Change is tricky. I have literally flipped my life upside down in the last four months. I packed my life into my car, said goodbye to everything familiar and headed to the great state of Texas. You know all of this, it’s been the central focal point of every single blog post that I have written. What can I say? It’s not everyday that this homebody shakes up her life so drastically, it’s only normal that it is taking months upon months to adjust.

Just when I felt solid ground under my feet, things began to shake. A little at first. Just small rumbles of potential unsettling in my already unsettled life. Rumbles turned into shakes, shakes into tremors, and just like that it collapsed. Any sense of normality has been turned into something else. Something a tad bit more unpredictable.

Like everything else in my life, I am going to roll with the punches. I am trying to get good at rolling with the punches. Taking things in stride, as they come.

Today this looks like a slow meandering walk with my hound dog in the warm Texas sun. It looks like organizing my life into categories, piecing out what to keep and what to get rid of. It looks like making plans for my trip home in a week. And it looks like nursing my impending cold with a big bowl of homemade pho.

It tastes as good as going to the restaurant, and when you buy the spices in bulk it’s a cheap as can be.

Who knows what my life will look like a week from now. All I know is today I have a big bowl of pho in front of me that’s calming my sore throat and for now, that’s enough.

Homemade Pho

From My New Roots

Broth:

• 2 lb onions (yellow, white, red)
• 1.5 oz / 50 g fresh ginger
• 1 Tbsp. fennel seeds
• 3 black cardamom pods (green cardamom also works)
• 3 star anise
• 5 whole cloves
• ½ tsp. black peppercorns
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp. coriander seeds
• ½ Tbsp. sea salt
• 6 cups / 1.5 liters water

To make the broth (which is the most important part) all you have to do is chop up your onions and your ginger (you can leave the skin on), pour in the water and the spices and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and let cook for one hour. It makes your house smell SO GOOD. After letting the broth simmer, strain the broth into a bowl. The toppings are up to you. I listed below what I used, but the great thing about pho is you can really put anything in this delicious broth.

Toppings:

• Buckwheat soba noodles
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Bok choy
• Mushrooms