The recent thread on soups got me to thinking..when I lived in PA, it seemed the soup of the entire state was "chicken corn soup"..never paid much attention to it then, but now that I live in AL, I am homesick for some.....anybody live in PA who can give me the recipe????

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), October 19, 2001

Answers

Lesley--I am not from Pennsylvania, but my ancestors on my mom's side of the family were all Pennsylvania Dutch. We did not even know it until we did our family tree. Boy, were we stunned, Jacob Gottschalk, the first Mennonite bishop in America, was my 7th Great Grandfather. Anyway, it sure explains all the PA Dutch foods at the family reunions--red beet eggs, sugar pie, lemon pie, and chicken corn soup!Here goes--

1 stewing hen,(about 3-4 lbs. chicken parts) 4 qts. water 1 onion, chopped 10 ears corn (about 1 1/2 pints) 1/2 cup celery, chopped with leaves 2 hard-boiled eggs salt and pepper rivels

Put cut-up chicken and onion into the water and cook slowly until tender, add salt. Remove chicken, cut the meat into small pieces and return to broth, together with corn, celery, and seasoning. Continue to simmer. Make rivels by combining 1 cup flour, a pinch of salt, 1 egg and a little milk. Mix well with fork or fingers to form small crumbs. Drop these into the soup, also the chopped, hard-boiled eggs. Boil for 15 minutes longer. Sometimes, instead of rivels, I use a handful of fine egg noodle, homemade of course.

-- vicki in NW OH (thga76@aol.com), October 19, 2001.

Here's another chicken-corn soup recipe, taken from an Amish Cooking show on PBS several years ago: 6T chicken fat(or substitute butter):sautee in 1/4 cup onion, 2 T carrot, 1 C celery, 6T flour, simmer 6 minutes, ADD 2 C rich chicken broth to make Rue. Then add 1 lb can of cream corn, 1 1/2 C half/half or milk, 1/4 t nutmeg, 1/4 t pepper, add parsley for color if desired, simmer 3-4 minutes, ADD 1 1/2 C chicken pieces. Makes a very rich, tasty soup:)

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), October 19, 2001.

YUMMY..thaanks guys..now you know what's for supper at our house Saturday night!

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), October 19, 2001.