We still have all that chicken stock in the freezer, frozen into a variety of shapes and sizes. Clearly, summer is an opportune time to be rediscovering such a thing. No, seriously. Soup is great in the summer, even and especially hot soup. I can't shut up about it, especially since the apartment complex next door just got torn down, releasing several million previously trapped mold particles into the air and reducing John to a miserable mass of gelatinous goo. I am more fortunate and less smacked by allergies in general, but even I have had a sore throat and several indiscriminate fits of sneezing. Soup is an even better idea than usual.

John had a gigantic bowl of hot hot spicy ramen. I hate ramen (although the broth for his particular stuff is actually quite good). So I went into the freezer and emerged with a gigantic ice puck of broth. Fifteen minutes later it was time for vast bowls of incredibly hot soup.

Clearly you can make this with whatever decent broth you have around, although you may want to taste and adjust spicing more assiduously.

good broth, chicken or otherwise
sriracha or other hot pepper sauce
little pasta shapes
green beans
parsley
parmesan if you want

Defrost and/or heat an appropriate amount of broth. I defrosted my broth under hot water enough to squeeze it out of the pyrex, then stuck it in a pot over high heat to melt. When enough had melted, I picked out what was left frozen and stuck it back in the freezer. The broth left in the pot came up to a boil. Bring your broth to a boil as well.

Add some hot pepper sauce. I like a good lot. Add some pasta as well. I had tiny shells, which expanded into medium-sized shells by the end of the business. Stir everything to mix, then put the lid on the pan, stopping the precious broth vapor from escaping, and turn the heat down.

Keep the pan at a simmer while the pasta cooks. Also, get out some green beans and chop them into little pieces. Whatever other vegetable sounds good probably will be good as well; just add it at an appropriate time for it to cook fully. For green beans, add when the pasta is almost done, then cook another two minutes or so. Salt and pepper the finished soup to taste.

Get your soup into a bowl, add some ripped parsley and maybe some parmesan, and eat it all. Drink it all and eat it all. Do both.