I was convinced I had shamed all my ancestors because I have no idea how to make homemade soup. I mean, I’ve dabbled here and there, but I really am not a soup maker.

But after watching Shawn on his Cabin River Outdoors channel throw a whole chicken into a pot with vegetables on his wood stove, I thought, hey, that looks pretty easy.

So naturally, I asked my AI buddy (ChatGPT) to walk me through it.

I spent $18.97 on a little chicken, and then used thyme I had dried from the garden, vegetables, potatoes and onions that we had on hand.

Turns out I immediately made a mistake because the vegetables weren’t needed until AFTER I made the broth, but oh well! Wouldn’t broth taste better with vegetables anyway?

And what goes better with soup than some fresh white bread?

I asked ChatGPT to find me the best recipe that used the bread flour I had and the traditional yeast I had. It gave me this recipe for a rustic, artisan loaf.

I added a pinch of smoked paprika to the chicken soup too!

I saved all the chicken bones and fat in case I can use them again? (you tell me).

I tossed around the idea of pasta or rice and found a few egg noodles left in a bag in the pantry. I crushed them up a bit, but they exploded and took over the soup!

It wasn’t bad though, really. Very chicken noodley.

And the bread, oh the bread! The most phenomenal loaf of bread I’ve ever made!

I used our larger oven, and put a casserole dish of water under the baking sheet. It is the steam from the water that gives the bread the nice crusty crust!

Only…. well it rose so well, it was TOUCHING the top of the oven! I couldn’t get it out! That made it a bit darker on the side and top because it was too close to the heat, but that really didn’t affect the taste at all!

Really, who cares about the soup. This bread was amazing, even the next day when I cut a big slice and topped it with butter and mousies and daydreamed that I was still a kid having lunch at my grandparents’.

Anyway, not sure if my ancestors are proud or not, but now I can make soup from scratch. I don’t even really know if I like soup? My mouth is still burnt from my very first taste of the broth, but it is filling and probably fewer calories than other things I could eat.

Which means more calories left for bread 🤣