I always keep the noodles seperate. And, I don't cook them in stock, broth or chicken base and they taste quite good. Most people simply refuse to put enough salt in the water to make pasta or noodles taste good by themselves. Since we often had plain pasta with butter during hard times, I learned early on to "season" the water. The main reason I keep it separate is because we are a two person household where one likes alot more noodles in the bowl than the other. Waving hand in air as the noodle hog, lol. For chicken soups Nona always used escarole too. She generaly used pastina as her pasta for it. I like acini de pepe or orzo too, but usually use fine noodles. I like pastina in it too, but it's so hard to find these days [Acme online doesn't carry it]and it's one of my major comfort foods cooked like a loose cereal with just butter that I only use it for that. Two cups water, teaspoon salt, bring to boil, half cup pastina, turn to low for ten minutes. Add a ton of butter.....mmmmmm...

Eileen, Fantastic idea for a party!!! You've inspired me to have one of my own. Plus I will actually get to enjoy the party instead of "making sure everyone else is getting what THEY need!".. I'm a big soup maker so it's hard to pare this down. I won't put them in order since it's all a tie but... Pasta E Fagioli Chicken corn chowder split pea w/ ham tortilla soup Maybe we'll all get some good soup recipes we DON'T have out of this thread. Yeah for fall weather!! Have a fantastic party. Question: Do you make any of your soups in advance and in what order, if you did, would you make them? You've got my mind thinking now :)

I am definitely feeling better today, but the antibiotics make me feel tired, weak, and a bit nauseous. I am glad I stayed home from work yesterday, as I was up until 2:00 AM the night before because pain medication had worn off. I didn't feel pain yesterday and did not have to take any more pain medication, however. I had some chicken bones from an Algerian Roast chicken that I had made before, and I made stock from that. I wasn't sure how it would turn out because it had a lot of seasoning on it, and I normally do not make stock with salt. However, I did like the way it came out. I boiled the bones (with a fair amount of meat left) with a carrot, celery, parsnip, onion, garlic, and three bay leaves. I took some of the stock out after about an hour to use in some Ramen soup, and then I added more water and cooked the stock for two hours more and let it rest until almost cool. I used the last part of the stock to make egg noodle soup with mushrooms and broccoli. I removed the florets from the broccoli and then sliced the stems very thinly and threw those into the stock. I also made a roux, to which I added part of the stock and the mushrooms, and then I cooked the egg noodles and broccoli florets in the main stock, which I had already strained. I only put a small amount of black pepper in because I was told to avoid spicy foods. This soup came out fairly bland (by my standards), but I still liked it, and I think Kevin liked it more than I did. I made quite a bit, and I still have enough left over for me to have tonight. After today, I hope to go back to more regular food, but I still have to irrigate the surgery area with a syringe type tool that my doctor gave me. Jenny, have you gotten your flipper yet? I imagine that front teeth will be harder to deal with, and my molar was at the very back, and so it is fairly easy to avoid that area. Annie, when Kevin had one of his implants, he also had to have a bone graft, which sounded painful to me, but he survived it okay. He only recently replaced his bridge with an implant. They are fairly expensive, but I cannot imagine not having the teeth. I hope I am done with this for a while. Lars

Not going to put anything in the bank of fridge/freezers-- I am not sure how many people share the kitchen but I am going to say it's at least 150. I have put some more thought into this as I prepared to purchase -- and I am going to approach this a little differently than initially intended. I am not going to provide "meal" options (with one exception) because: there IS a full service café in our building-- it's not great but it is definitely better than a meal in a cardboard cup. They are open from 6am-3pm. I am always willing to have something brought in if needed-- ubereats, pizza, whatever (I do have discretionary budget for this-- and I am personally willing to cover it on occasion) I am offering this as a convenience-- not a necessity. Everyone of these people has the means to buy their own things they like. The exception I am going to make is stocking some soup. If I eat lunch, this is what I eat-- so if they don't go over well, I have lunches lined up for awhile. So what I DID pick up were all the usuals (whole wheat fig bars, kind bars, raw almonds, cheese/wheat crackers) --- plus the following new mix of savory and sweet treats: shelf stable hummus cups pita chips veggie chips Saffron Road Bombay roasted chickpeas toffee-coconut cashews (getting rave reviews on amazon) selection of soups Velveeta mac & cheese Land o Lakes hot chocolate Ghirardelli hot chocolate This order should easily last through the holidays-- at which point, I'll restock based on what was most loved. Again... thank you all for your suggestions! I will revisit this list and choose new options based on the season and how they respond to the things I did get.