Dear Folks, I was a good girl today and put the final touches on my chicken soup. Last night I skimmed off as much chicken fat as I could and poured it into Pyrex custard cups so that the fat would solidify in my refrigerater. Then I removed all of the meat from the chicken bones and shredded the meat with my fingers into bite sized chicken morsels and dumped them into the soup pot. (Oh my goodness that sure is a lot of chicken!). Today I got a pot of water boiling and then dumped the bones and scraps into it and let it simmer for a couple of hours but frankly, I would have preferred to simmer the bones for more hours to get all of the calcium from them. However, I was content enough with my efforts and when the bones and broth cooled down, I dumped everything into a colander to drain the bones and pieces of fat so that I could then feel comfortable dumping the bones, etc. into the garbage. I added the remaining broth to what I had already made up for my soup. But even then, it seemed that the amount of chicken meat is still too much for the soup broth. I have the feeling that when I ladle out the soup into my soup mug for lunch tomorrow, I won't be able to decide whether to use a fork or a spoon. Oh well, I'll see tomorrow. But now I also had to contend with the chicken fat that had solidified nicely in my refrigerator. The last time I mentioned making a pot of chicken soup I also mentioned that I had skimmed off the chicken fat, put it into the refrigerator and then threw the fat in the garbage. A Jewish email friend of mine read the message and was horrified that I would throw out schmaltz (chicken fat)! Apparently it's used in many Yiddish recipes. So this time when the chicken fat solidified, I stored the schmaltz in a small plastic container and put it back into my refrigerator. Now I have to admit that I've never considered using chicken fat in any of my recipes, but who knows but what the next time I sauté anything up I'll reach for the schmaltz instead of the butter. Ah yes, another exciting ethnic way to prepare good ole down-home food. Life is such an adventure! vee