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?!

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.

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!

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.

When I need to write a school note, or stuff a reminder note to myself in my briefcase, or scribble quick directions, or – most often – make a grocery list, I don’t want to search for paper.  I want it right there.  All.  The.  Time.  With “my sheet” on top.  Anyone in the house is welcome to pull out a sheet UNDER mine – but leave mine alone.  And leave the notebook on the counter.

This is the notebook sheet on the counter right now – my ongoing grocery list.  I just jot stuff down through the week, and really load it up Friday night after my trip to Costco (and before HEB on Saturday.)  The girls know that if there is something they need, yelling it at Mom doesn’t work.  Write it down.  Otherwise – forget it, because you know I will.

I do have a system.  Sam’s is before or after Wednesday night church, because it’s right next door – usually after because they still sell one-gallon jugs of milk instead of double packs, as Costco has started doing (yuk – who has room for two gallons of milk at a time?)  Costco is Friday night for the big stuff and recurring non-perishables, like meat, shampoo, paper towels, etc. and please be home to help unload.   Saturday is HEB, especially for produce – it’s the best.  There’s usually a trip to Wal-mart at least once a week for art supplies or whatever but our bus stop is in the parking lot between it and Costco, so, not so bad.  I love Target, but it’s not especially convenient, so that’s a treat.

Julia – who knows how crazy I get whenever anyone moves my notebook – surprised me tonight with her own grocery list.  “Mom, I used your notebook but put it back.  Your list didn’t have enough room for all I needed.”  So I’m thinking – omigosh, she has some horrible school project due with poster board, paint pens, modeling clay, etc.  But no, none of that.  Just her version – addressed to “Dear madre” – of what I need to purchase this weekend.

“AND OTHER COOL SNACKS” – indeed!

You know – her list is a lot more fun than mine.  Maybe I’ll send her to Costco Friday night.  But she has to leave my notebook on the counter.

Fish aren’t the only things around here that (eventually) need to eat.  Keith and I start talking the weekend’s cooking mid-week before so trips to Costco, Sam’s and HEB can be worked into the crossword puzzle that is our family’s schedule.  Tomorrow, Keith wants to make some special toasted cheese sandwiches he’s seen created on a cooking show (being on disability gives a guy plenty of time to watch Emeril, Alton, etc.)  And what goes best with toasted cheese sandwiches?  Tomato soup!  At least my kids have always thought so.

I’ve tried several tomato soup recipes and finally distilled them into one of my own.  Everyone who has tried it has liked it – and I’ve served it plenty’o'times.  So here’s the recipe.  It takes about an hour to fix, and the only bad part is the clean-up.  You have to wash your food processor, blender, a big cooking pot and big bowl.  Other than that – it is very, very easy, as you will see.  And tasty, as you’ll see if you make it.

Ingredients?  Nothing fancy.

-  A handful of baby carrots, or two big peeled carrots

-  2  medium-large onions

-  2 28-oz. cans of crushed tomatoes

-  1 can of tomato paste

-  1 qt. of chicken stock or broth (I like stock better)

-  1/3 cup flour

-  3 bay leaves

-  2 tsp. basil

-  1 tsp. oregano

-  1 pint half’n”half (or cream or milk)

-  1 stick butter

-  Dash of pepper

-  Dash of powdered garlic

May also want some garlic salt.  Depends.  I usually don’t add this until the very end, after I taste it.

Put your carrots and your chopped onion into the food processor and really grind them up.  Melt the stick of butter, and add the carrots and onion to it, stirring occasionally on low-medium heat for 2 or 3 minutes – until it’s all soft.  If you skip grinding your carrots and onions, you have to cook them a lot longer.  It’d rather grind and wash than stand and stir.

Now add the 1/3 cup of flour to thicken it up.  Stir continuously for about 3 minutes.  Notice the color lightens.

When it’s nice and thick – add the chicken stock, crushed tomatoes and the seasonings.  Stir and let it simmer about 10 minutes on low heat.  Looking prettier!

Here’s the messy part.  Remove the three bay leaves.  Scoop out about a cup – maybe a cup and a half – of soup base.  Put it in your blender, and liquefy it.  Really pound it.  That liquid is hot, and your blender is going to spray it up to the top.  So for goodness sakes, don’t scoop in more than a cup or so of the liquid.  Nothing says a trip to the ER like hot tomato puree in your face.  When it’s liquefied, pour it into a big bowl.

When the base is all liquefied, stir in your dairy.  The soup will lighten color.  And now’s the time to taste it.  Does it need a little garlic salt?  This batch did, but some batches haven’t.

Voila!  A gallon soup tomato soup, plus a lunch-sized jar.  Well, it would have been a lunch-sized jar except…..

My favorite stirrer decided she wasn’t waiting until tomorrow to enjoy a bowl.

The koi may or may not eat tomorrow – but we’re sure going to.

It’s “Dad’s Ravioli,” which Keith has served on New Year’s Eve for more than a decade, ever-improving it each year. In years past, he’s rolled his own pasta. He’s had pasta air-freighted fresh. He’s experimented with fillings. But in the last couple of years, he’s settled on an optimal (to date!) filling and prep method, as shown here.

I always tell my girls, “Marry a man who can cook.” Mine can!

We top the pasta with “Mom’s Alfredo,” which is a mix of green onions and garlic simmered in chicken stock and butter, added to sour cream and tangy shredded cheeses. I’d share the recipe if I had one. I just taste along the way. Keith’s also making Veal Marsala and Chicken Parmesan. This year, the vegetable is spinach sauteed with garlic. And homemade vanilla ice cream for dessert, topped with homemade dulce de leche. I will have a bit of ice cream with my dulce de leche, which calls my name every time I open the refrigerator door.

At midnight, we usually have “crackers,” too – the pull-apart cardboard tubes with a surprise inside.

After Christmas at World Market, we found crackers wrapped in Russian nesting doll paper, plus two Russian nesting doll candles. The one box of crackers and two candles were all they had. Sigh. I would have bought more. Russian-themed “anything” is hard to find in San Antonio.

So what are you having for dinner tonight? Be sure to take the new poll – it’s near the bottom of the left nav bar.

Happy 2011!

The night I posted this bog - June 9, 2005 – was also the night I broke 1,000 blog hits. So exciting!  I ran upstairs every half-hour just to see the counter advance.  Now I get about 1,000+ hits a month.  And I run a lot less.

Tonight Keith and I went to an Alton chat session and signing at The Twig book store.  Major fun!  And way better than a mere signing.  So take that, Lois!

The Twig ordered 300 copies of “Good Eats – The Middle Years” for autographing 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.  They sold out by 5:30.   Alton answered questions from the arm-waving members of the audience – including me.  I asked, “How many kids do you have, and do they cook?”  Alton responded that he and his wife had three children, all embodied in their 10-year-old daughter who was sometimes a 24-year-old woman, sometimes a 3-year-old boy and sometimes a herd of wild animals.  He said as her hormones began to swing, he saw more and more personalities living inside her.   Keith and I totally got that.  And Alton’s 10-year-old daughter doesn’t cook.  Ours – on the other hand – has advanced to preparing single servings of Kraft Mac’n'Cheese.

When he signed our book copy, I told Alton I’d fallen in love with him during the episode in which he smoked bacon in a junk yard.  He nodded sagely and named the episode - “Scrap Iron Chef.” Some day – not sure when, but some day – Keith and I are going to do that.

Now – what to cook this weekend?

But I dunno – lately – we’re just kind of bored with everything we cook.   The guaranteed daughter-pleasers haven’t changed:  hamburgers, Sloppy Joes, mac’n'cheese, tacos, spaghetti, pulled pork, baked chicken, waffles – but our enthusiasm for them has.   Somehow the “Joy of Cooking” has morphed into scanning the grocery ads and Food Network for what might give us an idea of something worth making.

Today I resurrected a dish I’ve not made since I was single – a rice casserole with Swiss cheese, crumbled bacon, chopped green onions, garlic salt, Italian seasoning and white wine.  I made it one night about 30 years ago when friends were coming over unexpectedly, and those were the ingredients I had in the fridge.   Everybody liked it, so I made it fairly often for pitch-ins and whatever.  But not since we’ve been married, as Keith is not a big casserole guy.

Julia and Lois would eat dirt if it had bacon crumbled on it.

I think when I was single, cooking was all about fun and friends.  I had the money for those unusual cheeses, and the time to prepare those complicated pasta recipes.

Today, it’s all about management and motivation.  Who’s home for dinner which nights?  What do I need to buy at Costco/Sam’s/HEB, and when do I have to have it?  How many room is in the fridge?  How long does it take to make, and will there be any leftovers for our lunches?  And am I “up” for lugging the groceries, fixing it and then walloping supervising the teenage clean-up crew?

You eat food, but you share a meal.  We’ve always found mealtimes the most enjoyable, informative and entertaining part of the day.  Keith and I love to hear about Rachel’s art class, and Lois’ Latin competition, and what new fact Hannah’s learned about the upcoming Twilight movie, and what Julia saw on the school bus.

So as long as that’s true, we’ll be cooking.  Something.

If you’ve got any recipe suggestions, send them our way.

We’ll be in the kitchen, scanning the HEB ad and thinking, “Maybe….ummm…maybe…..”

I played hooky today to take the girls to the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum in Austin.  There’s a Walter Chronkite exhibit in addition to the permanent Presidential/Texana displays.  Awesome!

Not a bad drive – less than two hours.  And blessedly overcast as Texas awaits the arrival of Hurricane Alex.

Great Minds

I explained to Hannah:  I was in second grade when JFK was assassinated.    A neighbor – Bobby Dyer – shared the news as I rode my bike home.  I called him a dirty liar and beat him up.    A few years ago, I entered the Kwik Copy he managed with his wife.  He recognized me and quickly hunched and raised both fists.

We talked a lot of WWII history on the way home, including PT109, LBJ and his fellow Congressmen called home after a few months of military service, the role of the GI Bill in post-war America, etc.

A wall of campaign buttons.  I have dozens (hundreds?), the oldest of which is a 1900 McKinley/Roosevelt.  At the 1984 RNC in Dallas, I had an opportunity to buy a Lincoln  Daguerreotype for $125 – and I didn’t.  I wish I had.  Those were the days when I had time and money.

The Civil Rights displays totally mystified and captivated Julia, whose best friends (and our next door neighbors) are black.

Tricky Rachel, who says she’s not a crook – though not all my change comes home from the grocery store

Animatron Lyndon cracking jokes freaked the herd of daycare kids.

Lois liked the memorabilia in the Cronkite exhibit, including NASA models of space craft.  My dad worked at NASA and we had two of those models.  I have no idea where they are now.  (sigh)

Lots of Cronkite’s notepads, teletype sheets, spirals, etc. on display.  Julia said, “Mom, his handwriting looks like yours,” to which Rachel responded, “No, you can read it.”

A little post-museum break for Hannah.  Julia was confused by the fountain geyser, thinking it was somehow related to the coming hurricane. Lois somberly confirming with a “Yes, Julia, it is – and we’ll probably have a tornado, too” didn’t help.

Many out-of-state plates in the parking lot, including those belonging to Twilight fans.

Ever heard of Flip Happy Crepes?  It’s about two miles from the museum.  Keith watched a “Throwdown with Bobby Flay” episode featuring the Flip Happy trailer, crew and delicious crepes!   We messaged poor Keith several photos while he slaved away at work, munching the lunch I packed before we left.

Flip Happy’s owner – Tessa – featured on the Bobby Flay program graciously stepped out for a photo.  Nice lady.  And tasty, tasty eats! Necessary to build our strength before an afternoon stop at the Tanger Outlets on the drive home. Everything at the Old Navy Outlet – 40% off today.  We did damage.

A great museum, fantastic exhibits, wonderful lunch and jaunt through the outlet mall – well, my fellow Americans - “That’s the way it was.”