I promised to also post occasional recipes.  Here’s the chicken soup I made for dinner last night.  We’ll be having leftovers tonight.

Chicken Soup 

8 cups homemade chicken stock (I keep it on hand in the freezer — I suppose you could use the boxed stuff though)
3 Tbl schmalz (from making homemade stock) or 3 tbl olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 large onion
2 carrots
2 parsnips
3 stalks celery
2 potatoes
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/3 of a box whole-grain pasta
salt
pepper
rosemary
thyme
oregano
basil
sage
1 lime

Dice the onion, and sautee in the schmalz in a large soup pot.  In a smaller pot, poach the chicken breasts in 1/2 of the stock.  Meanwhile, crush the garlic, and slice the other veggies into bite size pieces.  Once the onion is translucent, add all the other veggies and sautee a few minutes more.  Let the chicken cool.

Add all of the stock to the soup pot and bring to a solid boil.  Boil 2 full minutes, then turn to a simmer.  Add herbs to taste.  Adjust salt and pepper here as well.

Boil the pasta according to package directions and shred the chicken.  Add the chicken to the soup, continuing to simmer.  Check and adjust salt again if needed. 

Drain the pasta and add to soup. 

Quarter the lime and squeeze a bit of the juice into each serving.

Serve with crusty bread.