Before Ian was a twinkle...

...in his daddy's eye, Mommy took this picture:
which was originally posted on October 16, 2008, in this blog, a few weeks before Daddy developed said twinkle.

These photos were taken on October 10, 2009:The twinkle now weighs upwards of 13 pounds and makes a rather cute scarecrow, I think.

He also looks rather charming peeking out from the hole in a tree.
Oh, and that Daddy holding him is rather cute, too.

As you can see, we have really enjoyed the farmers' market again this year. Yesterday's purchases ended up in a lovely chicken vegetable soup and a caprese salad. I never knew how much I would enjoy just having the leisure to cook something from scratch. That's what Daniel provided me yesterday after we got home. I had cut the legs, thighs and breasts off of a whole chicken to make another dinner, so I wanted to use the carcass. Stock seemed to be just the thing. That, and I really wanted to make something that would use all of the wonderful produce on offer at the market stands so inexpensively. We made this recipe up as we went along by buying more and more fresh vegetables that seemed like nice additions to the pot.

Chicken and Vegetable Soup
Serves approximately 12 (We froze some for later!)

Stock:
1 chicken carcass
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
2 ribs of celery with leaves, coarsely chopped
2 small onions, coarsely chopped
2 whole cloves garlic
whole pepper corns
salt
about 14 cups of water

Cook all of the ingredients together at a boil for an hour or more, reducing the liquid to the desired intensity of flavor. I used a pot with a pasta insert, putting all of the chicken and vegetables into the pasta insert so that they could be lifted out when the stock was ready. Discard the chicken and vegetables. They will have served their purpose and lost most of their flavor into the stock.

Meat and Vegetables:
Chicken pieces (I used some frozen thighs), diced
Olive oil
Paprika
Salt & Pepper

2 small potatoes, diced
3 small turnips, with greens, diced
6 okra, sliced
1 cup of green beans, cut into 1-inch segments
2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced
1 ear of corn, kernels only
2 shallots, finely sliced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 ribs of celery, sliced
1 bouquet garni, composed of fresh sage, rosemary, thyme, parsley and basil tied up in cheesecloth.
2 bay leaves

Cook up the chicken with some salt, pepper and paprika in the olive oil. Add the chicken, vegetables and bouquet garni to the hot stock and boil gently for about 40 minutes or until the root vegetables are just tender.

Finishing Touches:
Remove the bouquet garni and bay leaves. Add vinegar (we used rice vinegar), salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with fresh parsley, if desired. Serve with a nice crusty bread.

And maybe a nice salad.

Good times, good boys and good eats! Who could ask for anything more?