So lets say that you live with someone and they are so sick that they look and sound like shit. And lets say that maybe this person also, while feeling like dried up poo, drove you to work not once, but twice. While still feeling like poo.  For the sake of arguement, lets call this person Kason.

Now, on a rainy day such as this, wouldn’t it be super nice to make chicken noodle soup from scratch for Kason so that he feels better and is validated for driving you to and from work while not being able to breath like a normal person?

So that’s what I set out to do until I found a really kick ass chicken noodle soup recipe that was totally from scratch and realized that I didn’t have 3 hours to make chicken stock. Thought I wish I did because it looked freaking awesome. Being semi-lazy and not having all damn day to cook dinner I went for a homemade easy style chicken noodle soup instead. I had looked at several “easy & quick” recipes and decided that it’d be more fun if I just winged it. While some of my experiments in the kitchen don’t turn out well (cucumber mint apple lime juice anyone?) This one, by some stroke of luck, turned out smashingly. I think the perfection in this recipe is that there really is none. You make it want you want and add to it as you see fit.

This is what you’ll need to make your own:

• onion
• garlic
• carrots
• celery
• the biggest can of chicken stock you can find
• chicken bullion
• rotisserie chicken
• egg noodles

What you gather together will look something like this:

Now for the whole “Cooking” part. It was so super easy! I chopped the onion, celery and smashed up four cloves of garlic and sauted that in a bit of olive oil.

Then I dumped in the ginormous can of chicken broth and added about 4 cups of water to that and let it boil for a while while I readied the carrots. Next, I unwrapped three chicken bullion cubes and dropped those along with the chopped carrots into the pot and gave it a good stir. The bullion added a bit of depth and chickeny flavor. Toss in a bit of salt and some pepper too just for a little extra something. Remember to give it a good stir every once in a while.

While that’s doing it’s thing I started some water to boil for the egg noodles and made those according to the directions.  I used the No Yolk brand that is 99% fat free and has no cholesterol because I am an aging 45 year old. If I had been smart, I would have used a big stock pot and made the soup in that. If I had done that, I would have just waited until everything else was in the pot and dumped the uncooked noodles directly into the boiling soup and let it rip for about 10 minutes. But I wasn’t, so I had to dirty two extra pieces of cookware.

As that was all happening I took the time to tear apart the rotisserie chicken that I purchased and tossed the meat into the soup pot. You’re just going for meat so make sure you discard the skin and bones and gross icky bits that are undistinguishable. By this point the soup had been rolling pretty good so I turned it down to a simmer to wait for the noodles to catch up.

When the noodles are done, drain them according to directions (mine said to rinse them with hot water for some weird reason). I then placed some noodles in the bottom of a bowl and ladeled soup on top.

Enjoy!

It was really the easiest thing in the world to do and I’m kind of surprised I’d never thought to do it before. For extra bonus points, take a steamy hot bowl of soup to where ever the sickling is at. Trust me. It works.

So I was looking at my blog yesterday, admiring my handy work (or lack there of) and I just noticed that I have a search box on the right hand side. The exact thought that popped into my head was “Oh look! A search box!”. And then I proceeded to use the search box.

This is bad, because shouldn’t I have remembered that it was me who put that there? And when exactly did I put that there? Am I really that far gone?

I’ve been quiet lately. This is a fact and a statement. I wish it were because I was doing all kinds of fabulous things like ending world hunger or planning a trip to some far away tropical isle where the dollar is worth three times as much and all drinks are served in a coconut with an umbrella. I’m sure if you give me a few moments I can whip up some sort of wonderful tale that will not only entertain us but will make us both so full of envy that we wish it were true that you’ll be angry I didn’t invite you along.

The truth is I’m getting to “That Place” that I get to every semester. I go into full hibernation mode and while I’d love to say that I am buckling down and working hard (Which I do my fair share of) it’s more of a shut down/ reboot type of deal. My batteries are definately running on fumes.

Because of this I haven’t really had much of anything fun or exciting to report. I haven’t written because I didn’t think anyone would find it exciting that I had a banana for breakfast. Other than myself, of course.

I have been doing really well with the whole “eating well” thing by trying to incooperate more raw, unprocessed foods into my diet. I’ve been drinking a metric crap ton (that’s a lot) of water and have had very little, if any, soda. I’ve also been trying to eat one salad a day and I’ve been loading it full of things like blackened chicken, avacado, and apples topped off with some basalmic vinaigrette. It’s delicious and since I use a pyrex bowl to make it in, it’s enough to probably feed several people but I eat it all by myself. It’s good stuff.

Last night I cheated and ordered a veggie pizza. It was exactly what I needed, and I have left overs for today.

Life is good.

Today as I began my journey across campus I noticed two things. The first thing I noticed was that I was wearing sunglasses and it really wasn’t sunny out. It’s kind of cloudy but bright.. like bright gray. You know that weird color the sky gets when it’s cloudy but bright but not sunny? There are no defined shadows, yet something makes you semisquinty.

The second thing I noticed was what people were wearing. I don’t have a long wordy explaination for that one.

I walk pretty fast across campus and I generally don’t pay much attention to who it is I’m passing. I have one goal which is to get to my destination and they’re really just roadblocks with legs and cellphones and/or ipods attached to their faces with the occasional cigarette dangling from betwixt their fingers. I too have my ipod firmly in place. It’s a great tempo setter and I find that the best way to blend into a crowd is to do as the natives do.

Today though I really took notice of what people around me were wearing. I got behind some guy who was also a fast walker and he was decked out head to toe in what (From a distance) looked like a nice outfit that I was a bit envious of. It looked trendy and sharp and put together and the color white was involved. I should mention that I can’t wear white of any sort as the moment I do I attract cat hair or something I’m eating or I do something to stain myself. White shoes are definately out of the question. They stay white for all of five minutes. If I’m lucky.

As I got closer though it became apparent that he was a walking advertisement for Hollister. While this isn’t particularly offensive it make me look at the people around him. They too (for the most part) were walking billboards and it made me a little sad. Sad because these kids were probably wearing things worth more than I make in a month, because I was a bit jealous, because this is what they felt they had to do to fit in, and sad because I no longer fit into a world where everything hinged on where my belt came from.

I thought about it. I reassured myself that “someday” I could deck myself from head to toe in whatever it was I felt like wearing and it wouldn’t matter how much it cost but then I asked myself “Would I?”. Probably not. I really wouldn’t want to when I could.

And I won’t lie, I’ve felt the raw seductive power of the name brand. I still do. There are certain stores I like to shop at. I enjoy to get my jeans from the Gap because I like the way they look and the way they feel when I wear them. I like to get my dress shirts from Express because I like the cut and color choices. What I try to avoid at all costs is getting anything that specifically has a logo on it. Why should I advertise for them? I’d rather advertise that I have good fashion sense than what store I bought my shirt at. I want people to see me for who I am and the way I choose to present myself, not by the huge seagull logo with Hollister splayed across my chest or the signature god awful plaid shorts with the tiny moose on the back pocket.

I really have no idea where any of that is going other than observation. I guess I haven’t fully digested what it was I saw.