Chicken Soup with dumplings

Our neighbor, Mr. Anderson died last Monday (not Labor Day, the Monday before) and on Friday, when I had the day off, I roasted two chickens. Two, because one was for Mrs. Anderson next door.

No one was home that evening, when I tried to deliver the fragrant, browned bird (I used the directions in Mastering and basted those things with Olive Oil and butter - it took two hours) so by Monday I had most of two chickens and I cut off the meat and made about a gallon of chicken stock. Therefore: last night Jim and I had chicken soup.

Soup with celery, carrot and chopped meat in it, flavored with S&P, thyme and sherry needs only light Matzoh Balls for homey perfection. BUT-

I had cooked chicken livers in the freezer!

Yes, the other giblets went in to the gravy, but the livers were poached, chopped and frozen. As the Matzoh Ball mixture chilled, I microwaved the liver bits with a teaspoon of schmaltz, mashed them up with S&P and a few drops of sherry. The chopped liver went into the middle of each ball of dumpling, which ended up a little bigger than a golf ball - and into the boiling poaching brine.

Now, its getting harder to get simple basic ingredients at our local stores. Matzoh meal is a perfect example. Most of the time when I go looking for it, there is only 'Matzoh Ball Mix' available, and that is what I used last night. Unfortunately, this is an inferior product. The Matzoh Balls are 'light' because they are actually leavened with baking soda. This makes them plump up considerably in the cooking process (they ended up about half-a-fist sized) but they are so fragile they fall apart when lifted from the brine, and are lacking in good, matzoh-y taste, but salty.

Anyhoodle, Jim loved them (I'm still not a liver fan) and the soup was terrific, as usual. There are two servings in the fridge, for Jim's dinner tonight.

I hope the Co-Op stocks some plain Matzoh meal for Rosh Hashana, so I can stock up.