This Reminds Me

Archive for the ‘Tasty Eats’ Category

After so much rich holiday food, I was ready for some soup.  Not some fancy broth with “crumbled this,” or “serve with brie that,” but just plain good soup.  And what’s better than chicken noodle?  Nothing, that’s what.

Ingredients are pretty simple:  A plump chicken; carrots, celery and onion; chicken stock and milk; minced garlic.  Also salt and pepper to taste, though if you use a package or two of chicken stock, you likely won’t need any salt.  Boil your chicken in a stock pot, covering it about 1″  with whatever proportion of prepared chicken stock and water you like.  I like about half/half.  Add a generous heaping spoonful of minced garlic.  Tastes about 45 minutes to boil a 5-lb. bird.

Chop your vegetables while the chicken is cooking.  Rough chop or mince, doesn’t much matter.  For this batch, I used 4 stalks of celery w/leaves, 3 handfuls of baby carrots and a very large onion.  There is no such thing as too much onion.

Once your chicken is cooked, remove it from the bubbling stock.  I place a grooved cutting board next to the pot and just sort of stab and sling the bird.  Run a slotted spoon through the stock a few times to ensure there are no stray chicken parts bobbing.   Add your vegetables to the stock, and simmer until soft.  The smaller the pieces, the quicker the cooking. You can pick your chicken off the bone while the vegetables cook.

Here’s the tricky/dangerous part.  I personally cannot stand chunky cooked carrots and celery.  They disturb me.  But I like the flavors in the soup.  So once they’re soft, begin removing the liquid in batches of 1.5 – 2 cups.  Liquefy in your blender, and pour into bowl.  When you put this bubbling liquid in your blender, it’s going to want to blow the hot stock up to your kitchen ceiling, scorching your face along the way.  No no no.  Hold your hand tightly over the top of the blender, using a dish towel to catch any stray flying dribbles.  Key word is “tightly.”  Don’t let it blow!  Take your time doing these small batches.  It’s worth it.

Return the now-vege’fied stock to the pot.  Boil your noodles in the stock.  How big a package?  Depends on how thick you like your soup.  I used a 1-lb. package of wide egg yolk noodles (my fave.)   Stir often while the noodles cook.  After the noodles are tender, add your picked chicken.  Pretty, no?

Last step:  Add milk.  For this batch, I used about 3 cups.  Taste for additional seasonings.  Garlic salt, maybe?

Mmmmmm, mmmmmm, good!  Hard to say exactly how much this recipe makes – maybe a gallon?  Hannah, Lois and I each enjoyed bowls straight from the pot, then I jarred four pint-sized lunch servings and  a single “I’m really hungry” quart.

Honestly, now – which would you rather have?!

Gobble gobble!  We had a great Thanksgiving at Casa Woodworth.

Visiting out-of-town family included two members of the “Marie Club” – my sister Judith Marie and her granddaughter Laura Marie – pictured with our Hannah Marie.  When Hannah and her Scout troop enjoyed Disney World over spring break, she shopped for several (Aristocats) Marie gifts for Laura.

Great nephew James will start kinder next year.  Rachel adores him,   I took him, Laura, Julia and Hannah to play miniature golf Friday and let me tell you, I was ready for nap when we got home.  In fact – Judy and I napped together off and on all weekend, much to the amusement of indelicate spouses and children who muttered such gems as, “We’ll get you both rocking chairs for Christmas next year,” and “Soon it will be time for your medications.”  They better be more respectful or we’ll whack them with our canes.

Keith bought an electric turkey fryer this year, retiring the cauldron, broomstick and rope required in past years to cook the big birds.  Everyone agreed:  Best turkey he’s done.  Very moist, and the actual cooking is a lot less dangerous.  Our lunch for 18 included two fried turkeys, a smoked turkey (gift) and a ham – and we didn’t have an obscene amount of meat left by the weekend.  I used the scraps of the ham in a pot of pintos last night, and made a casserole with the last of the turkey today.

Our friends John and Linda – with whom we always do Thanksgiving – get two airmen trainees from Lackland each year, as do Keith and I.  So we enjoy the company of four airmen, all of whom – as six-year-old Hannah too-loudly commented in 2002 – are “good eaters.”  (l-r) Brandon from Kentucky, Ally from Arizona and Melissa from Missouri – all members of the Clean Plate Club.  Brandon asked, “Are we going to have pie?  I really like pie.”  What kind, I responded.  “Any kind!”  He had his choice of three chocolate, two pecan, two chess and two pumpkin – covered in foil behind him.

I gave the airmen my little Olympus to use during the day so they can take pictures of themselves.  Before Keith and John return them to base, I collect email addresses – parents, girlfriends, teachers, siblings, whomever – and push out a link to an online album.   Moms love it.  We got this lovely note back from the mother of Andrew (West Virginia):  “Thank you for the pictures.  They are our first photos of him since he left where we can actually see how he’s doing. How can we ever thank you enough for opening your home and sharing it with Andrew and the others.  It’s our first Thanksgiving apart and it was so much easier knowing he was with a family who would make him a part of their Thanksgiving.  When he called he was so excited and extremely thankful to have a day off base.”  Very kind, but really – John, Linda, Keith and I love hosting them.  Judy noticed an interesting trait all four shared and in retrospect, it’s been true every year – these kids want to not only serve our country, but also to improve themselves.   They know the military will provide opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable to them.  They’re strong, smart and hard-working with an eye on whom and what they might become.  They want to improve their chances of success.   And they’re not “occupying” anything except a bunk until 4 a.m.

Friday’s Thanksgiving decorations had to make way for a Christmas tree yesterday, plus holiday Fiestaware.  My Christmas CD’s are now in my iTunes, so I’ll be humming with Trans-Siberian in the kitchen next time I dock my iPhone in its speakers.  In the meantime, I’ll just chair dance with this favorite while I think about going back to work tomorrow.

I like to cook something on Saturday that we can just “eat on.” Not a meal, though we cook those, too. But just something for our lunches, and for the kids to shovel in when they have 10 minutes at home between babysitting and Latin, or Scouts and Model U.N. This week – chicken and dumplings.

My mom made absolutely delicious homemade noodles, though in retrospect, I think they were more like flat dumplings. She never measured her flour, Crisco and salt as she mixed it with her hands, then rolled and cut it in short strips with a sharp knife. Omigosh, they were good. Mine aren’t that good, but then, I don’t have her talent. Keith’s mom also has a good recipe for a light, fluffy dumpling baked with roast chicken, but that gets a whole lot of kitchenware dirty.

This recipe – which I originally got from my friend Ginger – dirties one stock pot, two cutting boards a small bowl and a few kitchen utensils. That’s it. And to make an entire batch costs about $15.  And it’s easy – hence, “Cheaters Chicken and Dumplings.”  My kids love it, so – my kind of recipe!

You need:  A chicken, 3 cans of biscuits, 1 stick of butter, 2 c. of milk and a mix of chicken stock and water.  My friend Ginger uses only water to boil her chicken.  I like at least half chicken stock for those vegetable flavors, too.  If I don’t think the broth looks rich enough, I will add a scoop of jarred condensed chicken stock.

In a stock pot – cover your chicken with liquid (stock, broth, water, jarred stock, whatever you like.)  Just barely cover it.  If you’re using stock or broth, you won’t need to add salt.  Boil the chicken about 45 minutes.

Cut your biscuits.  I usually cut them into 9ths – 2 cuts across, 2 cuts down.  You want small pieces.

Cheater’s way to remove the chicken from the boiling stock – place a grooved cutting board near the pot and use a long-handled fork to quickly lift the bird, drain it and set it down.  Much easier and less sloppy to move a cutting board than a pot of boiling stock. Notice the pretty orange/yellow color of the stock.  Good stuff!

Add one stick of butter and two cups of milk.  Bring to a simmer.

Drop the biscuit pieces one by one into the simmering stock, stirring every couple of minutes.  An 11-year-old helper is great to have at this step.

You want really small biscuit pieces – like, no bigger than a fingernail.  As they poach, they expand.  So smaller = better.

Pick your chicken off the bone and tear/cube.  I use all the meat – white and dark.  I also select the biggest chicken I can find at the store.

Add your chicken to the simmering dumplings.  If you’re the mom, you dump it in all at once.  If you’re the daughter, you add it more daintily.

And now you’ve got chicken and dumplings……

….which my assistant says are “delicious!”

Enjoy!

Most adoptive families celebrate “Gotcha Day” – an acknowledgement of when a child joined a family.   Instead of “Gotcha Day,” we celebrate “Sisters Day,” recognizing when our family was completed by the addition of the fourth and final sister, Julia, then age six, from St. Petersburg, Russia.

We’ve not traveled for Sisters Day since our first celebration in 2007.   Five years home – it was time.   So at the girls’ request, we had a weekend in Austin – about 90 miles north of us, but oh-so-different.

“Keep Austin Weird” is more than a slogan – it’s a commitment.  Often described as “Texas’ Left Coast” or “The Third Coast,” Austin is a mecca for aging hippies, today’s hipsters, UT students in shorts, lawmakers and lobbyists in suits – and all manner of folk in between.   Julia didn’t really care about the slogan.  She just likes tie-dyed clothes. 

As we’ve done before – everyone got to pick out a new book but this time at Book People – the largest independent book store in Texas.  Hannah surprised me with an autographed copy of Connie Rice’s  autobiography for Mothers Day – score!  Hannah – “Twilight – The Official Illustrated Guide.”  Rachel – “My Booky Wook” by Russell Brand.    Lois – “This is a Book” by Demetri Martin.  Julia – a book about crystals and gems, which I am hoping she can use to develop her fifth grade science project next year.   

A little iPod action while awaiting our lunch from Flip Happy Crepes, the trailer the girls and I visited last June sans Keith.   Everyone got something different, but mine was the best – fresh spinach with feta and garlic.  So, so good.  We also hit Cornucopia Gourmet Popcorn.

Trailer eateries have mushroomed in Austin.   This one – Hey Cupcake – sported a funny sign on its back door.

We took a two-hour cruise around Lake Lady Bird arriving back on shore with pink noses.   Julia was disappointed we weren’t kayaking with all the college students and their dogs.  The most interesting part of the cruise…

 ….was definitely passing under the Congress Avenue bridge, where 750K pregnant bats currently live in the cracks.   We couldn’t see them, but we could hear them “cheep,” and the smell?  Sort of like spoiled corn tortillas.  The tour guide warned us to keep our mouths closed.  The colony will grow to about 1.5M bats before they migrate in October, as they’ve done each year for decades.   We were interested because we knew we were coming back at dusk to see them fly out.  What a rush!

Not the world’s greatest video, but after all, it was dusk.  The swirling mass at the top of the tree line that looks like mosquitoes?  Those are bats.  Watch carefully for the flying specks as they come out from under the bridge.  They eat about 30K pounds of insects each night. 

 Really like this pictures.  I used the flash on my little waterproof Olympus and it highlighted their fluttering silhouettes.

I am fearful of Sisters Day become just “one more thing” with no real meaning.  So, through the weekend, I tried to spark some conversation with the girls about what was happening five years ago.  “This is the day Daddy and I left for Russia to get Julia.”  “Julia, do you remember the Neva River in St. Pete?”   “Hannah, you taught Julia to count to 10.  Do you think that’s why she’s so good in math now?”  Pretty much – that fizzled.  The girls are way more interested in what is than what was.   Julia usually acts politely bored when I bring up Russia, her birth mother, how she rolled her r’s when she came home, her asking for “cheese y bread,” etc.   From what I’ve read and the parents to whom I’ve spoken, that’s pretty normal.  The pendelum has swung one way; it’ll swing another in a few years (those delightful teen ones), then someday – if we’ve done our jobs right -  it’ll stop somewhere in the middle.

While the girls were celebrating Sisters Day, we squeezed in Mother’s Day, too.  It all goes together.  Without those sisters, I’m not a mother.   They’re talking about a “Ssisters Cruise” in several years, once college is behind them and – please Lord – they’re all gainfully employed.  Maybe I’ll be invited for that.  I would like that.  Because what I really want is for them to want to celebrate Sisters Day when I’m not around to remind them of it.  There is so much unhappiness in this world.  You have to take time to celebrate the happy things.

And celebrating the happy things are what sisters do best.