The Boy is sick, so I decided to make him a big pot of chicken noodle soup since we have some bones and chicken breast meat. Since I didn't have egg noodles, I decided to use udon noodles instead.

Step one: Home-made chicken stock

Step two: Lots of veggies!

Step three: Patience…

Step four: Enjoy!

The Boy doing his “THOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!” pose with the Mt. Bandits chicken stick prop.

I got this recipe from Hero Material's friend. We tried it twice, and both times it came out well, so we wanted to share.

Ingredients

4-5 tbsp of shio koji
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp cooking sake
200 g of minced chicken (or ground chicken)
1 tbsp of finely chopped or minced ginger
10 cm of green onion, finely chopped
2 heads of bok choy
1/2 carrot (peeled)
1 pack of enoki
1 Asian leek (you can just use western leek or green onion if you can't find the Asian leek)
5 cups of water

Instructions

1. Chop up bok choy into bite-size chunks. Make sure to separate out the head part and the leafy part. Set aside.
2. Cut carrot into 5mm-thick half-moons. Set aside.
3. Cut the root of enoki and throw it away. Then cut the enoki in half. Set aside.
4. Slice the leek into thin diagonals.
5. Put the ground chicken into a bowl and add 2 tbsp of shio koji, 1 tbsp of minced ginger and 10 cm of finely chopped green onion. Mix them well and make them into small chicken balls.
6. Pour 5 cups of water into a deep pan and bring it to boil. Dump the chicken balls one-by-one into the boiling water and let them cook through.
7. Put the vegetables in the following order: carrot pieces, leek, enoki, head part of bok choy, then the leafy part of bok choy. When you add the vegetables, make sure that the carrot is soft enough for you before adding the rest.
8. Once the vegetables are cooked, add 1 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tbsp of sake and 2-3 tbsp of shio koji. Makes 2-3 servings. You can serve it with steamed rice on the side if you'd like.

Note

You can add more chicken balls without adding more broth. If you do, make sure to adjust the amount of shio koji, ginger and green onion for the chicken ball mixture.

Metric conversion for Americans

200g = 7oz
10cm = 4″
5mm = 0.2″

I hope you enjoy this soup!

Instead of my usual how I'm doing with my writing and life, I decided to post about what I'm grateful for this year. :)

1. My awesome family for being supportive and fabulous, despite a lot of ups and downs this year.
2. My great writing buddies, esp. M&M Writers — Amanda Bonilla, Amanda Carlson, Shawntelle Madison and Sandy Williams.
3. Book bloggers and reviewers and Twitter and Facebook buddies for great book recommendations, wonderful conversations and support.
4. My agent for being awesome and patient.
5. My readers who are just plain awesome (and have excellent taste! :) )
6. Romance Divas and the Indie Romance Ink gang for invaluable information and keeping me sane.
7. Finishing house hunting, which was extremely stressful and took a reeeeally long time!

I'm hoping for a healthier and more productive 2013. (I was sick 9 out of 12 months in 2012.) And I can't wait to move in 2013! :D

To update you on the housing situation I spoke about some days ago, the seller accepted our offer! W00t!

The financing also came through. Whew!

The contract, OTOH, hasn't been signed yet. Since the owner isn't moving out until later this winter, the contract is probably going to be ready in mid-November or December. Then we sign, wait and move in.

I know 2013 seems so far away, but I'm just happy that we actually have a happy ending to our long (6+ months), exhausting and extremely stressful house hunting. I was so anxious that something might go wrong the last minute, and we might not be able to get the place after all.

Special thanks to all the awesome people (you know who you are!) who sent us good vibes, thoughts and/or prayers. You guys are fabulous! Thank you, thank you, thank you!