It's that time of year again. Lisa came to see me this weekend with a cold, poor thing. Of course, that means I now have a cold. Add to that the recent monsoon, the four vials of blood I'm missing since my doctor's appointment yesterday, and the flu shot I'm getting this morning, I can pretty much count on feeling like ass for the rest of the week. I've been popping zinc and sudafed and aspirin like tic tacs, and washing it all down with quart after quart of orange juice. But at times like these, every son of a Jewish mother knows that the best medicine is a big bowl of homemade chicken soup. Here are a couple recipes for a week's worth of soup, the first for colds without tummyaches, the second for colds with tummyaches. Now eat up, darling.

Recipe: Roasted Chicken and Garlic Soup

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
9-12 cloves garlic (unpeeled)
3 medium carrots
3 stalks celery
1 medium sized turnip
1 medium sized parsnip
3 medium sized yellow onions
1 sprig rosemary
4-6 sprigs flat parsley
3 sprigs thyme
1 small bunch sage
1 bay leaf
1 small bunch fresh celery greens (from the ends of the center stalks)
8 black peppercorns
3 whole cloves
Kosher salt and fresh-ground black pepepr as needed
Extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rinse the chicken and cut it up the chicken into pieces, reserving the back and the neck. Season the back and the neck with salt and pepper and place on one side of a roasting pan. Toss the garlic, unpeeled, in some olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place in the other side of the roasting pan. Roast at 350 degrees until bones are browned and garlic is soft, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, season remaining chicken pieces with salt and pepper. In a 12-quart stockpot, heat 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil over high heat until almost smoking. Place chicken pieces skin-side down in pot and leave them there until the skin is fairly dark brown, about 5-8 minutes (you will have to do this in batches; just remove the already-browned pieces to a plate while you brown the remaining pieces).

Tie the parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, celery greens, peppercorns, cloves, and bay leaf into a sachet d'epices. (This is just a "bag of spices," and could be some leek greens wrapped around the spices and herbs, tied up with twine, or a pouch of cheesecloth also tied up with twine. If you lack any of these, you can always toss the herbs and spices straight into the soup, but it's impossible to get them out later, so you're liable to crunch down on a peppercorn or get a woody thyme stem stuck between your teeth.) Peel and coarsely chop the carrots, parsnip, and turnip; chop the celery and peel and quarter the onions.

When all the chicken is browned, pour off the oil in the stockpot (reserving the brown bits in the bottom of the pot, unless they have turned black, in which case you should rinse out the pot). Peel the garlic by pulling apart the peel, which should now be brittle and separated from the meat of the clove, or by squeezing the cloves and scraping out the meat with a knife (take care not to mix in any bits of the peel). Place all the ingredients in the pot (with the neck and back on top) and fill with cold water, making sure not to fill all the way to the top (to avoid boiling over). Place on medium-high heat, uncovered, until the soup comes to a boil. Once the boil is reached, partially cover the pot and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 1-2 hours. Remove sachet d'epices, back, and neck (which can be nibbled on but will break into a million tiny bones under pressure from a soup spoon). Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve immediately, or let cool to room temperature covered before transferring to tupperware for refrigeration.

Recipe: Old Fashioned Chicken Soup

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
3 medium carrots
3 medium sized yellow onions
3 stalks celery
4-6 sprigs flat parsley
3 sprigs thyme
1 small bunch fresh dill
1 bay leaf
1 small bunch fresh celery greens (from the ends of the center stalks)
8 black peppercorns
3 whole cloves
kosher salt and fresh-ground black pepepr as needed

Rinse the chicken and season it inside and out with salt and pepper. Place in a 12-quart stock pot and fill with cold water to the ten-quart mark. Bring to a boil, uncovered.

Meanwhile, peel the carrots and chop coarsely. Peel the onions and cut into quarters. Chop the celery coarsely. Tie the parsley, thyme, dill, bay leaf, celery greens, peppercorns, and cloves into a sachet d'epices (see above). When the pot starts to boil, reduce to a simmer and add vegetables and the sachet d'epices. Cook, partially covered, 2 to 3 hours. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve immediately, or let cool to room temperature covered before transferring to tupperware for refrigeration.