Chicken Noodle Ice Cream

Sharron looked through the frosty glass at the ice cream shop and took in the six options. “This is all you have? Vanilla…that's creative. Look, to go along with it, we have chocolate. I’m amazed. Oh, and chocolate chip, impressive. You do know that rainbow sherbet is not ice cream, right?”

Sharron was young, in her early twenties. Still at a rebellious stage in life but at a point where she knew she did not know everything but liked to pretend that she did. She was not remarkably pretty but was confident in herself and who she was, regardless of how people thought she looked. Despite being so confident, she was a very emotional person.

The customer behind Sharron then spoke up. He was tall, fit and muscular. He was slightly older than Sharron and dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt. He spoke with a German accent. He asked Sharron, “Ah, you know a lot about ice cream? My name is Hans, it's nice to me you.”

Sharron was slightly annoyed but let it go quickly when she turned to face him. “Hi, I am Sharron. Yes. I love ice cream. I have made so much ice cream at home. More than I want to admit. There isn't much more I could learn about making ice cream. It’s something I am very passionate about. I am only here because of a project going on at home. I wish this place had more variety."

“In Germany we have an ice cream shop that sells every flavor imaginable. Even chicken noodle ice cream.”

Sharon stared at him, shocked at what she just heard. She noticed Hans was smiling. She believed he thought he was being amusing. She looked at Hans' smile and became a little upset, angry. She said, "I have something to show you." She walked to the exit door and stopped and turned to find Hans was still at the counter. He had a dumbfounded look on his face. "Well, come on, you are going to want to see this." She stood there for a few moments until Hans finally followed her outside.

"Where are we going? What is this about?" Hans asked, as Sharron started walking down the street.

Sharron noticed that Hans did not follow and was still outside the ice cream shop. Sharron was now about a half a block ahead of Hans. She shouted back to him, "Chicken noodle ice cream. That's what this is about." She turned and walked toward the front door of her house and took the keys out of her purse and unlocked the door. Hans jogged to catch up to her.

"This is about chicken noodle ice cream?" Hans asked. Then he noticed the aroma in the air. He could smell the onion, garlic, the scent of herbs. "Are you cooking something?"

"No, I'm not cooking anything." Sharron’s anger turned to frustration and then sadness. Fighting back tears, Sharon said, “I don't understand. I've tried everything. White meat, dark meat, no meat. Noodles, no noodles, dumplings. A lot of broth, a little, none and every herb combination I could imagine. I even tried chocolate ice cream. Nothing worked.”

Hans became very confused, “You said you loved ice cream and you made it so often. You even said there was nothing more to learn about it. Why do you struggle so?”

“I love ice cream. I also love chicken noodles. These two things that I love so much should be able to be brought together easily. I've tried for years to combine the two. How did they do it? How could some shop in Germany get it right and not me? I feel so much love for these things.”

Hans wiped a tear from Sharon’s cheek. He felt bad for her and decided to help. “Well, let’s see what you are doing.” They went inside.

Sharron led Hans down some stairs to the basement. That is when Hans noticed how intense the smells were. Everything he smelled outside the house was now potent, almost overwhelming. When they reached the bottom of the stairs they turned to face what was obviously the source of the strong odors. There was a full kitchen in the basement including a large stove, a sink, several refrigerators and freezers, plenty of cupboards, and a lot of counter space to work on. There was even a work table. It looked like the kitchen in a restaurant.

The kitchen was a mess. The sink was full of dirty dishes. The stove had pots which were half full of what looked like broth. The counters had many types of herbs in various states of being chopped up. Flour seemed to be randomly tossed around everywhere.

Hans opened a refrigerator and found containers of broth, cooked chicken, and noodles. They were mixed together in various ways. He closed the refrigerator and opened a freezer. He found containers of ice cream. Some with noodles, some with chicken, some with both. Yes, he even found chocolate ice cream. He closed the freezer.

Sharron was sitting on the bottom step of the stairs, sobbing. Hans sat down beside her. “You really do seem to love chicken noodles and ice cream.”

Fighting back her tears, all Sharron could say was, “Yes.”

Hans sighed, and said, “Well, I think I can help you.”

Sharron stood up and walked towards the kitchen. “OK, thank you,” she said. She started to feel a little better. “Let me show you what I have done.” She went to the stove and lifted the lid off one of the pots. “This is the stock I made earlier today.” She pointed to a counter where there was a big bowl of flour and said, “That is the flour I was going to use to make the noodles. The chicken I made a couple days ago is in the refrigerator. I haven’t started any ice cream…but I know you saw that there is plenty in the freezer.” She was happy and asked Hans, “Where do you want to start?”

Hans stood up and walked to Sharron. He gently put his arm over her shoulders and said, “You want to make something you love. Look around you. Can love be born out of this chaos? First we need to end this cycle you are in. Clean this kitchen, put everything in its place, and start over. Then you can create something you love.”

She looked at Hans and said, “But, Hans, that is going to take forever.”

Hans said, “Love is patient. There is no taking short cuts. To do it right, it will take some time”

Sharron said, “But, all of this will be wasted. It’s hard to let all this go.”

Hans said, “I know it is hard to let go. But, you will feel better when you do. Let’s clean up the mess and start over so you can make something that is from a place of love.”

Sharron paused and thought about what Hans had said and everything she had gone through up to that point. She felt she knew all there was to know about making ice cream and chicken noodles. How was this going to help her? It will slow everything down and waste a lot of food. Sharron also felt trying a new approach could help. She also knew the kitchen really was a mess. Maybe Hans was right and cleaning up her mess of a kitchen would help. She agreed, “Yes, let’s clean up this mess and start over.”

So, they cleaned. They cleaned and sanitized all of the counters and the work table. They emptied all of the pots of old stock and cleaned all the dishes. They cleaned the stove. They went through the refrigerators and freezers and threw away all of the containers of chicken, old herbs, old milk, cream and eggs, and broth. They mopped and cleaned the floor.

Hans sat down and took in a deep breath, “Hmm, do you smell that?”

“Smell what?” Sharron also took in a deep breath, worried that something was wrong. “I don’t smell anything.”

Hans smiled, “Yes, no lingering smell of herbs, or garlic and onion, or anything at all. The air is fresh and new.”

“I suppose the longer you wait to clean up your mess, the more effort will go into the cleaning. But, it had to be done. You are right. I do feel better without everything festering in this basement. It looks so nice, like the kitchen is ready to cook its first dish.”

“Yes, you can now move on and create from a place of love. Love does not keep track of mistakes and failures such as these. It learns from them so you can keep trying until you get it right.”

Sharron sighed, “Where do I begin? With everything gone, I’m not sure what to do first.”

Hans replied, “Should you not begin from the beginning? This time you can make things from a place of love. No shortcuts. No chicken made two days ago or ice cream from the freezer.”

“I need to go shopping. There is a place just around the corner.”

So, they walked to the grocery store.

Hans and Sharron picked out; fresh eggs and flour for the noodles, a nice whole chicken, sugar, cream and milk for the ice-cream, and salt, pepper, a head of garlic, onion, carrot and celery, and some dried herbs. They had everything they needed to make a fresh batch of chicken noodle ice cream.

They returned to Sharron’s home and took all the groceries into the kitchen. Everything was put away in its proper place. The kitchen was full of fresh ingredients.

“I am ready to do this. But, I am nervous, I don’t want to make any more mistakes. It feels like the first time I have ever made chicken noodle ice cream, even though I have tried hundreds of times.”

“Look at how far you have come. You have gotten rid of all of those past failures. You literally threw them in the trash. They are not part of your life now. Yes, it should feel like your first time because it has been so long since you have had such a clean starting point that you have forgotten what that is like.”

“You know so much about how this is done. It would be nice if you did this with me, to help me along.”

“No, this is for you to do. It would not be right for me to do any of the work for you. I helped you enough by pointing you in a good direction and helping you find a place to start from. It would be better for you to do the rest yourself.” Hans smiled and said, “You have learned a lot and will do fine on your own.”

Sharron made the broth with all fresh herbs, vegetables, and a chicken. She made the ice cream with the fresh milk, cream, sugar, and even a fresh vanilla bean. When the broth was done she cut and shredded the chicken into small pieces. She took some of the broth and put it into an ice cube tray where the cubes were about one quarter of an inch and put this in the freezer. The rest of the broth went back into the pot.

She then made fresh pasta and cut the noodles into smaller pieces. She combined the broth, chicken and noodles into one pot to cook the noodles. When the noodles were done she used a slotted spoon to separate out the chicken and noodles and put them in a bowl in the refrigerator to cool.

She chose to use an old style ice cream maker with a hand crank to make the ice cream. About an hour of turning the crank, and some patience, she had ice cream the consistency of soft serve.

The final step was to combine the chicken noodles and ice cream. She took what she felt was the perfect amount of noodles and chicken and added them to the ice cream. She then added the perfect amount of frozen broth from the ice cube tray. All of this was folded together and put into a container and then in the freezer.

“That took forever, eight hours. It still needs to harden before we can try it. I hope all of this effort was worth it.”

“That is the hardest part. You can put forth all of this effort and take so much time and do everything the best you can do and still not be certain it is going to work out. Love is an investment and all investments are risks. If it works out then all of that time and effort gives you a great reward. If it doesn’t work out, as you have learned, you clean up your mess, look back and learn from your experience, and prepare yourself for the next attempt.”

Hours passed as Sharron and Hans waited for the ice cream to completely freeze. They had spent most of the day doing this together and it was getting very late. They still patiently waited. When the time came, Sharron put two bowls on a table and put two scoops of the chicken noodle ice cream in each.

“Shall we try it together?” Hans asked.

"Sure.” Sharron replied.

They each took a spoonful of ice cream and put it into their mouths at the same time. There was silence at first as they stared at each other trying to see a reaction. Then Hans smiled and took another spoonful and said, “This is very good! I love the cubes of frozen broth. Everything tastes great!”

Sharron laughed and took another spoonful as well, “Yes, it is delicious. I’m so happy!”

The two finished their ice cream. Sharron then asked, “So, is it better?”

“What do you mean? Better than what?”

“Better than that shop in Germany?”

Hans started laughing and finally said, “Oh, the ice cream there is horrible especially the chicken noodle ice cream.”

Sharron smiled and laughed and said, “Maybe next time we can make chocolate chicken noodle ice cream.”

THE END. :)