Naomi Shulman
We asked a handful of women to make recipes from KitchenDaily's database and tell us how it went -- what they changed, what worked, how easy/hard it was to make, and who was in the kitchen helping or hindering the dinner-making process.

It's starting to get cold outside and all of us are getting runny noses. The freezer is full of chicken stock, and there's a chicken breast lingering in the fridge, calling out to us, asking to be eaten. Sounds like a chicken-soup situation, right?

Right. I especially liked the sound of this hearty chicken noodle soup recipe, since it blends Stella's favorite soup (chicken noodle) with Lila's favorite (egg drop). It was my hope that blending the two would mean both kids ate the same soup (rather than neither kid eating any soup, which I understood was a strong possibility).

I had everything the recipe called for except for the fresh thyme and the parsley. I decided this was fine, since these things would just add suspicious green flecks that would turn the girls off. Also, the recipe called for uncooked chicken breast; the chicken breast we had was leftover from a bird we'd roasted two nights prior. I just chopped up the cooked meat and added it along with the noodles.

Stella loves dumping ingredients, so I let her -- after I turned off the flame, since I am a bit of a nervous nelly about these things. Noodles go in, and then I let her stir it all together.

At this point she was excited about all the carrots (her favorite part of chicken soup); I hadn't yet revealed the eggs we were about to add. To my happy surprise, she didn't seem at all fazed by this addition; in fact, she was game to break the eggs all by herself. Only a very small bit of shell mixed in. (She needed the slimy whites washed from her hands right away, however.)

Beating eggs is one of Stella's favorite things to do, along with peeling vegetables: near-instant gratification. Adding (or dropping!) them into the hot soup is also a moment of instant gratification -- it's almost alchemical, watching the liquidy eggs turn into ribbons in the broth.

So, the verdict? It was indeed rich and hearty (as the name promised). The parsley would have added a nice element, but honestly I didn't really miss it. I'm very (very!) happy to report that both girls ate it up. Stella requested extra veggies in her portion; Lila requested fewer in hers; other than this, there was very little kvetching to be heard. They must have really been hungry.

Naomi Shulman is a blogger and freelance writer. She lives and cooks with her husband, Chris, and her daughters Lila (8) and Stella (5).