Here's my recipe which is pretty well a standard soup recipe and nothing original other than that I like to roast the bones, the garlic and onion when making the stock. Here packaged in twos in the supermarket, after they've removed most of the meat for their trays of wings, breasts etc. But there's still enough meat on the bones for a great and flavourful soup. Soup Ingredients: Homemade chicken stock - about 2 quarts 2 carrots - diced 2 stalks celery - diced 1 leek - diced 1 cup diced rutabaga or orange squash 1/2 cup fine soup noodles salt & pepper oil or chicken fat Ratio of solids to stock should be about 2 cups stock to 1 lb chopped vegetables. Add any more chopped veg if you don't have enough. Stock ingredients: 1 meaty chicken carcass or piece of whole chicken 2 heads of garlic 1 onion - cut in half celery stick - sliced 1 carrot sliced fresh thyme - large sprig 1 bayleaf black pepper & salt MAKING STOCK: 1. Early in day or day before: Preheat oven to 350F. Cut top off heads of garlic. Place on roasting pan together with chicken carcass and sliced onion and drizzle a bit of oil over top of all. (I had two carcasss to roast as they are sold this way in pairs at our supermarket. I also added a couple of beef bones.) Roast in oven about 40 minutes or until all is toasted. and juices from pan. 2. Put bones into a very large pot. Squeeze one head of the buttery garlic cloves into the stock pot, saving the other head of garlic for adding to the soup. Add the rest of the stock ingredients and fill pot with water to cover. Grind in fresh pepper. Bring to boil, turn down heat, put on lid and simmer for a couple of hours. Skim off any grey residue that rises to the top. 3. Afterwards, strain the solid debris from the stock ---(REMEMBER you're saving the stock so don't pour it down the sink - as has been done LOL !). I look through the solids and pick out the meaty chicken pieces to save for the soup. Throw away all the rest of the solid material. Here I let it cool and refrigerate until next day when it's easy to remove solid fat from top. Otherwise continue to make soup. MAKING THE SOUP: 1. Sauté the chopped ingredients in a frypan in a TBS of chicken fat or oil until lightly golden. Squeeze out the buttery cloves from the 2nd head of garlic and add to pan. 2. Put soup ingredients including small bits of chicken into large saucepan and add an appropriate amount of stock - about double the amount of liquid to vegetables. Put on lid and simmer with lid on for about an hour. Add soup noodles during last 5 minutes. 3. Check seasoning, add salt. Also good for the end of the Christmas turkey. SharonCb

Jimster, now you've stepped over the line. Remember, I'm Native American, but the other part is Irish. Let's have a bit of respect for my humble potato! Potatoes are not the cause of obesity, it's the stuff you put on them, the gravy, the sour cream, the butter. An average potato has 45% of the daily value for vitamin C, 620 mg potassium, comparable to bananas, spinach and broccoli, trace amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, folate, magnesium, phosphorous, iron and zinc and all for only 110 calories and no fat. And potatoes with the skin on are an excellent source of fiber. In fact, with 2 grams of fiber per serving, a potato equals or exceeds that of many "whole" grain products-whole grain bread, whole wheat pasta and many cereals. Can you tell I love potatoes? (grin) Elery's potato soup is much like Teresa's, with no milk or cream. The potato soup I grew up with was made with items easily grown or produced on the farm, which would be an onion, sauteed in butter, potatoes simmered in a little broth and then mashed and milk added until it was "soup". Salt and pepper to taste. I do agree that our main source of salt is processed food items like canned soup, frozen dinners and specialty meats. Cooking from scratch makes it much easier to control our sodium intake. My Dad was one of those people who salted everything and no amount of salt was too much. I seldom eat processed foods and never salt things like fruit and I always cook potatoes and pasta without salting the water, it used to drive my ex-MIL crazy so I kept doing it. Now I've been on blood pressure meds for several months. Salt doesn't seem to make a difference up or down in my blood pressure and I sure didn't develop high blood pressure because of my salt intake! Annie

Forgive me if I'm wrong but, you've upgraded your circ pumps for the swim jets etc so there's going to be quite a suction at the main drain and skimmers. I only see one rather thin main drain in the pictures and it makes me wonder if it will present an entrapment and possible even an evisceration hazard. I'm not familiar with that style of drain (I do municiple pools) but the drain box seems rather shallow and narrow. Was there any information about water velocity through the drain grating etc? Did they fit a vacuum switch to turn off the pumps of someone managed to block the suction with their body? As I said, I work in public pools so I don't generally see what residential equipment performances are like. Out hot tubs are generally in the 450+ GPM range though we do have a toddlers pool at 180 GPM and that needed three 24" square drains (each with it's own suction line) and special grating to ensure kids can't get trapped.

A bit boring but i've done the same method for years. A roasted chicken dinner, very comforting. I roast two organic chickens using the oven roasting heat. Cut some onions in half, cut side down in the roasting pan for 'feet' under the chickens....add some big carrots cut in large chunks and a few celery ribs. Garlic. Add a cup of water and roast. Another 1/2 sheet pan of mixed veg and root veggies go on the lower rack half way through the chicken roasting. Kale or collards as a side dish. I also have a mixed sprouted grain side and/or a bean, usually white beans. Sometimes black beans. A Saturday or Sunday no brainer dinner but comfort food. Pan juices and veg make a nice gravy. Stock pot is already simmering with veg cuttings and h2o when we sit down for a nice meal. That roast chicken is then picked of meat, usually more than half left over, then the bones, the carcass back, is cracked and broken then into the stock pot. I always have chicken feet, (great pup snacks), in the freezer. And duck paws frozen in packs with duck necks for stock. The other chicken i cut into parts and give it a spice rub and marinade for a bbq style roasted chicken dinner. Pick more of the meat and fridge it. I end up with a dozen or more meals that are not at all left-overs. Chicken salad, a few qrts of soup...add some of the picked chicken to each qrt, then some of the finely sliced greens uncooked i set aside, some rice or some of the beans, fridge those container, then top with the stock/broth once it is chilled, then freeze. A few smaller pints i fill with beans and rice, then top with stock as well for the freezer. Gives me quick options later for soups. I often food saver some picked chicken with a spice rub that can be pulled out of the freezer for tacos or a filling for arepas...easy small sauce pan heat-up with some miropoix and chili sauce. Still have a few pints of just stock i freeze. Produce is expensive. My garden produce is special enough that canned or purchased stock/broth is not worthy. Making our own stock is practically free. Just the stovetop heat cost. And maybe i just enjoy it. I'm making my own choices and using basic cooking skills. I never salt it. Enough sodium in the veg. Celery and carrots and greens have plenty of salt. Fresh greens i may add later when i make soups and stews from the stock/broth have sodium as well. I may add some parm to a soup later. I adjust for salt to the table. A spicy garlic yogurt salsa as a topping for a stew or soup is huge in flavor and i may not want an extra salty. We made sea salt last spring and find a finishing salt much better added when needed, a pinch, at the table, is a better flavor enhancer as a last minute ingredient.