Chicken Soup

It's such a waste to throw away a perfectly good roast chicken carcass, so I decided to try making stock. This turned out to be a great idea, because I made delicious soup out of what would have been tossed! Of course, you can also roast the chicken yourself.

How I made chicken stock:
Put the bones and whatever fatty meat or gristle is still attached in a pot with a few quarts of water. Add whatever tired vegetables you have in your fridge, which for me were carrots and large red onion. Bring this to a boil with a couple teaspoons of salt. Reduce heat to simmer and let it do its thing for as long as you are around the house. I found that after four hours, mine tasted like a nice hearty stock, but I know you can leave it on much longer. Add water if it boils down too much. 
After the stock tastes the way you want it to, strain it with a colander (or pick all the bones out).

How I made chicken soup:
Olive oil
Garlic, shallots, or onion
One or two carrots, cut into wheels
A cup of pasta, uncooked 
Chicken, torn into bite size pieces
Whatever stray veggies you have in your fridge

Heat up a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot. Dice a few cloves of garlic, or a shallot, or an onion and add to hot oil. After they have softened, add the stock and carrots. Bring to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until the pasta is al dente. Then add chicken and any other ingredients you feel the soup needs. I had cooked collard greens that I chopped up and added at the end. If your veggies are raw, add them before the pasta. Fresh herbs would also taste lovely sprinkled on top. I would have added ground fresh ginger if I had some, too.
Salt and pepper it to taste. And I always add a dash of Sriracha!

Beat It.

Because I live in a university town, I see the cold and the flu passed around quite often. I recently saw an instagram picture of a drawer filled with DayQuil, NyQuil, Aspirin etc. with the caption reading something along the lines of, "I've been sick for weeks and my drawer is piling up."
I am aware that I sound exactly like my mother when I say this, but usually when you get a cold, it is because you are sleep-deprived or over-worked. Taking DayQuil and powering through the day may seem productive, but long-term it is only a disservice to your body.

Here are some tips on how to get better:
Get miso soup take-out and eat it in bed:
Miso soup is essentially a light broth with seaweed and fermented tofu. It sounds iffy, but fermented food is great for you even when you're not sick and seaweed is a superfood that helps strengthen your immune system! Also, miso soup usually runs for under $4, so it's affordable and SO much better than a salty can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle. (If you're reading this in Burlington, Asiana Noodle Co. has great miso!)
Drink water and herbal tea:
You know this already.
Stay away from coffee and sugar until you feel better:
Coffee and sugar can make you feel temporarily energized and lull you out of rest mode. After their effects wear off, you are stuck somewhere suddenly feeling like you have been hit by a train. If you crave sweetness, eat raw honey (on whole wheat toast, in tea, in hot water). It's packed with minerals, antioxidants, and probiotics.
Stay Away from Dairy:
Whether or not you are lactose intolerant, dairy is not an easy food to digest. It also helps form mucus, which is the last thing you want when you are already sick. Give your digestive system a break while you are at your worst. Try almond milk instead!
Eat as may veggies as possible (cooked or raw):
This is just a good practice in general, but it's especially important when you are sick because your body can easily digest them, get the energy it needs, and focus on fighting off your cold.
Rest. 

Bummerland

I haven't written in a while because, honestly, it's Farch. A combination of the months of February and March, it is cold, long, and filled with false promises of spring. Just yesterday, I walked down a sunny, warm, pedestrian-packed Church Street, and I could tell that everyone was high on thoughts of SPRING. I started to imagine the leaves budding and even entertained the thought of buying an iced coffee. But today, the weather report said, "12, feels like -4." So that is Farch. 

I drink tea, I make sure to walk to town and back at least once a day (two miles total), I eat seasonal food and read Vanity Fair, work on my nutrition class, and watch a little too much Netflix, but I'm still letting Farch get me down. 

What do you do to combat this strange time of year?

Houston

I just returned home after a surprise visit to Houston, Texas to join my grandparents, uncles, and parents for a week. I have a soft spot for Texas, and I suspect anyone who has been there shares it with me. There is something grand about the enormous state, filled with all kinds of people. Houston alone boasts over 90 spoken languages (according to my uncle), and more importantly it is the childhood home of Beyonce.
So I apologize for only posting pictures of food, but really all I did on this trip was eat, drive, walk around a bit, and play boardgames. Although highly enjoyable, these latter activities are not so amusing in photographs...

Here are my recommendations if you happen to have a day or so in Houston:

*Go to the Museum of Fine Arts (it's free on Thursdays). It has a nice little collection of impressionists and lots of shiny gold primitive artifacts.

*Go to the Galleria, the ENORMOUS shopping mall complete with ice rink. It's a an ode to consumerism and mustn't be missed.

*Walk around Montrose, then counteract the exercise with a slice of French chocolate cake from Empire Cafe. Wash that down with hibiscus iced tea!

*Buy weird things such as miniature octopus, dried cuttlefish, or mung bean cakes at the Korean grocery store 99 Ranch Market. Also, eat all the free samples of fresh cooked dumplings, spring roles, etc.

*If you decide to partake in the nightlife, soak up the booze afterwards with a bowl of pork vermicelli at Mais in Montrose, open until 4am on weekends.

As always, explore, nose around, and eat EVERYTHING.

And if you're lucky, have wonderful hosts like mine. Thank you again George, Larry, David, and Thang!

How to Clean a Bat Skull!

My father majored in fisheries and wildlife in college and he cannot resist a good dead animal find. So when my grandfather found a dead bat underneath his end table, he promptly cut off it's head and put it in a mason jar of water. Queue one month later and here we are to remove its skin.

What you'll need:

One skull (we used bat)
Hydrogen peroxide
Tweezers
Rubber gloves
A strong stomach

Carefully peel the skin off the skull, making sure to keep the jawbone attached. Soak the skull in hydrogen peroxide until it is adequately bleached. Leave in the sun for a few days until it is thoroughly dried. Enjoy on a shelf, in a glass case, or on a necklace!

Bat head, ears included.

The skull soaks in hydrogen peroxide.

So little!