does mom. “Honey, I could pick up some soup for you” seems to be the new offer of “Honey, let me make you a soup”. Mom, why so lazy? I tease, mommabear is fantastic, and if I asked she would gladly make and bring me soup. I tease, because I love. So, clearly I was sick recently, and that had me craving soup. This time, I was lazy and didn’t end up making what I intended until I felt better. Curse of a busy lifestyle. Seeing many other sick, I noticed a post from my west coast foodie friend Degan, that her and her husband were sick. Sent my condolences, and received this glorious soup recipe that I finally got around to making. Périgord Tourain combines my two favourite (and natural) cold remedies, chicken soup and a ton of garlic. Brilliant. Here is the recipe I based my soup on, but as usual I did it my way: http://www.tastingtable.com/ecs/6677.htm.

 Eggs, they do a body good? No, wait, that is milk. What do the Egg Farmers say, “Get stuffed”? No, that’s not it, but it does work with the theme of the day, Devilled Eggs. It is World Egg Month, and I was recruited along with some others to come up with some creative ideas for this one bite treat. What’s that, you don’t take it all in one bite? Amateur! 

Being me has it’s privileges. This includes being friends with the people who grow my food, so I am truly blessed. You all know my favourite farmers so here is a story about one of them, and how they inspired something that happened in my kitchen. I’m talking, of course, about Fred and Ingrid DeMartines, with a side of Vicki Emlaw and Tim Noxon, of course. Vicki and Tim are always in there somewhere. This started when I was heading out to Stratford to see Much Ado About Nothing at the Stratford Festival, one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. It was excellent, if you care.

This past Saturday at Brickworks was the busiest of the season at the Vickis Veggies table, and rightfully so as the fall harvest is upon us. The farm has been working in overdrive to fill peoples bellies for Thanksgiving dinner, and beyond. This is truly my favourite time of the season. I LOVE summer, don’t get me wrong, but there is just something so special about fall, and the bounty that is placed before us by our loyal and hardworking farmers.

This is a really basic recipe, that I have been making for years and is always a big hit. People always want to know how to make it, so I thought it was time to share this online, so I can stop emailing it to people.