Yesterday I made my very own chicken noodle soup, using a recipe I got from America's Test Kitchen on PBS Create. Usually when I make a recipe I've seen on tv, it turns out well but not as nice as it does on the tv. I'm guessing it's because I don't have behind-the-scenes food stylists to make everything look absolutely perfect.

But yesterday's soup turned out beyond incredible. I have no way to describe it, except to show you a photo.

You may want to get a napkin because I guarantee you will start to drool.

Here you go:

Mmmmm mmm good!! Even better than Campbell's, let me tell you.

I started with a whole chicken, and this was the end result. I am loving buying an entire chicken because it's so damn cheap! A mere 64� a pound at the military commissary. You can't get any cheaper than that. Sometimes I will get the whole chicken and chop it up myself. Sometimes I roast the chicken whole. Sometimes I butterfly it and then broil it. Any way I do it, it turns out so yummy. I haven't gotten out my frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts in a loooooooooong while.

So after starting with a whole chicken, I end up two hours later with soup. I still am amazed the broth turned out so dark. I'm so used to soup being made with either bouillon or canned chicken broth, even if the soup itself is homemade. And there is nothing wrong with using bouillon or canned broth; it's quite a timesaver and it's nearly as good. This was my very first time trying to make a broth from scratch, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Y'all may be giggling at me for being so proud of my cooking. I've never been a person who said, "I don't know how to cook! It's too hard!" When my stepmom decided to go back to work and become a real estate agent when I was in high school, it then fell onto me to make dinner at least a couple of times a week for the family. Even before then, she encouraged me to cook so I would know how to once I left home.

But up until I moved here to Washington, I just sort of made little easy things. If it took too much time or too many ingredients, I would pass that recipe by. I wasn't interested in making gourmet food, and it was usually Kurt who would make such fancy food.

I think it was during Kurt's deployment to the Persian Gulf when we first moved here that really got me into cooking. I didn't have anything better to do, so I started watching a lot of cooking shows and practicing my cooking. When he got back after a seven-month deployment, I had all sorts of new recipes to show him.

I still am not one of those people who can throw this, that and the other into the pot and have it turn out delicious. I'm still learning in that respect. But now I don't have to measure things quite so closely. I know how much a teaspoon and a tablespoon look in my hand, and I can gauge a quarter-cup of chopped parsley fairly well.

And I still love cooking for Kurt and Grace, trying out new recipes and making old favorites from scratch. I've found out that most of the time, making something from scratch takes just as much time as opening a box and it's far healthier.

But I tell you one thing -- after making this chicken noodle soup from scratch, I will never buy another can of Campbell's chicken noodle soup. Now I am spoiled. *wink*