Last minute comfort food

This weekend has been a rollercoaster type experience, fortunately I was not flung out abruptly like the 2 poor teenagers recently at Downtown East. First, Sunday School carnival, with kids frothing out of the seams of the church, followed by a manic birthday party at Explorer Kids indoor playground. Am so way behind on my Christmas shopping, not to mention the regular mommy-type chores that I do. Yesterday evening, the kids were so bushed that they didn't want to go out to eat and on top of that, I found that my cupboard as bare as Old Mother Hubbard's. So I scrounged around and came up with a really weird soup dish and threw in mee sua, and the wonder of it is that they ate it - with seconds! I still shudder at the travesty of a dinner I cooked, and this on top of reading Ruth Reichl's delectable Garlic and Sapphires where she as the New York Times restaurant critic, has to disguise herself to visit restaurants because her picture is up on every kitchen wall. An entertaining read, with insight on the power play in the restaurant industry clashing with an old boys' newspaper empire. So far away from my little kitchen and my appreciative clientele of 2. Anyway, last night was definitely comfort food night, so here is the strange mish mash that appeared on my table at dinner:

Very last minute Vegetable stew
1 radish cut into chunks
1 carrot cut into chunks
3 leeks, cut into 1 1/2 inch lengths, omitting the green parts
1 chicken thigh - deboned and cut into chunks
Handful of enoki mushrooms
4 - 5 leaves of Napa cabbage
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 pkt bonito powder
Noodles - ideally japanese Udon, alternatively glass noodles (definitely not mee sua - ewww!)

1. Place radish and leeks, bonito sauce and soy sauce into a clay pot with 3 cups of water and bring to boil. Simmer for about 15 minutes.
2. Add leeks and simmer another 10 minutes
3. Add chicken, enoki mushrooms and napa cabbage and boil for another 5 minutes.
4. Throw in noodle of choice, bring to boil for few minutes till noodle is cooked.