Matthew wanted my chicken soup recipe- and since it is the season for colds and coughs, I thought that everyone could benefit from my grandmother's best medecine: chicken soup. Here it is...

Chicken Soup

1 soup chicken
water
salt (about 1 tsp for every 3 cups)
4 - 5 large carrots
4 - 5 large ribs of celery or 1 celeriac root
1 large onion
lemon for garnish
serve with rice, noodles or potatoes (I usually serve with rice)

In a large stockpot, cover soup chicken with about 1" water and salt. Boil until tender. If you use a frozen chicken it should take about 1-1/2 hours. Make sure to remove giblet bag when it starts to thaw.
Remove chicken. Strain fat until clear. Add carrots, celery and onion to broth. Cook until tender about 5 - 8 minutes. Pull chicken off the bones and chop into bite-size pieces. Add to broth.

Serve with rice and a nice chunk of lemon. My husband always adds romano cheese to his.(I usually don't)

Save leftovers in freezer- you'll be glad to have some on those cold winter days.
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Sometimes it's kinda fun to be bamboozled. Well this was certainly fun. I have the best husband and friends in the world- they organized and collaberated to completely shock me on my 40th birthday night- and that's pretty hard to do.

Have you ever been blindfolded in a car for 30 minutes, with absolutely no idea where you are going? You oughtta try it sometime. It's amazing how you're other senses really kick in.... the first image that I have of the surprise party is the wonderful smell when I crossed over the threshhold and into the house. the second was the sound of 50 people yelling SURPRISE and the third, of course was the sea of smiling faces.

What a wonderful night - thank you all for making it so special.

I had to make a trek out to the burbs to pick up something at the builders supply. I 'm talking about the remote area of maple and transit- holy traffic. I looked in my rear view mirror and noticed my two youngest boys were sound asleep- I had half a mind to pull off to the side of the road and take a nap while I waited for traffic to clear- I think that I would have been waiting until midnight. I haven't been to those parts in quite some time and was shocked to see how the landscape (or lack thereof) has changed. There's a thriving metropolis of stripmalls, one after the next. I noticed that there seems to be a gym and fitness center in every plaza- surrounded by an abundance of fast food drive-thru joints. Hmm- get in car, wait in traffic, get to drive thru, wait in line for fast greasy food, wait in traffic again, park in gym parking lot, enter gym, walk on treadmill for 20min.

I'm really glad that I live in the city where there's no traffic and you can actually walk to an abundance of good food restaurants. When I finally hit the "S" curves and took in the beautiful fall foliage at Forest Lawn and Delaware Park I breathed a sigh of relief- ahh the sweet city.

[the wonderful thing about having kids ( or being around kids-) is seeing life through their simple innocent eyes. i had several wonderful hours with my 2.5 yr old at the zoo today. he gave equal time to the elephants, fish, gorillas, tigers, mountain goats...... in fact i think he just thinks that we're hangin' out with the animals. the whole glass between the animals and us is a fuzzy notion in his head. he always loves to watch the gorilla kids play, but today when the seven year old gorilla girl looked him in the eye and tapped the glass- he shrieked-"he's gonna get me" and then "he can't tap on glass" {just like the sign says-what's good for the goose is good for the gander} he's equally fascinated with the elephants and the "big poo", the woman with the wheelbarrow, the snowy owl and the man cutting lettuce in the "zoo kitchen". the nice thing about going this time of year is that the merry go round and the train provide no distraction- they're closed. and if you go at the right time-no one else is there.]

(e:matthew) love the elephant...textures are great- it has a lot of dimension. you should show it to the young expert soon

mmmmmm-
beets and squash at mine's. not to mention beer and sausage.nice oktoberfest party last night.