Just a little something I whipped up this weekend.

The following poaches the chicken for the salad, and provides the stock for the soup.

In a small stock pot or a regular sized dutch oven add:

� of an onion
2 ribs of celery
a small stewing chicken
3 whole cloves
1 clove garlic
10 pepper corns
3 bay leaves
enough water to barely cover

Bring everything to a boil then cover and lower temperature to a simmer for about 10 minutes. If the chicken was not frozen at all, turn the burner off and leave covered on the burner for an hour. Bone the chicken, remove the skin, and reserve the meat. Strain the stock.

Cream of Asparagus Soup

1 onion minced
1 large baking potato finely diced
3-4 ribs of celery finely diced
2 bunches of Asparagus, snap the tough end off and reserve, cut the tender parts about � inch long and set aside.

Simmer the onion, celery, potato, and the TOUGH part of the asparagus for 20- 30 minutes in the reserved stock from poaching the chicken above. Again, only add enough stock to barely cover the veggies. Puree and press through sieve to remove tough fibers. Add the strained puree back to the pan and the tender pieces of asparagus you have reserved. You will have to cook them over low to avoid scorching the puree. If your worried about scorching the puree cause you don't have a truly heavy bottomed pan use about a cup of the stock to simmer the asparagus for about 5 minutes before adding the puree, by the time the puree is warmed trough and before it scorches the asparagus pieces should be perfect. I like mine crunchy tender.

Once tender to the tooth, remove from heat and add:

1 pint half and half
Salt and Pepper to taste
Dust with freshly grated nutmeg, skip if you don't have fresh.

If you really want to get decadent add some shallots you have melted in butter till caramelized to the pot or each bowl.

Chicken salad

This is a riff on one I saw Martha make long ago. It's a favorite.

But the chicken in salad sized pieces and squeeze the juice of a lemon or two over it and add a couple of teaspoons of minced FRESH tarragon, some salt and pepper and mayonnaise stir together and serve in hollowed baguettes with freshly slivered red onion and ribs of romaine heart. It's LOVELY. And goes great with the soup.