[Wolf]

So, yesterday on a whim I bought all the stuff I need for a batch of cock-a-leekie soup. The bad thing is that I don't have anyone to feed it to, and I'm pretty sure I have way too much for me to eat on my own. I suppose I can split it into a bunch of little containers and eat it for lunch and dinner for a week, though.

It's a traditional Scottish soup with a great story: After a cock fight, the losers are stripped/cleaned and thrown into a pot of water to boil along with available local veggies (leeks and carrots) and grain that wasn't used in making the water of life (barley) to avoid wasting anything (and for expediency/cheapness...after all, it's Scottish).

Cock-a-Leekie soup:
- Chicken meat (you can get this from an entire chicken if you omit the chicken stock, but to speed up the process I prefer to just chop available chicken into pieces and toss it in using chicken broth... Leftovers from a roasted chicken work well, too)
- Water or chicken stock, mattering on your meat. (I usually use stock anyway, to make it tastier.)
- Way the hell too many leeks, cut into small pieces. (If you think you have too much, you're almost there. Get 5-6 of them for a normal-sized batch.) Make sure to cut all the green bits off, since everyone knows that Scots don't eat anything that is green (follow the Scottish adage "eat anything as long as it's not green, but only if it's cheap").
- A carrot, cut into small pieces.
- Some barley.
- Parsley, chopped finely.
- A bit of pepper.

Put it all in a pot, cover, and boil the hell out of it until the chicken and barley is cooked, and the leeks have disintegrated. Remove any bones before serving if you added any chicken bits with the bones still in.

Serve.

I usually end up with what looks like enough to feed a bunch of big guys tossing cabers, but I seldom have leftovers, and never for very long.