soup homemade from scratch

This summer cold is slow receding for both of us. With plenty of food stocked away in the pantry and freezers, we're not getting out at all. Decent meals, including shrimp thawing for a treat salad at noon dinnerTime today.

Underwhelmed with the flood of calls, texts, letters, and emails seeking the recipe for my homemade from scratch chicken noodle soup, I've decided to print it here anyway:

In a large pot on the stovetop,

two quarts chicken stock, bring to boil

toss in four or five handfuls German egg noodles, continuously stirring gently, allow to cook eight or ten minutes until well beyond al dente (this is soup for people under the weather, I want soft, soothing noodles, not chewy)

shake in garlic salt and garlic pepper powder.

turn heat to medium

after checking expiration date and deciding to use anyway, open large can Campbell's creamy chicken noodle soup and empty into pot. stir slowly until well integrated

add four or five tablespoons Victoria's Last Bite chicken salad, stir in until not identifiable

continue stirring until steaming hot

remove from stove burner.

Ladle into large soup bowls. Enjoy with large soupspoon. Add No-Salt potassium product to taste. I just now had the final bowl for breakfast.

Lacks almost nothing. Would I do differently next Time? Not much different. Maybe use a couple quarts of chicken bone broth. Buy a rotisserie chicken from Sam's and shred the whole thing into the pot. Cut up a couple of onions. Slice up a big bunch of fresh carrots. Cut up several celery stalks. Add two or three fresh garlic buds, mashed or cut up. Probably use the rest of the same bag of German egg noodles. Might not be as homemade from scratch whatever's in the pantry, but the same noodles.

Using the Sam's rotisserie chicken is sort of chickening out. I'm remembering Mom, my beloved grandmother Weller, chasing down a scurrying hen, wringing its neck, letting it run round for a few minutes until it dropped, picking it up, plucking the feathers right there in the chicken yard, singeing the carcas with a large wooden match, and going to work on it to cook it into whatever we were having for dinner. Mom always had chickens wherever they lived. I remember the chicken yard and chicken coop where she taught me to pick eggs without letting the hen peck them, behind their house on Baker Court.

And I remember the much larger chicken pen at the house on East Caroline Boulevard. Six or eight foot high chickenwire fence to keep the birds from flying out. And not being allowed in there without Pop, my grandfather, A D Weller, because the rooster was protective, defensive, and downright vicious.

Also, I remember hearing about "Mom's egg money," but I don't know who she sold eggs to. All that was in the late 1930s and early 1940s. My favorite was that we always stopped by to visit Mom and Pop after church Sundays. Ann, my first cousin and close friend growing up, lived with them, and we usually convinced my mother to consent when I begged, "Mama, can I spend the day?" All that, my childhood dream life, faded when Mom died in January 1947.

Not to leave my Gentry grandparents out of this morning's memories. While Mom had chickens, Daddy Walt had birddogs. They were always kept in a pen in the backyard at the house on E Strong Street. The pen was either behind the garage or right up against the side of the garage. We were forbidden to go near the dogs because "making pets of them would ruin them for hunting." I was caught a Time or two, petting the dogs through the fence and told to stop, but they always seemed eager for attention and to be loved.

Daddy Walt was a bird hunter, and the meals at the Gentry household after a hunting trip were scrumptious memorable even to this day. A huge black iron skillet on the stovetop, with dozens of quail or dove, bubbling and simmering in dark brown gravy.

Pic: my grandmother Gentry's gas stove was like this. Mom's stove was the same, but kerosene fired.

++++++++++

What am I doing? Having fun with the Gospel according to Mark as I think about my sessions with the adult Sunday school class at HNEC, starting September 7. Looking up details now and then, I'm noticing that AI online is a trip! Reminds me of our experience with grandson Ray when he was a little boy, and growing up. If asked a question, any question on any subject, Ray never hesitated or faltered, he gave a complete, serious answer whether he knew anything about the subject of not. AI does that. AI's response is always the first one up these days, different from before, when you got real information. SomeTimes I read an AI answer and, thinking of Ray's ready response even when he had no idea, I think of AI, what a load of it. Yesterday, for example, I Googled about the naming of Mark's gospel and AI answered with a load of fundamentalist rubbish; so I Googled again but from the viewpoint of the dating of the naming of Mark and got the same information from AI but from a different approach and totally sensible and informative. What's my point? Beware of AI: he's an ignoramus.

Interesting in my lifeTime, as I'm mentioned here before. In my day, you went to the library and did your own research. When the internet came along you did your research online. Now that AI's here you just Google a question and AI gives you a completely researched load of either worthless garbage, or mediocre blather, or intelligent information. I have a sermon coming up Sunday, September 14th, for us stay at homes while most of the congregation is at Shell Island. Maybe I'll ask AI for a sermon, and just play the soundbites from my laptop over the loudspeaker system while I set up the Altar for Communion.

+++++++

My caustic attitude is long gone, but during my sophomoric age, which lasted well into my twenties and thirties, was Why go to church on Sunday mornings? Why not just leave a prayerbook on the Altar open to the page for God to read, and stay home to read the comics? Well, the world changes, and life and Time go on, and one matures and realizes that human company and association is what life is about, not staying home alone.

Besides, there's no newspaper anymore, and no Sunday comics.

++++++++

What am I thinking about Mark? One, that our first session we'll read Mark chapter one from the New International Version, spotting Mark's clever agenda as it gets started. Then we'll read chapter two from either the DLNT (Disciples Literal New Testament) or Young's Literal Translation, looking to spot some of Mark's writing peculiarities.

Here are both (Mk 1 NIV and Mk 2 YLT). See what you think.

Mark 1 New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Calls His First Disciples

16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.

19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Jesus Drives Out an Impure Spirit

21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

Jesus Heals Many

29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. 31 So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door, 34 and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

Jesus Prays in a Solitary Place

35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Jesus Heals a Man With Leprosy

40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

41 Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.

43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

++++++

Mark 2 Young's Literal Translation (YLT)

1 And again he entered into Capernaum, after [some] days, and it was heard that he is in the house,

2 and immediately many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door, and he was speaking to them the word.

3 And they come unto him, bringing a paralytic, borne by four,

4 and not being able to come near to him because of the multitude, they uncovered the roof where he was, and, having broken [it] up, they let down the couch on which the paralytic was lying,

5 and Jesus having seen their faith, saith to the paralytic, `Child, thy sins have been forgiven thee.'

6 And there were certain of the scribes there sitting, and reasoning in their hearts,

7 `Why doth this one thus speak evil words? who is able to forgive sins except one -- God?'

8 And immediately Jesus, having known in his spirit that they thus reason in themselves, said to them, `Why these things reason ye in your hearts?

9 which is easier, to say to the paralytic, The sins have been forgiven to thee? or to say, Rise, and take up thy couch, and walk?

10 `And, that ye may know that the Son of Man hath authority on the earth to forgive sins -- (he saith to the paralytic) --

11 I say to thee, Rise, and take up thy couch, and go away to thy house;'

12 and he rose immediately, and having taken up the couch, he went forth before all, so that all were astonished, and do glorify God, saying -- `Never thus did we see.'

13 And he went forth again by the sea, and all the multitude was coming unto him, and he was teaching them,

14 and passing by, he saw Levi of Alpheus sitting at the tax-office, and saith to him, `Be following me,' and he, having risen, did follow him.

15 And it came to pass, in his reclining (at meat) in his house, that many tax-gatherers and sinners were reclining (at meat) with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they followed him.

16 And the scribes and the Pharisees, having seen him eating with the tax-gatherers and sinners, said to his disciples, `Why -- that with the tax-gatherers and sinners he doth eat and drink?'

17 And Jesus, having heard, saith to them, `They who are strong have no need of a physician, but they who are ill; I came not to call righteous men, but sinners to reformation.'

18 And the disciples of John and those of the Pharisees were fasting, and they come and say to him, `Wherefore do the disciples of John and those of the Pharisees fast, and thy disciples do not fast?'

19 And Jesus said to them, `Are the sons of the bride-chamber able, while the bridegroom is with them, to fast? so long time as they have the bridegroom with them they are not able to fast;

20 but days shall come when the bridegroom may be taken from them, and then they shall fast -- in those days.

21 `And no one a patch of undressed cloth doth sew on an old garment, and if not -- the new filling it up doth take from the old and the rent doth become worse;

22 and no one doth put new wine into old skins, and if not -- the new wine doth burst the skins, and the wine is poured out, and the skins will be destroyed; but new wine into new skins is to be put.'

23 And it came to pass -- he is going along on the sabbaths through the corn-fields -- and his disciples began to make a way, plucking the ears,

24 and the Pharisees said to him, `Lo, why do they on the sabbaths that which is not lawful?'

25 And he said to them, `Did ye never read what David did, when he had need and was hungry, he and those with him?

26 how he went into the house of God, (at `Abiathar the chief priest,') and the loaves of the presentation did eat, which it is not lawful to eat, except to the priests, and he gave also to those who were with him?'

27 And he said to them, `The sabbath for man was made, not man for the sabbath,

28 so that the son of man is lord also of the sabbath.'

===

Public Domain. The Bible text designated YLT is from the 1898 Young's Literal Translation by Robert Young who also compiled Young's Analytical Concordance. This is an extremely literal translation that attempts to preserve the tense and word usage as found in the original Greek and Hebrew writings. The text was scanned from a reprint of the 1898 edition as published by Baker Book House, Grand Rapids Michigan. The book is still in print and may be ordered from Baker Book House. Obvious errors in spelling or inconsistent spellings of the same word were corrected in the computer edition of the text.

Young seems to have translated from the Greek language Stephanus New Testament (TR1550), as the text and verse layout line up completely together. TW+