Chicken Noodle Soup

On a cold day like today, soup just fits the bill, doesn't it? I pretended I was "snowed in" and had to make lunch from scratch with what we had on hand. I turned to another of the recipes that has its home on a post-it note in my spice cupboard. This one contains my furious scribblings made during a phone conversation with my mom-in-law, Leslie.

I must have bugged her for her soup recipe three or four times before I finally got around to really trying it. I have included her general instructions (as I understand them) for those of my readers who may just be starting to dream that there is more to life than what comes in a can.

Ingredients:

• Onion
• Carrots and celery
• Noodles
• Chicken
• Chicken bullion (cubes or powder)
• Water
• Flour (small amount)
• Butter

You will notice that there are no exact amounts listed above. That is because there is quite a bit of flexibility there. There is also a lot of room for ingredient substitution, as I will point out during the directions. But don't panic... I will tell you what I did today, and if you want you could follow that exactly. Here goes...

We start with the onion. This, in my opinion, is what gives the base flavor for the soup. Today I had decided I was making soup long before I discovered I was lacking onion. What? No onion? Bummer. I went out to my garden and dug two pitiful little specimens out of the soil. (Now, I'm sure someone who knows something about gardening will comment and tell me this isn't the time to pick them - either I'm late or way early - but I am under the impression that onions can be eaten at any stage in their growth, and I needed it today.)

Now, I knew that this wasn't as much onion as is called for. Leslie's original instructions called for a whole onion, and I usually use half of one of those large yellow ones. But I didn't feel like adding minced onion from my cupboard. So I improvised. You can too. Just fill in the gaps with what you have. In this case, I used garlic, since I knew that it was the same type of ingredient - an aromatic. I figured garlic never hurt anything, so I chopped up three big cloves and called it good.

Next I chopped up some veggies that I had in my fridge. I chose to use one carrot (that was all I had) and two celery sticks. You can use whatever vegetables you think will be tasty in your soup. If you have a bag of frozen vegetables, great - you won't even have to chop anything. Just throw it all in the pot with your onion.

Now is where my directions call for butter. Because I have a milk allergy, I routinely make substitutions for butter. And I have made this before with margarine, it works fine. But extra virgin olive oil is supposed to be healthier, so I went that route today. If you're out of butter - don't stress it. Just reach for a fat. All we really want here is to add a little flavor while we keep the vegetables from sticking to the pan and the onion from burning. Spray them with Pam, or chuck a dollop of Crisco in there - whatever you have to do - just add a little fat.

Sauté the vegetables (this means you've added the fat, and you are stirring it) until they are soft. But don't worry about the carrots getting soft. That would take too long. Now we are going to make a roux (Oooh... more french! We're getting fancy, aren't we?). Well, actually we are going to take the lazy way out. We are going to add 2 teaspoons of flour and it will mix with the fat that is already on the vegetables. (This flour will help thicken our broth.) Put a Tablespoon of water in there at the same time and stir. When it is mixed in, then add a couple cups of water.

Now we need to cook the noodles. Do this in a separate pot. Bring the water to a boil, add a pinch of salt if you feel like it, and two handfuls of egg noodles. The kind that I use are called "Country Pasta" and can be bought at Costco (see pic). They come in a big plastic bag.

If you prefer chicken soup with rice rather than noodles, you should go ahead and use a box of wild rice instead. I've not tried that yet, but I assume you would cook it separately the same way you do with the noodles. (Comments anyone?)

Anyway, drain your noodles once they've cooked, and add it to the pot with your veggies in it. At this point, add 4 or 5 cubes of chicken bullion to give it a lot of flavor. Let it continue to simmer.

Finally, the chicken. This is chicken noodle soup, after all, isn't it? If you have chicken breast left-over from last night's dinner, chop it up and add it. Or do you have pre-cooked chicken strips (like you might use for salad) in your freezer? Same thing. I didn't have anything ready, so I put two frozen chicken tenders on the Forman Grill and cooked them up right then.

Your soup might look something like the picture above now. I tossed in some Italian Seasoning and a dash of pepper at this point and removed it from the heat so it would cool down a bit so I could eat it.

Congratulations! You've made soup.

Recap of directions:

Cut up one medium onion, put it in a pot

Cut up veggies, add them to the pot

Put a Tablespoon or so of butter in and saute over medium heat until veggies are soft

Add 2 teaspoons of floor, and a Tablespoon of water, stir

Add 2 or 3 cups of water

Boil noodles in a separate pot; drain and add to veggies

Plop in 4 or 5 chicken bullion cubes (or the equivalent amount of bullion powder)

Let it simmer for 15 to 20 minutes

Meanwhile, nuke or grill your chicken and cut into cubes

Toss in some seasonings. Italian is usually a good bet. And maybe a dash of pepper.

Cinnamon Rolls

Last night I got the urge to bake. So I visited All Recipes and did a quick search for cinnamon roll recipes. I ordered them by their ranking, and printed off the first 5 star recipe I found that didn't call for cream-cheese frosting. The recipe was submitted by Julie Sterchi and can be found here.

I put on my apron, rolled up my sleeves, put the first two ingredients in the bowl and then... ran out to buy yeast. Mine was way past its expiration date, and wouldn't proof.

When I got home, new jar of rapid rise yeast in hand, I made up the dough. It was very sticky (there isn't a picture of that, because my hands were completely covered). I am not sure why it was that way, but I did not enjoy kneading it and kept adding flour.

Below is a picture of the dough before its first rise. In the background, Dioji looks a bit bored.

I covered it with cling wrap and put it into the oven. I had heated it to the lowest setting, and then turned it off. I just wanted the dough to have a warm place to rise, so that it would go more quickly. (That trip to the store really put my start time back!)

After the rise:

Rolling out the dough, on the nice mat that my Nana gave me. It actually has inches marked off so I could have rolled it into a 14 in by 10 in rectangle as directed. But it got a little out of hand.

Adding the goodies. For half of the batch I did white sugar, for the second half I used brown sugar like you see below. (The recipe didn't specify.) I followed the suggestions of those who had commented that there should be more cinnamon. I applied it liberally without measuring.

Here it is all rolled up and ready to cut. If you notice by the (empty!) cinnamon container, there is a dental floss. I use this to cut off the individual rolls. You just slide the floss beneath the dough and then pull the two ends together above the dough where you want it cut, and cross them as you slice through the roll with the floss.

Here are the rolls ready for their second rise.

When they came out of the oven:

Here they are with frosting drizzled on top:

So what did I think of this recipe? I thought that they tasted more like doughnuts than cinnamon rolls, which is probably due to the cake mix in the recipe. They are good, and I'm glad I made them, but they weren't my favorite cinnamon rolls ever.

So... who out there has a recipe for cinnamon rolls that they really like? I'm looking to try another one. Leave me a comment with the recipe or a link, k?

Hearty Spaghetti Sauce

You may have noticed from yesterday's bento that my spaghetti looked more like a Sloppy Joe on noodles. That is the way we like it around here, and in case you're a meat-lover too, I thought I would share how we make our sauce. There is nothing from scratch about it... but it sure is good!

1. Brown 1 lb lean ground beef in a pot; drain off fat
2. Add a 16 ounce can of tomato sauce & half a can of water
3. Stir in a packet of Lawry's original style spaghetti sauce spices and seasonings
4. Add sliced black olives, if desired, and heat it till it just starts bubbling
5. Reduce heat to low and let it simmer for a bit
6. Serve over pasta

Incidentally, these are the types of "recipes" I looked for most when I first started cooking. No one uses a recipe for spaghetti sauce, baked potatoes or boiled eggs. "But how hot is the oven?" or "How long do I boil them?" I wondered. Thank goodness for the internet.

Speedy Bento

Bento #40 is a speed bento using left-overs from last night's dinner. I spent a grand total of 4 minutes this morning on it! (I had portioned off the spaghetti last night after dinner.)

It contains:

• Spaghetti
• Sour dough bread (acting as a divider)
• Honey Crisp apple slices

This bento was packed in a Gladware container so that I can remove the apples and heat up my spaghetti. Should be tasty!

The bento formally known as frozen

Bento #39 was hot! (By which I mean I microwaved it right before eating.) And a good thing, too... because it has been really cold in the cafeteria lately at the middle school I work at.

This bento contains:

• 5 fresh tomatoes picked from my garden this morning (Can I just say again how astonished I am to be picking tomatoes in the morning, and watching it snow in the evening! What a crazy November this is.)
• A frozen Boca pattie with carrot peelings on top for decoration
• frozen corn
• frozen stir-fry vegetables
• maple chipotle grille sauce (hidden beneath the Boca burger)

I was thinking to myself as I ate my lunch today, that I had packed a bento even my vegan friends could enjoy. Being something of a carnivore myself, I found this worthy of comment.

Thanks for reading!

Bunny Bento

"What is that?" one of the boys from the table next to me in the cafeteria asked, watching, with furrowed brows as I raised the chopsticks to my mouth.

"What?" I glanced up to see a handful of pre-teen boys looking at me.

"That purple stuff... what is it?"

"Garlic mashed potatoes." I answered, as if it was the most normal thing in the world to be eating potatoes the hue of my utensils in the center of a middle school cafeteria.


I'm beginning to think that I may be developing an unhealthy bento obsession. I was almost late today because I felt I should add whiskers to my lunch bunny. I literally looked at the clock and thought, "It would be okay to be a little late... Wait, what am I thinking? I can make another bunny (with whiskers) some other day; I better get going!"

So here is a close-up of my bunny, sans whiskers:

Contents of bento #38:

• 3 rice onigiri hand formed into head and two ears.
• Nori eyes and nose
• "Hot Shot" seasoning mouth
• Garlic mashed potatoes tinted purple
• carrot made of, um... carrot
• carrot stem made of broccoli
• 3 ham slices, skewered on a toothpick

I have entered this bento in Feisty Bento's contest: Does this make my lunch look phat?

Easy as pie?

My husband loves desserts. Specifically, he really loves chocolate cream pies. This Thanksgiving, he talked me into attempting to make one without milk (since I had never tried one before developing my milk alergy - and he felt I was really missing out).

I wasn't at all sure that it would work, so I made him agree to make the pie with me. He was game. So I first Googled cooking with soy, and found that a certain site suggested that I add 1/4 cup corn starch to my pudding filling so that it would set up. (Those of you cooks reading this, are probably already guessing this didn't work too well... but let me tell the story anyway...)


First we started by making a home-made graham-cracker crust. It was easy and fun. We took a package and a half out of our box of Honey Maid graham crackers and put them in a zip-lock bag for the karate chop. (Then we finished the job with a rolling pin.) I was afraid it might have been crushed too much - it looked like graham dust - but it worked just fine. Then we added the crumbles to about a stick of melted margerine in a bowl. I sprinkled in somewhere between a 1/3 and 1/2 cup of white sugar into the mixture. Then we pressed it with a spatula into the pie pan and put it in the fridge.


The next day, we cooked the pudding with soy milk. But instead of the 3 cups that were called for, we only used about 2 - because the website we'd looked at told us to "reduce the liquid" when using soy. And in went 1/4 cup of corn starch to make sure it would thicken. Boy did it ever! The stuff was like taffy before we could even get it to boil.



We were a bit concerned at the consistency, and added maybe another 1/4 cup of soy. We stirred it in and removed the globby mixture from the heat. We pressed it into the pan on top of the crust, using cling wrap on to so we could knead it into where it was supposed to go. We hoped it would relax, but there were still "peaks" on top when I pulled it out of the fridge the next morning to add the Cool Whip.


The pie looked fine, and we took it anyway. Though there was tremendous laughter from our friends when we explained what had happened, and they saw the chocolate pie standing up on its own and being so firm, everyone agreed it tasted just fine. There was none left when we returned home.

However, for next time, we will know to use the called for amount of (soy) milk and after it has boiled to add a small amount of corn starch. (Like maybe a Tablespoon.)

Monday Bento

Bento #37 lacks color, but was very tasty.


On the left is the insides of my left-over chicken wrap from Red Robin. It has chicken, lettus and tortilla strips in it. On the right I made little finger sandwiches out of tasty sourdough bread and turkey. In the right-hand corner we have dessert: three tiny squares of Rice Krispie treats and a few semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Visiteurs bienvenus ! (Translation Available)

I noticed that French Bento has added me to their blog roll. (Thanks again, by the way.) Since this blog is originally written in French, I decided to add the option for translation to my own blog for any visitors who happen by using her link.

Hopefully this automated translation will suffice, as I speak absolutely no French.

Appréciez !

Turkey Bento

Ironically, bento #36 does not contain any turkey meat.


On the left I have pot roast forming the turkey's neck and head. Coriander is his eye. Nori is used for his little pilgrim hat and the letters. Tomato for the gobbler, and carrot for the beak. On the right I have pork chop skewers with pineapple and apple.

Happy Thanksgiving! (I'm celebrating a bit early since this will be my last packed lunch before then.)

Sunny Day Bento

Bento #35 actually got planned out last night in advance. I guess it must be wishful thinking as the dark, wet, cold winter sets in for me to doodle and create a summery bento. Here is the blueprint for today's bento:


And here is the final product:


On the left I have a bed of pearl rice that I cooked up this morning. The grass is made of steamed brocholi (steamed slightly too long, I'm afraid). The sun is made of carrot shavings. The stems are tiny peices of celery. The roses are made of tomatoes that I picked from my garden this morning.

For the record, I don't suggest that you try to craft any shape out of tomato. They are a very difficult and unforgiving medium.

On the right side of the divider are porkchop cubes and pineapple skewered onto toothpicks. Below that are some slices of apple.

Again, if you've never had pineapple pork chops, you should really check out this post which has step-by-step photos to go with the recipe.

Breathtaking Bento

Are you ready to be amazed? Here come some georgeous bentos created by people more talented and experienced than me:


This Octopus bento is posted on Flickr by Los Dragónnes. Click here to see more of his impressive bentos.





These four bentos were created by Sakurako Kitsa. Need to see more? Click here and you can.

These are the images that keep sending me back to the kitchen, dreaming of creating my own food art. Bear with me as my skills improve, k?

(A BIG thank you to Los Dragónnes and Sakurako Kitsa for letting me use their photos!)

i can haz bento?

Bento #34 needs a little explanation. The ingredients are easy... a left-over porkc hop and some pineapple rice. On top sits my first shape (other than faces) that I have hand cut out of nori. It is supposed to be a cat. A "lolcat" to be precise. What is a lolcat, you ask? Here's an example:


For more silly pictures of kitties speaking really poor (if somewhat cute) English go to icanhascheezburger.com

(Please be warned that some of the captions are inappropriate - others are very cute and entertaining.)

Colorful Rice

Bento #33 is my first attempt at tinting my rice a different hue. I used food coloring - the kind that comes in a paste form, and put it in with my Minute rice in the microwave. I was very happy with the way it turned out!


In the center of my rice is a plain heart-shaped onigiri. On top swim some carrot fish in honor of our class going swimming today. In the little container I have banana sushi, ham bundles, and steamed broccholi.

Back in the Box

Hey! Bento #32 even made it into an actual bento box! We may be heading in the right direction here...


On the left is a PB&J cut into the shape of a star surrounded by almonds and wheat thins. On the right are more tomatoes and some slices of ham.

Fetch!

Bento #31 has a little dog onigiri chasing three red tomatoes from my (can you believe this?) garden. We'll see if they taste frostbitten!


The pup is running across a field of Boca & parsley (with nori flowers). On the left is a broccoli tree. Beneath the burger is corn and some BBQ sauce.

Thanks for stopping by to see me playing with my food!

Would you like some rice?

There are many people in this world that are starving, and would love a free bowl of rice. That is what the site Free Rice is all about.


I read about it this morning on another bento blog. She calls it "an amazing initiative to end both world hunger and secondary illiteracy."

I would encourage you to go, play the game and test your vocabulary skills... you will learn new words... and they will donate free rice to those who are hungry.

Let me know what you think!

Couple of Bentos

The first bento I want to share is one that my husband made for me. (I don't think he was going all out to make it bento-ish, but this was what he made me for dinner while he was away working - and since it was in a container... I'm posting it.) Chicken tenders a la Forman Grill, and Minute Rice. It was simple and tasty!


The next bento it what I took to work yesterday. (Only I cheated and took the banana out so my sandwich wouldn't absorb the taste!) Bento #30 has a bananna, some salted almonds mixed with semi-sweet chocolate chips, and a ham sandwich topped with teddybear nori punch outs.


The teddybears are in honor of my friend Rebecca, who practically crocheted a teddybear before my very eyes when she and her husband were over to play games last week. I thought that was pretty cool!

Anyway, have a good day all. Thanks for reading!

Bento #29

My lunch today included a stuffed onigiri with a nori face, some steamed broccoli, salted almonds, ham rolls, tortilla chips, and brownies topped with powdered sugar.

I'll call it "bento"

It may look like a salad to you, but for the purpose of easing back into my bento routine, I'm going to call this bento #28:


Filled with dark greens, covered with poppyseed dressing and topped with carrot, pinenuts and sunflower seeds... this salad is sure to be a winner come lunch time. I will supplement it with an apple, a handful of almonds, and for dessert I will have a brownie.

Here's hoping tomorrow's bento is slightly more impressive!

In other food news, Bryan BBQed for us and our guests last night. The weather was so nice we just couldn't resist. Pre-marinated teriaki chicken and pineapple kabobs hit the grill. But we lost our daylight and Bryan finished up with a flashlight checking to see if they were done. They were super tasty, though!

Potato Soup Recipe

Today's lunch is not spectacular in the way of bento (in fact, I'm not even counting it as such) but it is great in that it is a very tasty and easy to make soup. It seems creamy, but has no milk in it. Ah yes, potato soup. You have to understand that while the un-heated leftovers may look a bit like mashed potatoes, the real deal fresh out of the pot is a much soupier consistency.


I got this recipe from my friend Megan, who got if from her mom, who found it in the More-with-Less Cookbook.

Here's the recipe:

Combine in saucepan:
4 medium potaotes, peeled and diced
1 onion, sliced
1 tsp salt
dash of pepper
3 cups of water

Cook until tender. (Note: Smaller potaot pieces cook fore quickly but result in a smoother soup. For chunkier "hearty" soup, use larger potato pieces and just cook longer.)

In second saucepan:
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour

Allow butter & flour to brown, while stirring. Then add it into the potato mixture and broth will thicken.

Remove from heat, remove lid and let it cool for about 10 minutes.
Add sausage or ham if desired. (I use sausage and microwave bite-sized pieces to add to the soup while it is cooling a bit.)
Garnish with parsley before serving.



That's it! If you get around to trying it, comment and let me know what you think, k?

And... I'm back!

Well, I hope I haven't completely lost all of my readers... I realize I haven't posted since Hobson's opened. But now that the show has closed, I will have more time to blog. The picture above is of Bryan and I backstage during the run of the show.

And here are a couple pictures from this Halloween... me as a pixie, and Dioji as a little devil.



Stay tuned - I intend to post a delicious potato soup recipe next!