Avgolemono

I'm not about chilled soup. Keep your vichys and gazpachos. Can't do it. However, sometimes even in the heat of summer I get a hankering for a nice cuppa soup, and I've found that avgolemono satisfies the summertime soup craving quite well. It's velvety without being heavy, and the lemon gives it a sunny tang. It's just pleasant, the kind of soup that would smile warmly and shake your hand, but not overstay it's welcome. So if you get a summertime soup craving too, but find the idea of cold soups preposterous, whip up some warm, lemony avgolemono.

Avgolemono
Makes 3-4 servings

Recipe pieced together from a number of member contributions on Chowhound and further tweaked to my tastes.

*Olive oil
*2 cloves garlic
*3 1/2 cups chicken broth
*1 bay leaf
*A bushy sprig of fresh dill, finely chopped (a teaspoon or two)
*1/3 cup long grain rice 
*2 large organic eggs
*1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
*2 small carrots, small dice
*1 stalk celery, small dice
*S&P
*About a cup of leftover chicken meat, say, from Thomas Keller's Simple Roast Chicken, or one large chicken breast, poached and shredded.

Drizzle a small slick of oil into a pot and lightly saute the vegetables for about 6 minutes, and then add the broth. Bring to a boil, add the rice and bay leaf. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 18-20 minutes or until rice is becoming tender, and then add the chicken. Meanwhile, place the eggs and juice in a blender; process until smooth. Ladle some broth from the pot, making sure to leave out the rice and chicken, and with the blender on, slowly add it to the egg mixture to temper it. Slowly stir the tempered egg mixture into the pot, add the dill, and then serve.