Chicken soup

I have never made homemade chicken soup before-Campbell's has always done the work for me! I had poached the six chicken breasts and then made the stock. I pulled apart the meat and put into two freezer packages for two different meals. I grabbed one of the packages of chicken, one of the containers of chicken stock, and my orange Rachael Ray cast iron Dutch oven and went to work.

Chicken Soup
1-2 cups cup up chicken
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
6 'new' Yukon gold potatoes, halved and/or quartered
2 carrots, peeled and slice in coins
1 stalk celery, sliced in small half moons
pasta of your choice, I used bowties

Place all ingredients, except pasta, in Dutch oven. Season with salt, pepper, and a bay leaf. Simmer for about half an hour. Pour pasta in and cook to desired doneness. I left mine about another 20 minutes.

Dude wanted more noodles, but I didn't have as much room in my pot as I would have liked, so I only used about a half cup of noodles and it wasn't enough. I made some fresh bakery dinner rolls to go with and packed it up for dinner at work. It was so good! I can't believe how easy it was and how much better it tasted not out of can.

Does everyone have big plans for Superbowl Sunday? Not us. Dude doesn't like football, but I bought some snack food and am making some guac so we can watch. I'm hoping the Saints can pull it off. It would be nice to see a first time winner (still waiting Vikings...).

Off to paint some more trim work in my new scrap room and I have a pot simmering on the stove with the ham bone and ham pieces from last nights' dinner. Trying ham stock so I'm not wasteful and also Dude wants me to try making a ham and potato soup. Hmmmmm.

Giraffe Stock.....tastes like Chicken

Now that I have your attention.......I didn't really make giraffe stock, that is just silly. I don't have a pot big enough to boil one of those! Ina always talks about how easy it is to make your own stock and I have seen different people do it different ways. I saw Ina do it with 2 or 3 chickens, veggies and water. I have seen others do it with chicken carcasses. I always like to march to the beat of my own drummer, so I had poached up 6 huge chicken breasts and then pulled the meat off to use for a couple different meals-one of which includes the stock which I am making here. I put the six breast bones with some meat and some of the skin in my large stock pot, threw in 2 onions that I just sliced in half, a head of garlic that I sliced in half, two carrots that I washed but didn't peel and chunked it up in 2 inch pieces and 2 stalks of celery that I washed and also chunked up like the carrots. I added 10 cups of water and simmered on the stove for a couple hours. I let it sit to cool and then poured it through a fine mesh strainer that I had lined with cheesecloth (I took the veggies out before this step). I let it cool down to room temp and covered and put in the fridge. The next day I went to scoop the fat off the top, but there wasn't that much there since I didn't boil whole chicken and some of the fat rendered off when poaching. I ended up with about 8-1/2 cups of stock after all was said and done and put it into 4 freezer containers and put it in the freezer. I don't know that I'm convinced it is better than the boxed kind, but it did taste pretty good. I didn't add salt because I had added a little to the poaching water and figured I would add some fresh to the recipes I used the stock for.

We received news today that my brother's Dad is in the hospital and they don't expect him to make it through the day. My Mom was married before and yada, yada, yada-we have different fathers. I feel bad for him; they were never very close and had been making strides in the last few years to fix that. If you think about it or have a chance, please say a little prayer for Hans-he is having a rough year-it is his son that just went to Kuwait in December.

Off for the weekend-think I may tackle taxes....then drink vast quantities of wine!

Goulash, my way

Hey everyone. Hope everyone has been well. I have been around visiting you, but haven't left many comments. Things are going okay here, but not perfect. Who am I kidding? When were they ever perfect? Drama Queen is being punished, by us and by those she wronged. Hopefully this will be a valuable lesson for her. Thanks to everyone who sent emails with their care and concern; it did really help me.

I'm still working on the pantry challenge. I did fall off the wagon two weeks ago when all hell broke loose here. When I'm stressed, I do two things: eat and shop. I had to get out of the house after the incident and I shopped for some craft items and then I was lured into the big, bad grocery store. I broke down and bought the bologna I had been craving, and some other lunch meat and some fancy cheese. Well, not fancy, but more expensive than I usually buy and need to shred it myself. This is how I wallow.

I pulled some ground beef out of the freezer and grabbed a jar of spaghetti sauce, some onion, garlic, smoked paprika and a southwest blend of spices and stirred it all up in a pan. I boiled some noodles-two kinds since I had about a palm full of both types but not enough of one to make the whole dish. Just part of the challenge.

Dude said it tasted like Hamburger Helper. Guess he wasn't impressed. Considering I have been sick again and rolled off the couch at 6 and had this on the table at 7, he shouldn't complain!

Here is one of the treasures that came with the Christmas gifts my Mom got me from the lady that passed away in her complex. In the Spritz maker box were a lot of recipes and receipts. One of my favorites were these four inserts from Spry shortening cans.

I used some of my scrapbooking tools and paper to mount the circles on complimentary colored card stock.

I picked this floating frame up at Michael's with a discount coupon and sandwiched the lids between the plastic sheets. I need to find my level so I can get it hung up in the kitchen.

A short sabbatical

Have you had a child who broke your heart and didn't know how long it will take to forgive and move on? I need to take a break to deal with some issues happening at home. I will see you in a couple weeks. Hopefully I will still see you all here when I return.

See you in a few weeks.

A swing.........and a miss!

As I continue with the Pantry Challenge, I am...., well, challenged. I didn't sleep much yesterday because I had therapy for my elbow and had to get up early. After therapy I went to the travel agent to start planning me and Dude's 20th anniversary trip to Iceland. Found out that Iceland is closed right now and not taking reservations. Hmmm, really? So the agent will call me in a couple weeks when they are back in business. Dude and I were alone last night so we went and grabbed some dinner and went to Menard's to pick up some stuff for my new scrap room. We found carpet, some trim pieces and a new light fixture. Now he is getting ready to paint the ceiling. We went to bed last night at 7:30 because we were so exhausted. Sleeping while it is dark outside is a weird concept to us! He woke up at midnight and I woke up at 3. Now at 11 PM I am ready for bed again. After napping this afternoon I asked what he wanted for dinner. After explaining that I didn't have any T-bones in the the freezer, I made him go down to the freezer and just pick something out. He pulled out what I thought was a pork roast, but after cooking we came to the conclusion it was some kind of beef......thing. I thawed it, marinated it in olive oil, apple cider, rosemary, thyme and a little ginger and Tuscan Sunset blend. I put it in the oven with some onions that were sprinkled with some olive oil and some of the same herbs used in the marinade, I placed it in a 325 degree oven for about an hour and a half. I made a package of angel hair pasta and herb boxed side dish. Yeah. The meat must have been old as it was dry and tasteless. The pasta was good, but I was totally disappointed by the meat. I guess this is what the challenge is all about, right?

We are thinking we might do homemade soup tomorrow, but we will see. I have a coupon for Michael's and have a list of things that I need to pick up. It is also the big game between the Vikings and the Saints for a spot in the Superbowl!! Dude doesn't like football, but I kind of do, so I think I may have to watch. Normally we go for motor sports, but I love high school football and always watched the Vikings with my Dad growing up. I remember him in his skivvies (underwear) and t-shirt yelling at the Fran Tarkenton about the ball and Mom telling him if he knew so much, maybe he should go coach them. Ahhhh, good times, good times. Let's go Purple-make us proud!

Sticks and Stones

Another day in the Pantry Challenge. Friday night at work we ordered out dinner as I had a PT appointment before work so sleep was more important than cooking. When we got home in the morning, I went down to the freezer and randomly picked something out of the bin and got a pound of hamburger. I saw a bag of hash browns so I grabbed those also. Put the ground beef in the fridge to thaw and went to bed.

When I woke up I realized I had to do something with these items so I looked in the canned food pantry and grabbed some creamed corn and a can of cream of celery soup. I browned the ground beef and seasoned it with some onion and garlic powder and a little pepper. I stirred in the soup, the creamed corn, half a can of water and half the bag of potatoes and warmed it through. Into an 8x8 baking dish, sprinkled it with some fresh grated cheese and popped it into a 350 degree F. oven for about 30 minutes.

It is hard to get a good photo of a hotdish. This is as good as I got. It tasted a lot like Tater Tot hotdish. We took half for dinner at work and gobbled it right up and Dude took the rest last night when he worked OT. The Tupperware came home empty. I think I would stir the cheese into the creamy mixture and then bake it for 15 minutes and then sprinkle with a little more cheese. The cheesier the better!


I will definitely make this again. Oh, and sticks and stones was for potatoes (sticks) and ground beef (stones). Sorry, it popped into my mind and I ran with it!

Short Ribs

While stalking, er I mean while reading through my reader list, I found a recipe for ribs in a red wine sauce that I wanted to try. I took ribs out and put in the fridge to make a little later in the day and then Dude asked if I wanted to go out for dinner and a movie. Heck yeah! I wish I would have brought my camera with because seriously? Best burger I ever had. I think I have mentioned that we like to eat at Rudy's Redeye Grill, which is part of Axl's Charhouse here in Minnesota. They have awesome steaks and prime rib and pasta, and well everything we have ever had there is good. My favorite cocktail is also from there-the Flirtini. I have that recipe under drinks in my recipe labels. And if you make these cocktails in pitcher form (which we do) stop at one pitcher. Trust me on this. I didn't learn the first time we made two. I learned the second time. But the burgers were phenomenal. I don't know if they ground up Bessie right there in the kitchen, but they were juicy and full of flavor and HUGE! So the ribs took a back seat. When I went to make the ribs the next day, I didn't do it with the red wine as it only takes about a cup of wine and we had to work the next two days and I didn't want the wine sitting in the fridge that long before I could drink the rest of it. I used beef stock instead. It went together so fast. I chopped an onion into quarters, cut 3 stalks of celery into three piece, took a handful of mini carrots (since those where the only ones in the crisper drawer) and put in the bottom of the Crock Pot. I rubbed the patted dry ribs with one of my favorite blends from Penzey's that consisted of paprika, onion, celery, arrowroot, sugar, garlic, black pepper, parsley, dill seed, caraway, turmeric, dill weed, bay leaf, thyme, savory, basil, marjoram and rosemary. Holy cow there is a lot packed in that jar! It is called Beef Roast seasoning and we use it all the time. I placed the ribs on the top of the veggies and poured the beef stock around the sides of the meat, put her on low and went to bed. 8 hours later dinner was ready. I strained the juices into a pan, mixed some Wondra flour with cold beef stock and whisked into the hot juices and made some pan gravy. Delish!

This is a new tablecloth I got from my Mom. I will have to do a post on the fun things I got. A resident in her apartment building (she calls 'the Home') had passed away and Mom offered to help her husband clean out some stuff. He told her she could take what she wanted and the rest was going off to Goodwill I believe. She took several tablecloths (I collect old ones), a stockinette cover for a rolling pin still in the original box, and a cookie press. I was excited about the cookie press (spelled Cooky on the box) since I have never made Spritz cookies and I know Dude likes those. There were several recipe booklets, receipts dated 1941, and some cool round recipe cards that came off of the lids of Spry shortening. I want to find a cool frame and hang them in my kitchen. I think when we move to town in a few years, I will do a retro themed kitchen!