MARIE'S MUSES

“Life shrinks or expands according to one’s courage.” Anais Nin (1903-77)

I guess I’ve always been somewhat of a risk taker, which is amazing when you think about it. I’m a person that is deathly afraid of getting lost, and yet . . . in the year 2000 I hopped on a plane and flew across an ocean to a foreign country to meet the man I thought I was in love with, in person, for the very first time. When I think back on it now, I think that it sounds a bit crazy, but I never thought anything about it at the time. It was just something that I needed to do, and I can remember being very excited and not a bit afraid of what might happen. I had prayed to God for Him to show me the perfect person for me about six months before that, and God had shown me Todd, so I guess I had no reason to be afraid. I was going to meet God’s choice for me! (a beautiful illustration on what happens when you pray and are in tune with the spirit enough to listen for and to hear the answers)

I’m like that with a lot of things in my life. If I wasn’t a bit of a risk taker, I’d never have made the decision to move over to England in the end, and I wouldn’t be sitting here at Oak Cottage writing these words to you right now. I’d probably still be living in my mother’s house and working in a donut shop. Not that there was anything wrong with that (I love my mother), but just think of the great adventure I would have missed out on. I would never have experienced the joy of being married to a person who stands on the same ground as I do spiritually. I would never have gone to Chef’s school. I would never have gotten my job working here at the Manor or be living this very special life that I am living, and it all started with a gutsy girl having enough courage to step on a plane and believe in a future that was within her grasp.

I believe that life presents us with new opportunities all the time, and that it is up to us whether we want to grab hold of them or not. We can take what we see to be the safe road and stick with what is familiar to us and live a very close life, narrow in experience and in expectations . . . or we can take the road less travelled, and expand our horizons, our joy, our experience. The choice is always ours to make. The world is full of wonderful and beautiful things which came about because people dared to think outside the box and stretch beyond their limitations. It’s all pretty wonderful in my opinion, and I hope that I shall always have the courage to live my life to the fullest, with my face open to the wind and my wings ready to soar. I hope that I will never let my fear of the unknown, or of getting lost, or of what might happen tether me to the ground. I pray every day for the courage to do the things that I need to do and to make the decisions that I need to make, and I listen for that still small voice that tells me the right direction to go in. Most often I get it right, and when I don’t . . . well . . . it all gets chalked down to experience, and that can’t be half bad, can it? Isn’t that what we’re all here for? “Man is that he might have joy and have it abundantly.” You won’t find that sitting in your safe zone. You have to spread your wings just a little bit and take a chance once in a while.

My mother always made the best soup and whenever we had a roast chicken or beef or turkey, we could always count on a big pot of soup at the end of it. Making soup is really quite easy and it helps to get every ounce out of all the hard earned pennies spent on a good piece of meat or poultry.  I believe it's called thrift!

Makes about 6 servings

There is nothing nicer on a cold and windy day than a lovely pot of hot soup. I save all my chicken carcasses (that’s what’s leftover after you have eaten all that you are going to eat off of a roast chicken) in bags in the freezer, and then, whenever I want a nice pot of soup, I just haul one out and within an hour or two I have a lovely meal, fit for a king, and very good for you as well. They don’t call this Jewish Penicillin for nothing!

Leftover bones from a roast chicken, hopefully with some meat still

Clinging to them

(If it’s not real meaty you can throw in a small package of chicken wings)

1 large carrot peeled and cut in half

1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half

1 celery stock, complete with the leaves

A bay leaf

A few pepper corns

Several sprigs of fresh thyme

2 tsp salt

To finish:

1 carrot, peeled and grated

1 parsnip, peeled and grated

1 piece of swede, peeled and grated

½ cup long grain rice

Frozen peas and corn as desired

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

a small handfull of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped finely

Put the bones from the chicken and the wings into a large saucepan and cover with cold water until they are submerged. Add the carrot, onion, celery, bay leaf, peppercorns, thyme and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat, cover and let simmer for at least an hour and a half. At the end of that time you should have a well flavoured stock.

Strain the stock through a colander into another large pot, and cool the bones. Add the grated vegetables to the strained stock and place over the heat again and bring it once again to the boil. Add the rice. Reduce the heat and let simmer until all is tender and the rice is cooked. Pick any meat you can find off of the reserved bones and add them to the soup, along with the chopped parsley. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed. Serve hot with crackers or bread. Enjoy!

This freezes very well.