Soup's On!

Okay,ladies! Here's the request for soup recipes from several weeks ago. Print 'em out for the next stretch of chilly weather we seem to be in for. Here is my standby recipe for chicken stock that seems to change each batch. It is ideal for chicken noodle or pork wonton or vegetable. I will often freeze 1 cup baggies of it for individual servings, to add to rice, or for when I'm out of canned broth. Enjoy!

Basic Stock
1 whole chicken (I love buying the roasted chickens at the grocery. Serve it for dinner and use what is left of the carcass for the soup!
1 onion, cut in quarters
2-3 carrots or a handful of baby carrots
2-3 stalks of celery
1/2 tomato (I've also used a squirt of ketchup if I'm out!)
1-2 bullion cubes (more if your chicken carcass is skimpy)
fresh parsley
salt
pepper
*other "last day" veggies and random herbs I've thrown in the pot: turnips, green onion, shallot, thyme, bay leaf

Bring the bot to a boil. Cover and let simmer for 2-3 hours, tasting frequently and adjusting seasoning. Strain off broth and pick out chicken (if using fresh). I like to refrigerate the stock overnight, then skim the fat off the top.

Chicken Noodle
Bring stock to a boil. Add chopped carrots. Boil noodles in water. Drain and add to broth.

Pork Wonton Soup
Brown lean ground pork or cut leftover pork loin into small pieces. Using store bought wonton wrappers (in the refrigerator part of the produce section), add a tsp of cornstarch to 3/4 cup or so of water and mix. Use your finger to wet a "V" of the square, add the pork, and fold into a triangle. Use the paste to fold sides into an envelope. (My kids love to help with these!). Bring a pot of water to a boil and boil just until wontons float to the top. Add chopped scallions and thinly sliced mushrooms to broth, adding wontons last. Coupled with fried rice (I throw all the weeks leftover veggies and meat in!), it makes for an impressive and healthy meal!

Ordinary, Not Common

I've been thinking lately about what it means to be ordinary. Minus the dog and the .4 child, my family seemingly fits the definition. No outstanding warrants, no E! True Hollywood Story fodder--heck--my husband and I even have jobs so ordinary they are spaces on the board game, Life (Remember that one? Where a travel agent could win the Nobel Peace Prize with the right spin of the wheel?). I've been thinking how easy it is to get pulled down by being ordinary in a culture that seems to value more: more money, more stuff, more fame, more friends, more everything. It is easy to forget the blessedness in being ordinary. The holiness of an ordinary day. The graces present in household tasks than are back on the to do list as soon as they are crossed off. I'm certain Mary sighed and shook her head when Christ came in from playing in the snow--er sand--and tracked it all over the house. I've been reminded that Mary did the laundry of the Son of Man, after all. In writing about St. Therese, Michael Novak (one of my favorite Catholic writers)puts it most succinctly: "To be a saint, it is not necessary to do great things. It suffices to do all the daily tasks we face with all the love God suffuses into us, even when we do not feel its presence." St Therese is known as the "Saint of Little Ways" and her life teaches us to live with humility, to do ordinary deeds with "God's intensity". Something to think about as we mop floors and wait in carpool lanes.

For those of you who missed the January meeting, Shawna Davidson of MOMS (Ministry of Mothers Sharing) came and talked to us about many things. She recommended several books that I'll list below. If you have other spiritual reading you'd like to recommend, please let us know!

Searching for and Maintaining Peace by Jacques Philippe, George Driscoll, and Jannie Driscoll

Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska by Saint Maria Faustina Kowalaska

Revelations of Divine Mercy: Daily Readings from the Diary of Blessed Faustina Kowalska by Faustyna and George W. Kosicki

Have a blessed week!
Jennie

Works Cited
Novak, Michael. “St. Thérèse, Doctor of the Church.” Crisis (December 1997).