We were getting along fairly well under a ‘reduced travel’ order, until we saw COVID-19 leap over the Cascades, and until the highway and streets departments, asked about any decline in traffic, told the governor no, it’s not working.

So thanks to people who thought caution shouldn’t interrupt their daily routine, we are statewide locked down, and many businesses that had been able to function had to shut. It’s essential-functions only. Traffic’s quieter. But Scott can’t come help us. He did, hours before the shutdown went into effect, and got us set up, and the winter shutdown of water in the back yard is now not-shut-down.

But stores lack eggs…I’m sure it’s as lovely where you are. I hope you are all well.
I’m learning to cook ramen. Sort of.
ADVENTURES IN CHICKEN:
So you’re a family of five with one chicken. What to do? Boil the chicken, remembering to remove the ‘extra packet’ from the interior. Just boil it in hot water until it starts to come off the bone. You can also do this with leftover turkey. If your family likes liver, you could boil that, too. I’m not brave enough to add the gizzard or heart, but they’re perfectly fine if you dice them fine: they tend to toughness and strong flavor.

Strip the meat from the chicken. Plunk the whole carcass that remains into a very large pot of water with onion or garlic, a single clove, diced celery or celery seed if you don’t have fresh; diced carrot. Bay leaf if you have it. Boil, lidded; and boil some more. Then take a strainer and pull all the bones out. DO NOT GIVE THESE TO A DOG OR CAT: COOKED BONE SPLINTERS! You now have chicken stock.

Cut up the meat and set it aside. Search your fridge freezer for small wasted packets of veggies like peas and corn and stuff like broccoli or spinach you can dice up—I say wasted, because most freezers have packets that were opened that you didn’t use all of and it was too much to throw out. Set these aside. Even shriveled peas and such will reconstitute in what follows.

Now you take 1 cup per person of that stock, and put it in a smaller pot. Since I like Chinese, and this is going to turn out sort of like ramen, I add 1/4 tsp of Chinese Five-Spice in the bottom of the pot. You could add ginger, or pepper, or sriracha, or whatever. Put, oh, a third of the pile of meat (saving the rest for tomorrow) into the whole pot, pour in those veggies and bring it to a rolling violent boil.

Next take a sufficient amount per person of angel hair pasta (my favorite) or broad egg noodles or rice noodles or whatever you like, and break them up a little to fit the pot. Turn the fire off to stop the boil, but leave the pan on the burner as it cools down, for the time given on the noodle packet. 8 min for angel hair, 10-15 for spaghetti, and so on. If you want soft noodles, you might kick that temperature up to boil again halfway through the cook, then immediately turn the burner off and just let it sit.

Voila! ramen, chicken noodle, whatever. You’ve still got 2/3 of the chicken left, you’ve used up some veggies; and both the stock and the pasta mean you’re not going to be hungry for hours. I’m too lazy to sort this into a list of ingredients, so print it off and use a magic marker, eh?