Basic Soup (vegetarian)

(I forgot where I got this.  Would love to give credit to the person)

This is an all-purpose soup stock base. 

• 1 big soup pot & stirring spoon
• 1 complete bunch of celery, including the leaves (the darker & nicer the better)
• 1 additional whole giant celery root (plus whatever is attached to it)
• a few parsley roots
• 8 carrots
• 1-2 large fist-grab-size bunches each of fresh parsley & dill
• (put a few sprigs of that dill to side to dry on toweling after washing. Mince fine and store in covered little bowl to use later to sprinkle fresh on top of soup right before serving)
• 1/2 bulb’s worth of garlic (you can chunky-chop the cloves if you prefer)
• salt & black pepper to taste
• tablespoon or so of nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• a bit of oil/fat of some kind
• Optional: Besides the above, you can add whatever you like. For example, if you want a “sweeter” soup, add more carrots, a large onion or two, & some light-green zucchinis. If you want a slightly thicker soup, add some potatoes. If you accidently throw in too much salt, by the way,
• throw in a potato or 2 to suck some of it up.

1. Peel roots & wash veggies well.

2. Yes, you are really using those amounts (it kind of melts/sink down, ok?).

3. Chunk if you like (or not) & throw into pot to boil for a few hours into stock. 

4. Add water if needed as you go, or conversely- boil down to concentrate taste & stir once in a while if you remember. 

5. You can freeze this stock fine for some weeks. You can strain for consommé/broth if you prefer. It’s very useful for making some other dishes, as well as a slew of varied soups. If you concentrate it down, like to save on freezer space, just gradually add water to taste when heating later to use. *You can also do “cup-of-broth” by freezing a concentrated version in an ice-cube tray. Throw a few in a mug of hot water when needed.

We are PCS’ing

So we found out back in October that we would be moving in a year.  Well, time has past and the time has come for us to start preparing for that move.  It has been hard waiting but it is all coming down to the point when we get on our way.  I’ve been doing a little bit but now things are picking up and I have to get moving with the move.  PCS’ing is a way of life for an Army family, in fact, any Military family in the US.  You come to understand one very important thing, Home is where the Army sends you!

WOW, Its been a long time sense I last posted.  Lots of things have happened in our lives.  I’ll will try to give a summary of some of it.

We are near the end of our conversion process, YAY  What a year 🙂  We’ve learned a lot and understand so much more.  We’ve also been learning Hebrew this year and are much better at speaking to one another in Hebrew.  I did a post about the cost of converting and although it was high it was more about buying the things that a person born would have due to family.  Things like books, tallit, tefillen, scrolls, etc.  It was all worth it and we are so happy that we are soon going to be Jews.

I have lost some weight. I also had breast reduction and tummy tuck surgery.  More on those in another post.

I completed school.  I did not take the Board.  I don’t really fell I want to be a nurse.  I’m not sure I want to do.  I have a loving husband who is allowing me to explore and figure it all out.

So we are now 4 years in to our Army life and loving it!  It has its ups and downs but I would not trade it.  I get to spend the best years (so far) of my life with the love of my life, how cool is that?  It has been fun.  We are living on Post and I know I talked about Post life a little so let me open up to more of what it is like to live on Post, from my point of view.

Making friends is easier for some.  I’ve had a really hard time with it.  I don’t share in a lot of what goes on so I’m often left out.  My husband works in the OR and has really crazy hours.  I spend a lot of time on my own.  I’ve learned the joy of Glide.  It is awesome!  I get to talk to my friends from all over the world through video chat.  I like it better than skype.  Although there is nothing wrong with skype.

I’ve closed my FB account.  Way to much drama going on.  hahaha Now I just use my Instagram and Glide to share.  Look me up Chanaruth

Now that we are getting ready for our first PCS, I’ve learned a lot about housing.  When we moved in, I was so excited about getting a place on arrival that I did not inspect the house like I should have.  Now that we are getting ready to move out, in a few months, I learned that it is important to check everything and fill out the paper work showing any issues.  For example; on move out there is an inspection that the rental office staff conducts.  It is very detailed.  You would not think of most of the things they check but they don’t tell you to do this at move in.  Things like removing cobwebs.  When we moved in this house there were many cobwebs in the corners but move-out inspection wants it gone if not, they will change you.  You must clean the interior surfaces of the windows and exterior but this was not checked by my husband or I to see if it was done before we moved in.  I think a lot of what they require is wrong.  But, my house will be cleaned and ready.  Also, and this is a big one, they will charge you for damage to the house.  So you are living and the shower rod falls off the wall, you call for repair, what they don’t tell you is upon move out some of those repair cost are charged to you.  You would think that maintenance calls a free but not all of them.  If they feel it is residence fault, they charge you and you don’t find out about this until move out when they hit you with the bill.  Below are some pictures of things that can cost you.  In the first one, I dropped a pot on the floor and it dented the floor.  Normally this would be a charge to replace the whole kitchen floor, but the office told me that it was small enough and I’ve been so good at keeping the house clean over the years, that I would not be charged.  In cases like this you want to make sure that it is noted in your file because it can come back and bit you in the pocket.  Now, the second one is in the living-room floor.  I don’t know how this dent got there but they are going to charge us for it.  I think it is like $25.00 for each one they find.  I’ve heard from other spouses that they don’t replace the things they charge you for as they claim.  I don’t know if that is true but the carpet cleaner told me he has seen it happen.  He said they charge people for stains in the carpet and say it has to be replaced but don’t.  That is so wrong.

So Now that I’ve caught you up on some of what’s been going on you are probably wondering where we are PCS’ing.  Well, I’d like to hold off on that info for a bit longer 🙂 One, it will give me more to talk about and keep me faithful this time to posting and two, I think it will be fun watching it all unfold.