Home, Part 3

On President's Day, Matt was free to spend his day however he pleased. I can't tell you how much it felt like a typical Saturday when I was growing up. Matt doing his thing, while I did mine. You know what they say, you become your mother. Well, Mom, I think you'd be proud today.

From the moment I got out of bed, I was on the move. Completing chores, cooking meals and enjoying a hug on the run as Matt and I crossed paths. The original plan was to make a big breakfast of pancakes and bacon. That is what we had, but it wasn't as "big" of a breakfast as I expected. I thought we'd eat breakfast, skip lunch and have roast, potatoes and carrots from the crock pot that night. Instead, for breakfast, we had smaller pancakes (I didn't want leftover batter, so I didn't prepare as much) and a couple strips of bacon. 

By the time breakfast was eaten and dishes were cleaned, it was time to prepare dinner for the crock pot. I came up one ingredient short, ran to the store and by noon, had the crock pot going. After doing some laundry, gathering trash, cleaning the kitchen, sewing on a button, sorting a few papers, and a couple other things, I asked Matt what he wanted to do about lunch.

I didn't want to assume he'd rather wait for dinner (or assume he'd just want a snack). He suggested soup...whatever we had on hand would be fine. Quick, simple, easy. No problem.

I almost always have a can of tomato soup on hand. That day, I did not. Since I'd already made a marathon run for an ingredient to finish the roast, I wasn't going back out again. I finally summoned up the courage to make homemade soup.

My mom has made about a million variations of soup over the years and they've always turned out great. She never knows how to recreate it because she uses leftovers from the frig and supplements with whatever else she has on hand until it all comes out tasting delectable.

At one time in my single days, I thought this skill might have been inherited. After all, my paternal granddad had the same skill. I tried on a couple of occasions to use my leftovers to make soup. Out of three times I remember, only one pot turned out well.

Intimidated from previous failures, when Matt mentioned homemade soup a couple of times before, it fell on deaf ears. :) That day, I decided to go for it.

Homemade Chicken Noodle and Vegetable Soup...

Yes, that's right...it's not super soupy, but there's more broth than it appears. 

It was a winner! YUM! 

As soon as I finished cleaning up the dishes and kitchen again, I typed up the recipe. My hope is that I can make this again one day and it will turn out equally well. Since I had to approximate measurements, it may not be reproducible. Nevertheless, it was a success! It may be just enough to convince me to try again with another combination.