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29
Sep
Chicken Soup for You!

Everyone in our house was sick over the weekend. And the weather started to mellow out and get a little cooler so it was the perfect time for SOUP!

But I wasn’t interested in going out to the store in my flannel jammies to get a canned of overly salty, floppy-sad-stringy-noodled chicken soup. So looked in the freezer, fridge and pantry and decided I was going to whip up something from scratch.

This was the easiest soup to make and man was it good. Even The Doc said he was impressed by how it tasted. (He’s not much of a soup eater.) The Wee Beasts ate it up, veggies and all, so it must have been something special. Here’s the recipe:

Homemade Chicken Soup by Decaf Debi

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup (To Cure a Cold)

2 stalks of celery diced (include some of the leaves!)

1 cup diced parsnips

1 cup pre-shredded carrots (or dice some big carrots)

3 green onions, finely diced (or 1/2 cup onion if you don’t have green onions)

4 cloves garlic minced

8-10 cups of chicken broth/stock

A few sprigs of thyme or 1/2 tsp dried thyme

2 bay leaves

About 1/3 tsp red pepper flakes (more if you like the heat and don’t have kidlet tastes to account for)

3 frozen chicken breasts

1 cup orzo pasta

Here’s how you throw it together:

Heat up a couple tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat in a stock pot, then throw in the veggies minus the garlic. Sprinkle on a bit of salt to help the veggies sweat and release their juices. After 4-5 minutes, when the onion is getting translucent, add in the garlic. Stir it around and let it cook for about a minute to get some of the raw flavor off the garlic but don’t let it burn.

Then pour in all of the chicken broth or stock. If you don’t have 8-10 cups in the pantry, use what you have and make up the rest in plain water. You have enough going on with the veggies to end up with plenty of flavor. I threw in a few sprigs of thyme that I had, but you could use dried or any other herb of your choice. Rosemary would be good. Also add the bay leaves, sprinkle in the red pepper flakes, and you can grind some fresh black pepper in to boost the flavor profile a bit.

Bring the soup up to a low boil and slip the frozen chicken breasts into their hot bath. This basically poaches the chicken, leaving it completely cooked and super moist in about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, take the chicken out and set it aside to cool for a few minutes. Meanwhile, add in the pasta. While it is cooking, shred or chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces and add it back to the soup pot.

Test the flavor of the broth and adjust with a little more salt or pepper if needed. Then get yourself a big bowl and ladle some of your soup in. Breathe in the steam and just feel yourself starting to get better. Ahhhhh, that’s why chicken soup is good for your soul and for your cold.

Are you feeling better yet? Everyone in our house did. Homemade chicken noodle soup. It’s a good thing.

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01
May
Recipe Review, 4/24/10

Man, we had a couple of really bad suppers this week. I mean B-A-D.

We started the week with Cashew Lime Chicken with a spinach and mandarin orange salad. This was actually good. I don’t think the wee beasts ate any of the spinach in the salad but they did pick out the oranges and liked the chicken. Fruit and protein down the hatch in one meal. I’m happy about that. Rating: 4

Then we moved on to the Parmesan-Crusted Chicken with Sweet Mustard Dip and an orzo salad. The chicken was baked and I don’t know why I continue to try to bake a chicken with a crust. It just doesn’t work. The top always comes out well but the bottom is wet, gummy, slimy, nasty. I could go on but I’ll spare you the disgusting adjectives. The biggest problem with the meal wasn’t the chicken, though. It was the orzo salad. I used a recipe that called for a home-made sun-dried tomato vinaigrette and giardiniera veggies in it. I’ve seen those veggies in the store before but never really paid any attention to them. I wish I had continued with that. First, the vinaigrette came out more like a thick paste. It was way too sour. The veggies must be pickled somehow because they are sour, too. This salad was soooooooooooo outrageously disgusting that we couldn’t eat it. We actually scraped it off plates and The Doc decided to feed it to the dogs. One of the dogs wouldn’t eat it. That’s how bad it was. Rating: 0

So the next night was supposed to be leftovers night, but because we had to toss the previous night’s food, I had to make a grocery store trip. I grabbed a rotisserie chicken and a bag of frozen stir-fry veggies. I thought a good dinner with veggies to make up for the really bad one would be nice. Unfortunately, I decided to try the chicken stir-fry recipe on the back of the bag. Bad idea. Very bad. I really don’t understand why I did it. It called for a can of cream of mushroom soup. In stir-fry. Yeah. I can hear you making those gross noises from here. Rating: 0

Luckily, we were all set for Pineapple Shrimp Skewers with Rum Sauce and Coconut Rice the next day. The rum sauce didn’t taste like rum and I didn’t feel like adding so much more rum that my beasts would end up drunk, so we just didn’t use it. But the shrimp and rice were alright, so I’ll have to give this a decent grade. Rating: 3.75

Chicken-Cheddar Quesadillas with White Bean-Green Pea Guacamole was on the schedule to end the week. Hallelujah. Something with taste. I know the name of the guacamole might scare some people off, but it was actually good! I didn’t tell The Doc what it was made from and he happily devoured it. The chicken was quick and easy. Throw some chicken in a pan and brown it, add a can of green chiles and a dash of liquid smoke to give it some depth. Yum. Rating: 4.25

I’ll try to avoid so much yuck in the coming week. Big A has requested tacos with bacon. I think I’ll have to skip that to get us back on the right track.

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25
Apr
Orechiette with Sweet Italian Sausage

Ingredients

1 pound orechiette pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 pound sweet Italian turkey sausage, casing removed
1 small onion, chopped
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, in a large, heavy skillet warm the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and onions. Using a wooden spoon break up the sausage into bite-sized pieces as it browns.

Continue cooking until the sausage is golden and the onions are soft and translucent. Add the beans and thyme, cooking for 2 more minutes to warm the beans through. Add the cup of pasta cooking liquid and stir, scrapping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the mascarpone cheese and stir until it dissolved into a light sauce. Add the salt, pepper, and hot pasta. Stir until coated and serve.

This recipe is superb the day you make it. Invite people over to enjoy it all at once. If you have some left, it’s still okay the next day, but the sauce gets soaked up into the pasta so it isn’t as luscious as when it’s right off the stove. It’s definitely worth the effort, so grab some friends and get cooking.

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