Chicken Vegetable Soup with Brown Rice

The weather is turning colder, the noses are getting stuffier and the preferred meal, as of late, is soup.
I love making a ginormous amount of Chicken Vegetable Soup and freezing most of it in smaller containers for later use. Plus, this recipe is soup-er easy to make and soup-er tasty.
That was dorky, I know. Forgive me.

I usually freeze the bones of any bird that I have cooked at one time or another, saving it just for this recipe.
But, if you don’t have frozen bird carcasses, you can use approximately 6 cups of ready chicken broth or 8 chicken bouillon cubes for the base flavor, adding cooked chicken to the pot.

Here’s what you’ll need for the Chicken Vegetable Soup:
2-3 Cups Chopped Celery, leaves and all
4 Red Potatoes
5 Medium Carrots
2 Yellow Onions
2-3 Cups Brown Rice
2 Cans of Stewed Tomatoes
1 Can of No Salt Added Corn
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Thyme
1/4-1/2 tsp Pepper (depending on your preference)
1/2-1 tsp Salt (depending on your preference)
3 Frozen Bird Carcasses (see instructions above if you don’t have this)
5 Bay Leaves

Fill a large stock pot or canning pot with water and add the bird carcasses and bay leaves. Bring the pot to a rolling boil, and then turn the heat down to medium.
Let it cook for 30 minutes and then remove the pot from the heat to cool.
While that’s happening, prep your veggies!

Chop 2-3 cups of celery into chunks, using the entire stalk-including the leaves. Grab a large bowl and throw the celery into it.

Dice up four red potatoes into bite sized pieces and add them to the bowl.

Next, chop the five medium carrots into bite sized pieces and also add them to the bowl.

Dice up both of the yellow onions. You guessed it, add it to the bowl.

Add two cups of brown rice to the bowl.

Add the 1 tsp of oregano and 1 tsp of thyme to the bowl.

Next, add the 1/2-1 tsp of salt and the 1/4-1/2 tsp of pepper, depending upon how salty and peppery you like your food.

Add the 1 can of undrained corn and the 2 cans of undrained stewed tomatoes. If the tomatoes are in big chunks as mine were, chop them up into smaller pieces.

Once the bone water is cool to the touch, use a ladle to remove the bones. The water is a yummy broth that will become the base of your soup.

Once the bones are cool, pick off any remaining meat that is still on the bones, adding it to the broth water.
Throw in the bowl of veggies and spices. Bring the pot to boil again and allow it to boil for two minutes. Then turn the heat down to a low simmer with the lid tilted. Cook for an hour or until the rice is tender.
If you refrigerate your soup and allow the flavors to mingle for a day, the soup will be even better the next day.

This recipe makes a large amount of soup. Freeze as much of it as you can and enjoy it throughout the week.
Like a fine wine and my man, Biceps, this soup gets better with age….

The Dam Tour

I will stop my juvenile humor with the title. Biceps and I had a day off in Las Vegas during a long tour.
We got a wild hair and did something we never did. We skipped our work out and spent money unnecessarily.
After renting a fancy blue Mustang, we packed a lunch, put the top down and headed out into the desert.

For miles, we gazed upon the beautiful desert landscape interrupted by the turquoise water of the Las Vegas Bay.

We took the scenic route down Lakeshore Road, cranking up the tunes and basically being that dorky couple you giggle at when you drive by.

There is a precious scene in the movie ‘Fools Rush In’ (don’t judge) that centers around the Hoover Dam.
The leading character, Alex, is standing in the rain, professing his love to the woman he is supposed to be with, Isabel, and it just melts your heart.
Poor Biceps heard this more than once as we approached our destination and was grateful once we had arrived.

I think it’s the second tower from the left that this particular scene happens.
If you haven’t seen the movie, I suggest you watch it with your girlfriends while eating chocolate and drinking red wine. Or bribe your husband by acquiescing to watching ‘Rambo, First Blood’ the next go around.

This is my view as I stand close to the above mentioned spot. My picnic lunch was reminding me that I do not favor heights.

I focused on the turquoise water, rather than the 700 foot possible drop, and my barfing reflex began to subside.
After walking around, on and anywhere we were allowed to go that was the Hoover Dam; we hopped back in the ‘Stang to enjoy more desert scenery and more sweet tunes on our way back to our Vegas hotel.

But, not before seeing this.
It was shameful. But funny. Naughty. But hilarious.
I was very torn about what to feel. So, I laughed and wondered what I would look like on a giant billboard with a drawn on mustache. It would not be a pretty sight, let me tell you.
It might look something like…

…this. And that is the disturbing image that I will leave you with today.

Give me the Gelato and I promise I’ll be good.

While on assignment, (I have always wanted to say that), I discovered a tasty little treat in downtown Tulsa.
Mod’s Coffee and Crepes has everything your little sweet tooth desires. Let me just repeat the name: Coffee and Crepes. But then add to that list: Gelato, Salads and Soups. Anything that you could ever want is right there for the taking.
I am not getting paid by Mod’s, nor do I get any gelato kick-backs for this. I just wanted to share with all of you something that I found pretty dang cool. Pun totally intended.

The staff at Mod’s is unprecedentedly nice. I mean it-they are just darn good people. The niceness of employees at any establishment is becoming more and more important to me as I get old and cantankerous.

Mod’s is situated in the historic Philtower Building on Boston Street in downtown Tulsa.
The building is a gorgeous masterpiece from the oil boom era.

As I sipped my delicious latte, I gazed upon the marbled walls and the gold-encrusted ceiling of the Philtower. I pictured the hatted ladies and the suit-clad men that had hurried through these halls long ago; smoking cigarettes and reading newspapers.

The faint scent of a cooking crepe brought me back to reality, reminding me of the fact that I was wearing cowboy boots-not a fancy dress with pearls.

And obviously, the gelato is outrageously good. I only had a teensy bite and my stomach craved more…much more. Biceps and I just might have to make this a date night spot. If you are in the downtown Tulsa area, stop by Mod’s Coffee and Crepes.
You won’t be sorry.

A Lovely Bed and Breakfast in New Mexico

Typically, Biceps and I aren’t the Bed and Breakfast types. Here are some reasons why:
-We enjoy being freakish recluses while on tour.
-We love a 24 hour fitness room.
-And crazy enough, we like a private bathroom.

But every once in awhile, we feel the need to interact with normal human beings.
The kind of humans that wake up before noon and enjoy practicing proper hygiene.

This Bed and Breakfast, Lundeen Inn of the Arts, is situated in the historic district of Las Cruces, New Mexico and it is gorgeous. It was the answer to our mid-tour slump and the solution to our desire for a reciprocated conversation that had nothing to do with music.

After being showed to our room (complete with a private bath, mind you), the ‘hostess’ encouraged us to explore the surrounding property at will.
The meandering paths led us to cute outbuildings-surrounded by stucco walls and framed by desert landscapes.

We sat under the ancient trees in the courtyard which shadowed us from the midday desert sun and talked of the things we missed back home.
After being philosophical for way too long, we decided to retreat back to our room and enjoy the view of the Inn from our balcony.

But not before taking this shot of Biceps. This man is dangerously handsome.
Any who…the Lundeen Inn was a wonderful respite from the touring life. It almost made us feel like we were normal human beings once again.
Almost, but not quite. That just doesn’t happen overnight.