Every year around this time I make a huge batch of chicken noodle soup to have on hand in case someone in my family gets sick. And by someone I mean my husband, because he is a BIG BABY when sick and it usually drives me crazy to tend to his every need when he thinks he's dying (and simply has a stuffed up nose). I try to go into the winter with at least 10 individual servings of soup, frozen, just waiting for someone to start hacking. This soup can be frozen for about 3 months without any decline in quality. My husband will usually heat this up on the stove and add some egg to it for extra protein. This recipe will yield about 16 servings, no joke.
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp of olive oil
1 1/2 yellow onions, chopped (I use food processor for this, saves me the tears)
6 stalks celery, chopped
6 carrots, skinned & chopped
3 parsnips, skinned and chopped
5 bay leaves (or more- I will often put 6 or 7)
3lbs of chicken, grilled & chopped (we use our George Foreman, love that thing)
3 cups water
16 cups chicken broth (I shoot for low-sodium, fat-free)
2 bags of wide egg noodles (they are about 8 oz each)
3/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup of fresh parsley, chopped (can use dried parsley if you need to)
2 Tbsp dill, chopped (I don't recommend dried for this).
1. Using a large stock pot, heat olive oil. Add chopped onions and saute on medium heat for 5 minutes.
2. Toss in celery, carrots, parsnips, bay leaves, chicken broth, water, and black pepper. Bring to a boil on high heat. Once boiling, add chicken and reduce to simmer.
3. Add noodles & simmer until tender, usually 8-9 minutes.
4. Remove the bay leaves, and add chicken, parsley & dill.
Optional: The nice thing about chicken noodle soup is that you can swap out vegetables really easily based on your personal preferences. You can add potatoes, peas, turnips or leeks. You can also add more flavor by adding a 1/2 teaspoon of thyme, sage, garlic, cayenne or rosemary to the mix. We try to keep the recipe fairly simple since we have a toddler, and then add the seasonings as we see fit to our individual servings. This is also helpful if your taste buds are a bit wonky when you're sick, if there's too much seasoning, you're not going to eat it.
So, now we are officially ready for Winter. Well, we will be once I pick up the oyster crackers to go with the soup!
Birds of Paradise
My daughter's Chrysanthemum 'Dragon Time', and the last of her two glitter/puff paint covered pumpkins.
Some ornamental kale.....
Aeonium undulatum (from Annie's Annuals)
Euphorbia 'dolce vita' (from Annie's Annuals)
Santolina virens 'lemon fizz'
Aeonium simsii (from Annie's Annuals)
Who needs flowers when you've got splashes of color from the lemon tree's?
Euphorbia characias x martinii
Euphorbia 'Glacier Blue'
Euphorbia griffithii 'Blackbird'
Pineapple sage 'golden delicious'
hen & chicks 
And of course I had to laugh, because if I owned a business it would probably be something like what was next door, a brewery. That's just how classy I am. Maybe I'll let him run my little garden shop for me someday...hehe...
I usually just order via their website (
Since it's fall, the nursery isn't all that exciting right now. There is an abundance of ornamental cabbages & kale, and tons of chrysanthemums (I'm not a fan of mums).
Well, now you guys have an idea of what it looks like there! I will say it is much more enjoyable to visit in the Spring, but it was also nice to visit on a day when there weren't so many people!
We had told Alex if she was good today she'd get to pick out a plant. Guess what she picked out? 
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