Tuesday

It was a little warmer Tuesday morning, so I took the trash out to the road in shirt sleeves and left my coat home.

I went to the Newburgh Grill for lunch and got the bean and ham soup (mine’s better) and a patty melt. Then I went to Lowe’s and got two new furnace filters (it’s time).

Back from lunch, I found a food container on my desk. I asked Courtney who dropped it off (I expected it was my friend Michelle from Facilities) and she said it was Matt from Building 4. He had made too much and offered it to her. She told him I like exchanging food with folks. She said he called it “Thai Noodles.” She did ask if it was hot (I don’t do hot well) and he said, “On a scale from one to 10, it was about a five.” Thanks!

The wind had picked up, so when I walked outside in the afternoon, I walked quickly.

Back at home after work, I took in the trash can and the mail. Then I went inside and treated Caley. I listened to the news while changing clothes. We are going to be hit with the remnants of the Mexican hurricane Patricia overnight and they are predicting 1 -2 inches of rain.

Sidebar: We shouldn’t have any problems with flooding here (we are dry and some three inches below average). But there may be problems with all the fallen leaves clogging up the storm drains and flooding over the roads. We’ll see…

I waited a few minutes after the furnace shut off and then switched out the filters.

I wanted to make the roasted chicken I picked off into chicken noodle soup, so I needed some flat leaf parsley and some thyme sprigs. So, I went outside to harvest them.

Since I was out here anyway, I stuck the rain gauge back out (you know how much I like to refer to the rain gauge).

Back inside, I started on my soup. I got out the Dutch oven and added two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. I prepped my veggies: a medium onion, diced; three cloves of garlic, minced; two carrots, peeled and cut on the bias in 1/2 inch slices and two stalks of celery, cut lengthwise and then into half inch slices.

I put those into the Dutch oven, along with four fresh thyme sprigs and a bay leaf. I sautéed them until the vegetables were softened, but not brown (about six minutes).

Sidebar: I used my Rachel Ray spoon and it worked perfectly (again!)

Then I poured in two boxes of chicken stock (since I was lazy and didn’t make my own). I brought that to a boil, added eight ounces of wide egg noodles (since I have no plans to freeze this) and simmered them about five minutes (until tender).

I added in the shredded chicken (about 1 1/2 cups) and continued simmering for another couple of minutes until the chicken was heated through.

I removed the bay leaf and the thyme stems and added in a handful of finely chopped fresh parsley. I taste-tested it and added in Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

I dished out a small bowl and ate it. Hmmm... Could have used a little more salt and little less parsley.

Then I warmed up the Thai noodles. They were really good! But that “five on a scale of one to ten?” I’d say more like a seven or eight. My tongue was numb for about an hour!

I watched the Red Wings lose and then the taped NCIS New Orleans. I went to bed at 11:30 p.m.