Barack's Near My Block Barbecue

barbecue-nc-thumb.jpg I was particularly popular last week. It began with the arrival of our pin up boy president, Barack Obama, just blocks from my house. Since local streets were closed to prevent us local aliens from crashing the political party, and no one was going anywhere, I decided to throw a blocked by Barack block party in my front yard, to celebrate our proximity to all the action at the Beverly Hilton. I fired up the gas grill and texted the next door neighbors whose kids sent tweets to others to bring sweets and treats, and we all e’d others and within an hour we drew a crowd. Folks “came as they were” with whatever was in their refrigerators “as it was.” I have no idea what the expiration dates were on most of the U.F.O’s (unidentified frying objects) on my barbecue, but I sauced, smoked and fed about fifteen denizens of my block who flocked with sniffly progeny to my yard for a gangland eating orgy. Partay!

And the best part was, due to the proximity of the Jewish holiday Shavout, there was the bliss of a bounty of fresh blintzes, accruals of kugles, and the crème de la dairy, cheesecake with fresh strawberries. There was ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, sweetened cheese, sour cream, cream cheese. Milk and ruggalah. Yum! Feeling fatigued,  for breakfast the next day, I had my late father’s favorite health elixir, prunes and cream. There’s a reason my father is late. Unfortunately, my body is not used to so much wild partying, hugging so many germ-laden children, and ingesting so many milk products. Although the tastes and affections brought nostalgic tears to my eyes, it also brought mucus to my ears, which started ringing. Then I started wheezing like an old geezer. So much dairy; so much celebrating, so much love from my block, and Barack, and Shavout, to boot, in so little time – this trifecta led to infection; oy, this joyous confluence led to flu.

Much like Shavout is a celebration of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments, this specific holiday has often been a celebration of my receiving wisdoms handed down from my favorite Aunt—the sage, aging Sophie of Long Island, formerly Sophie of Brooklyn. She was the source of all family health information for decades—she was my Google, my Mayo Clinic, my personal hotline to health. She knew the health history and heredity of every family member. She is a retired nurse, chock full of remedies both medical, holistic, and for good measure always throws in old wives’ tales. No offense meant there—she is an old wife—of my Uncle Jerry, the retired Cantor of the Garden City Shul, who still trills Hebraically at the slightest provocation. His “Happy Birthday to You” in Yiddish is still quite something.

chicken-soup.jpgI remember my Aunt Sophie for many other things, too. Her charming New Yawk accent is a hamisha comfort still; the fact that she was my first baby sitter; her more than ample bosom in which I was happily smothered til I got to be her height. When I was young, greetings to my voluptuary auntie abbreviated thus: “Hi, Aunt Soph—blub, glub, bloof.” But I’ve always loved her, and her way of speaking on an exhalation from empty lungs — try it — that’s my Aunt Sophie’s wonderful raspy, smoky sound.

“Dahling, you got the Shavout flu again—every year the same thing! So you need chicken soup….lots of chicken soup! Boil a chicken, throw in some carrots, onions, celery, a little salt, a little schmaltz. Homemade is best. Whatdya mean you don’t have any schmaltz?” Rather than schlep to the Jewpermarket, I hit my orthodox neighbors up for a jar. By the time I bought the other ingredients, and sought the recipe (the scrap of paper stained from chicken fats of yesteryear), I was feverish. By the time I’d prepared the stock, then the soup, I was felled. But in my sipping over the next few days abed, I felt comforted and healed by neighbors checking in, by being part of communities who cared, and who now share our new neighborhood perennial, the Shavout, Barack Block Barbecue flu.

 

Aunt Sophie's Chicken Soup 

Ingredients:

1 whole, kosher, organic chicken
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
8 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 parsnip, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 bunch fresh dill weed, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Place the chicken into a large pot with the breast side down. Fill with enough cold water to reach about 3 inches from the top of the pot. Add the onion, carrot, parsnip, celery and dill. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, and cook, partially covered for 2 hours. Do not let the soup boil. Skim any fat from the top of the soup, and add the garlic cloves. Partially cover, and simmer for another 2 hours for best flavor.

Then strain the broth from the chicken soup. Return the broth to the pot. Remove the bones and skin from the chicken and cut into pieces. Return to the soup, or leave the soup as a broth, and reserve the chicken for other uses. Sip it til the sickness passes.