Soupy Saturday

We are all sick again. I still have this cough way down deep in my chest and while it is getting better, it just won't go away. Sadly, my son and my husband have both caught my cold over the past 48 hours. My poor baby was up coughing a lot last night and now has a runny nose again. My husband decided he was going to work some overtime this week and now he's got an eleven hour work day (on the phone), a cough, and a slowly vanishing voice. What to do?

I decided that it was time to make another big pot of chicken noodle soup. I really have no recipe, just a general knowledge of how to put it all together to make a nice big put of soup.

I started out with a whole chicken t that I bought this morning for $3.89. I put the chicken into a giant pot of water. I added a bag of baby carrots (which I cut up into smaller pieces), 4 stalks of celery, and 4 very small onions. I added a little bit of parsley, 3 whole garlic cloves (because a little bird keeps telling me how much they help when you are sick), a dash of salt and pepper, and a dash of celery salt.

I let all of that cook for about 45 minutes. Then, I added a bag of egg noodles and let that all cook for another 10 minutes.

Yesterday, I went to the Breadworks on the North Side. I picked up 6 Baby Tuscan's, because they were 3 for $1. I thought they would make great bread bowls. I cut out a hole at the top of my bread and stuck my soup inside.

This was a nice treat for me and for my throat!

Awesome Cauliflower Cheese Soup!

If you need a new soup recipe, I have one for you!

Surbrina, one of my playgroup moms, made this for her daughter's birthday. It was amazing! I had to have it! I finally decided to make it today. This comes from RecipeSource.co



Here it is....


Title: CAULIFLOWER CHEESE SOUP
Categories: Soups
Yield: 3 servings

1 md Cauliflower
2 c Chicken stock
1/4 c Butter or margarine
1/4 c Chopped onion
1/4 c All-purpose flour
1/2 ts Salt
1/8 ts Pepper
2 c Milk
1 c Grated medium Cheddar cheese
Buttered bread crumbs for
Garnish
Parsley

Cook cauliflower in chicken stock until tender. Do not
drain. Cool a bit. Run through blender to desired
texture. Set aside.

Melt butter in saucepan. Add onion and saute until
limp. Do not brown.

Mix in flour, salt and pepper. Add milk. Heat and stir
until it boils and thickens.

Add cheese and cauliflower mixture. Stir to heat and
melt cheese. Garnish with buttered bread crumbs.
Makes 5 cups.

From: “Company’s Coming Soups & Sandwiches” by Jean
Pare. Copyright 1987. Published and Distributed by
Company’s Coming, Box 8037, Sta F, Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada T6H 4N9.

Submitted by Joe Sibley.

Here are a couple things that I did.
1. I guess my choice of cauliflower was too big, because I cut it all up and there was going to be a lot not covered by chicken stock. I ended up doubling the entire recipe so that it would hopefully make up for the extra cauliflower. It worked!
2. I did not have actual chicken stock, so I made it with some water and chicken flavored cubes. It was a one cube to one cup ratio.
3. I didn't have the specific cheddar listed and ended up substituting with the cheddar-jack blend that I did have on hand.
4. I didn't mess with any bread crumb garnishes, but I did put a little crescent roll on the side to eat with this soup.


All in all...AWESOME!!!

Barnyard Door Eggs

When my brother and I were little, we loved "dippy eggs". At some point, my Dad introduced us to "Barnyard Doors". This egg is so easy to make, but it is well loved by kids.

Cut a hole that is about the size of a yolk in your bread and place bread in your nonstick frying pan. Your circle does not have to be perfect. I like to leave the part that I took out in the pan so that it can be toasted for dipping when the eggs are done cooking.


Next, break the egg so that it ends up in the center of the bread hole. Fry it on both sides.


That's all! It should only take about 5 minutes to make!


This is my son enjoying his dippy eggs.

My Whole Wheat Banana Bread that is always a huge hit.

I found this recipe at www.pinchmysalt.wordpress.com back in the Summer of '09. I was making a lot of different breads at the time and decided to give this one a try.

When I make this, sometimes I will make small loaf of bread and then also make muffins or mini muffins. I tend to think that it is easier to determine how much is appropriate to eat when I can count just how many muffins have left the pan!

What you will need:
1 stick of butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 c (2-3) mashed bananas....I always use more!
1 tsp vanilla
2 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c chopped walnuts (I always skip this one)

*Preheat oven to 350
*Grease pan or pans
*In large bowl, cream butter and sugar
*Add eggs, bananas, vanilla and beat well
*In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt
*Stir liquid mixture into dry (add nuts here if you are using them)
*Pour into 9x5 loaf and/or muffin pan or mini muffin pan

For the 9x5 loaf, bake for about 60 minutes.
For the regular sized muffin pan, bake for about 10 minutes and check.
For the mini muffins, bake for about 7 minutes and check.

The best kept secret at Christmas!

Last Thursday night was a late night! I was up until around 2am just trying to make sure that everything will be in order for Matthew's party on Saturday. I did manage to get a lot done. I made 5 dozen chocolate chip cookies, baked, cooled, and dirty iced his cake (then froze until Friday when I will decorate), baked some chocolate brittle, and even managed to do a couple of dishes!

While I was getting of that done, I was thinking that it is time to give away one of my favorite family recipes. Many know of the Chocolate Brittle that my Mom makes, but few people know just how easy it is to make! Here it is!

****One thing about this recipe, I've seen people make this and have it come out very sticky and almost wet. After having made it in an apartment that had a tiny size stove and having the recipe flop, I think that the size that pan is VERY important. I counted the number of saltines that we put on the pan at my Mom's one year and there were 72. I have been able to cut the recipe to fit my own pan that holds only 56 crackers. What you have here is the 72 cracker "original" version.

You will need
(72*see note above) Two rows of saltines
Two sticks of butter
1 cup of brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
12 oz bag of chocolate chips


*Preheat oven to 375.
*I suggest some Pam on your cookie sheet!
*Cover cookie sheet with 72 saltines
*Bring to a boil butter and brown sugar
*Remove from heat and add baking soda (if I ever forget a step, it is this one)
*Pour mixture over crackers
*Bake on 375 for EXACTLY 10 minutes (if you cut the recipe, you might check on this around 8 minutes to make sure that it isn't burning)
*Remove from oven and spread 12 oz bag of chocolate chips (optional add crushed nuts or coconut on top of chocolate)
*Put in freezer until chocolate is set up.
*Break into pieces

That's it! If you want to make this a week ahead of time, that's fine. You can keep it in the freezer until you need it.


This is what it will look like when it is done. This is not my personal brittle, but a picture that I found that I thought looked most like mine when it is finished.

Potato Candy!!

I was first introduced to Potato Candy while living in Virginia. One of the teachers made it and I said "Wow, this fudge is really great! How do you make it?" I ended up learning about the easiest to make candy recipe EVER!

Over the past few years, I guess I forgot about it. Something made me think of it recently and I looked up the recipe online. I was even easier than I remembered!!!

Here's some instructions to get you started!

What you need:
small-medium (think size of your fist as small) potato
1-3 pounds of powered sugar
Peanut butter (the amount can vary depending on how much you like peanut butter. If you have half a jar you are better than good)


First, peel, cut, and boil your potatoes as though you are making mashed potatoes. After they have boiled to the point of being soft, put them in a large bowl and start mashing. You do not need to at milk or butter.


Next, you start adding your powered sugar. I added about a cup at a time, but I eyeballed it and then stirred until it was well mixed. When you first start mixing, it is going to look very wet. As you continue it will turn to almost frosting, then pancake batter. Eventually, you will get to the point where it will be stiff and you are able to shape the mixture into balls. That's how you know you are done. For me, I used an obscenely large Costco potato, because I didn't want to see it go bad. Because of the size, I ended up needing about three pounds of powdered sugar to make this recipe! If you use a bigger potato, please remember to use a bigger bowl. I was seriously contemplating moving my mixture into a bigger bowl so that it didn't overflow. Luckily, it didn't.


Here, the mixture is finally starting to set.



After you get your mixture to the point where it is "moldable" you will take it out of the bowl (yoy may need to do this in chucks if you have a ton of it like I did!). Put some down on a baker's mat with some powdered sugar and roll it out flat. Spread the peanut butter, in whatever thickness you prefer, over the mixture and roll it up like a jelly roll.



Sadly, I did not remember to take a final product picture. Sorry about that.


I would suggest cutting off the ends to make it look a little more pretty, but from my experience, if someone knows what this stuff is, they don't really care how it looks....they just want a piece!

All in all, this took about 40 minutes of my time.

20 minutes to peel, cut, and boil the potato
10 to add the sugar and get it thick
10 to get it rolled out flat and then rolled up to the finished product

I am currently freezing a large roll for this weekend. As I hear that it freezes well. I will let you know!