Soup for you!

In honor or the summer cold that we've been passing around, today's post will be about THE chicken soup recipe. The basics of this soup were passed from my grandmother to my mom, then to me. That makes it special to me. I've played with ingredients just a little, because I can't leave anything alone, but this is it. Really simple and wonderful.

There are two parts to making really good chicken soup. Please read the recipe all the way through for ingredients, as they are listed as you need them. Here's how you start:

Place the following ingredients in a big pot, 8 quart sized is fine.
2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts (frozen is okay for this)
2 cloves garlic, with the skin, coarsely chopped
a handful of celery leaves or tops (the stuff you usually throw away)
half an onion, very coarsely chopped, including the skins, so wash them first
fresh parsley, rinsed but whole, with the stems
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. peppercorns
1 gallon of water

Bring to a boil, partially covered, then lower the heat and simmer for an hour, longer if you are starting with frozen chicken. Check the chicken to make sure that it is thoroughly cooked and tender enough to shred easily. Remove the chicken and veggies and set aside. Strain the soup through a very fine metal strainer into a large enough container to hold the soup. Even a big bowl works, if that's what you have. The stock should be really clear. Right now you have lovely, flavorful chicken stock, with no added sodium and miles better than anything you can buy at the store. You could let it cool and freeze it for later use in your favorite recipes. We aren't stopping here today.

Wipe out the pot you started the soup in. Scrub the white filminess off and rinse well. Return the chicken broth to the pot. To it you will add:

1 lb. carrots, peeled and sliced
5 stalks celery, sliced
2 cups chunky - shredded chicken (that you boiled earlier)

Bring to a boil and simmer just until the carrots and celery are tender (about 20 minutes), then add

1/2 c. chopped parsley leaves (no stems please and I use curly for this)
salt and lots of pepper to taste

Serve over egg noodles that are just barely cooked.I cook about a pound, drain them and set aside to be added to the soup by the bowl. Whatever you do, never, ever cook your noodles in this soup. It will turn it starchy and unpleasant the next day. Please don't. This soup is special because of the richly flavored, clear broth. That should carry over even once you've added noodles.

A quick note: There are some that will tell you that you can't possibly make good stock without using chicken with bones. I disagree, and by adding flavorful ingredients along with the chicken, you give the stock a nice depth of flavor without messy bones and extra fat. You will probably have almost 2 cups leftover shredded cooked chicken after making the stock. I'm sure that you'll figure out what to do with it, but if you'd like, pop it into the freezer, we are going to be making chicken enchiladas soon.

Review from right around the corner

So either I'm late to the party or none of my local friends are sharing their secret with me. This weekend, while out with a friend, we ventured into the Latinos Supermarket, right down the street. I stopped there once, years ago to buy a jicama for the cooking class that I once taught, but this store has changed dramatically and is quite an experience now. This store gives you a little taste of being somewhere exotic. It was a lot of fun.

The first thing that I noticed when I walked in the door is a beauty salon. A small one, with adorable ladies getting their weekly set. They also have an on site jewelry repair booth, which is somewhat open, so you can watch the jeweler at work. There was also large booth with cell phones for sale. Those were all unexpected in what I thought was just a Latin American Grocery store. The produce department was so striking and beautiful. There were fruit and vegetables that I had never heard of before with names like Panapen (bread fruit). They had a full service meat counter, and their meat was cut meticulously. They had cuts of meat that are a little more difficult to find cut properly, like beef short ribs. Watch for a recipe soon.

The aisles of the store were fun to walk, just to look at all the different products. I brought several home to try, just because they looked interesting. Coconut wafer cookies, Cilantro flavored bouillon cubes, Chipotle Mojo marinade (the chipotle part was different), and chocolate. The chocolate was really interesting, and from the Dominican Republic. It wasn't like the chocolate I was accustomed to, it crumbled when I chopped it. Because it had a steamy cup on the box, I figured it must be used to make hot chocolate. Half a chopped little bar went into my coffee instead. It didn't make it noticeably sweet ( I still added my usual creamer and sweetener) but it did give my coffee a lovely, warm chocolate flavor. That was a fun to try.

The biggest surprise at the Latinos Supermarket was their cafeteria. They have a large selection of beautiful food as well as a sandwich counter. There were lots and lots of roast meats, rice, vegetables and seafood. The entire place smelled like heaven. The workers could be seen in the area just behind the prepared food, chopping fresh fruit and vegetables as well as cooking the food.

My husband and I went back for our weekly lunch date to give their food a try. We split a pressed Cuban sandwich and the most fresh and lovely tomato and avocado salad. With two bottles of tea, that set us back less than 10.00. Honestly, this wasn't my favorite Cuban sandwich ever, but it was good and contained all the right ingredients. The salad was fabulous, in a light vinegar dressing with onions and spices. That was a find for sure and worth the trip all by itself. I also tried their homemade spicy garlicky hot sauce. Loved it.

We were there for a late lunch but there was a steady flow of customers both eating there and carrying their food out. Some of items in the cafeteria are sold by the pound, others by the plate.

Right before we left, we checked our the really good selection of kitchenware that they had in stock, right off the cafeteria. Kitchenware is my shopping weakness, and I could have spent a really long time checking it all out. Just another excuse to go back.

Latinos Supermarket is located at 131 S.Mt Carmel Rd., just off S.R. 60 in Brandon, FL. My local friends, you must visit soon. Go when you have a little time to wander. Bring your kids and explore a store full of interesting things from other countries. Please leave me a comment if you've visited a Latin American market before or if you have a favorite product that you think I should try.

Simple and easy

Sweet tea is something simple that makes my family really happy. I routinely get phone calls when people are headed home, just to check and see if there is tea made. Water, tea bags and sugar, sweet tea should have been really easy for me to figure out how to make. It took this Northern girl a long time to get it right. I didn't know that you can't just stir sugar into a pitcher of tea and expect it to work. It's about the timing. My husband's granny finally showed me the way. She uses a pot on the stove, but we do it in the microwave and use just a touch less sugar. Here's our standard family "recipe" if you want to call it that.

To make a gallon of tea, you start with 2 quarts of boiling hot water. We do this in the microwave, it takes about 3 and a half minutes. Add 8 standard tea bags (we like Lipton or Tetley) and let it steep for 20 minutes or so (you are making it double strength, so it needs to be dark). Do NOT squeeze out those tea bags or your tea will be bitter. Stir in 1 cup of sugar until dissolved. Fill a gallon sized pitcher half way full with cool water, then add the tea that you've made and stir. That's it. Perfect sweet tea.

One of my most simple and most requested recipes is for the easiest of re fried beans. Honestly, the recipe has evolved over time and we use the beans in several ways. Lately, we've been eating them right out of the pot with cornbread for a lazy dinner. They still remain the very best unfried re fried beans that we've ever had. Please don't be afraid of dry beans. This recipe doesn't require soaking and you're going to be using your crock pot.

Re fried beans
2 lbs. dry pinto beans
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
13 cups water
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. Chipotle chili pepper
1 tsp. ground cumin

Rinse and sort the beans. You are looking for little bits of mud or funky shaped or oddly colored beans. Pintos can have quite a few of these, depending on where you get them. Aldi's dry pinto beans are quite lovely and very inexpensive. Once you've checked through your beans, add them along with the onion, garlic, bay leaves and water to your crock pot. Cook on low for 8 hours, checking a couple of times just to make sure that they don't get too dry. Depending on your crock pot, you may have to add an extra cup of water, but not too much. If you are uncertain, err on the side of too wet the first time you make this recipe.

At the end of 8 hours, the beans should be soft enough to smash easily against the side of the crock pot with a fork. If not, let them go another hour and check them again. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Your beans are ready to eat right now, just as they are with some fluffy rice or cornbread or both. You can also freeze these cooked beans, whole, in 2c. portions, to use in recipes that call for a can of pinto beans. The difference is, you have dramatically lower sodium compared to canned beans and they are much tastier. Use a slotted spoon to fill up your food processor with the beans, and pulse until smooth. You could use a blender, too, if that's what you have, just fill the blender only about half full or you might have a mess. The beans will set up just a little as they cool, but if your smashed beans seem too dry, add a little of the liquid from your crock pot. There are your unfried re fried beans. Vegetarian and fat free deliciousness.

Taste the beans once you've finished to adjust the seasoning if you like. Frankly, we like them well enough at this point give them a little sprinkle of cheese and call it bean dip. Allow your beans to cool, then freeze in whatever sized portion works for you. This recipe yielded four 2 cup portions of re fried beans and two 2 cup portions of whole pinto beans. Please try this recipe. You will never go back to the can.

Since my front porch looks like this.....

That only means that this is the busiest time of year for my family. My husband is a high school football coach and I am his right hand man. These Fridays are the best, but it takes a lot of work the rest of the week to make it all happen. This week will be extra special busy for me, so in order to keep it all together, my crock pots, rice cooker and grill were all very busy this weekend. That's why my kitchen looked like this....

The good news is that it will take very little effort to put dinner on the table this week. Most of the work and cleanup are already done. Here's our menu for the week:

Monday - Shepherd's pie and tossed salad
Tuesday - Chicken fried rice
Wednesday - Chicken and bean quesadillas
Thursday - BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, corn and cinnamon apples
Friday - Dinner out with the team
Saturday - Pasta with chicken, bacon and peas
Sunday - Grilled Buffalo chicken, Jalapeno Popper dip, potato skins and veggies (football watching food)

The BBQ pulled pork is from my favorite pork crock pot recipe that isn't really a recipe. Costco sells large pork loins at a great price, that's where I get mine.

Pork loin (7-8 lbs)
one medium onion, chopped
20 oz can pineapple tidbits in juice
1 clove garlic, minced

Place your pork loin in your crock pot. Depending on what type of crock pot you have, either cut it into a few big pieces or wrap it around the inside. That's what I do. Dump the other ingredients on top, and let it go, on low, for about 8 hours. After it cools, remove any visible fat and shred the pork. Usually, I shred it all into a 13x9" pan, then using a slotted spoon remove the pineapple and onions from the crock pot and add to the meat.

At this point, you could stir in BBQ sauce of your choice and divide it into 5 freezer bags for sandwiches. I like to remove 2 cups of the pork and stir in a little soy sauce, brown sugar and garlic powder before I freeze and label it to add to a stir fry. If you freeze the shredded pork flat in quart sized freezer bags, it thaws pretty quickly and is a great stand by if you need something really quick. It's like making your own fast food, just add a bag of burger buns and a vegetable. Cook once, eat five times. That's how we get through Football season here.

Midnight at my house

There are really nice things about the fact that my husband works from home. We have a weekly lunch date, his commute is about ten steps each way, and I genuinely enjoy his company. Sometimes, there are emergency conference calls with people in different time zones that stretch into the wee hours. Last night was one of those nights for him. Cleaning and dusting the dining room sounded like something quiet and productive for me to do, but I noticed that there was a spiderweb going across the top of my china hutch. That gave me an idea. More spiderwebs!

I stretched a branch across the typical decorations that are on top of the hutch. Then I followed with some fake spiderweb. It looked pretty good, but it needed something so I tucked in a purple and orange string of lights, which gave the web a creepy glow. This is our eighth Halloween in our house, and I still love finding new ways to decorate. When everything is decorated, I will post more photos. Today, I found this year's addition to the Frankenstein collection. He is sitting on top of a place mat, which is sitting on top of a black rug that was on ridiculous clearance at Target today. I love using woven rugs as table runners. He is perfect for the dining room table, made of metal so the cats can't destroy him and his candy bowl head is full of Tootsie Pops.

About the time the decorating was done my good intentions of cleaning that room went down hill. There was Tuesday night's episode of Parenthood to be watched, followed by an online shopping expedition to look for the cute stacking coffee mugs that are on the counter in Adam and Kristina's fictional kitchen. Then the laundry started calling my name. At almost 2:30 am I let myself nod off on the sofa only to dream that there was a Chupacabra in the laundry room. That meant two things. Maybe I should lay off the Scyfy channel and it's probably time to clean out the laundry room. For now, I'm going to enjoy a cup of coffee in my adorable (undusted) dining room.

Fancy Stuffed Bread

Sometimes it's all about illusion in the kitchen. Very, very simple things can look spectacular and give the appearance that you are an extremely experienced cook when the reality might be quite different. Remember that commercial for Rice Krispie when the mom throws some flour on her face and makes her family think she slaved over that pan of marshmallowy treats? That's pretty much the story of the stuffed bread.

You can either make some really quick pizza dough, or buy a loaf of frozen dough and let it thaw for this recipe. Better yet, see yesterday's post and use some dough straight out of your fridge. Cover your kitchen counter with plastic wrap. Wet the counter just a little first so that the plastic wrap sticks to it, but stays dry on top. Roll out the dough into a rectangle, not too thin. Mentally divide that rectangle of dough into thirds, lengthwise. Put your filling in the center.

About the filling. When I make stuffed bread for breakfast, I use 6 eggs, scrambled, 4 slices of bacon, crumbled, some fresh parsley, a cup or so of shredded cheese and lots of pepper and salt. I cook the eggs and bacon the night before most of the time. Veggies are nice too, but they need to sweat it out first, otherwise your bread will be too wet. After you've put your filling of choice down the center of the dough, you're going to cut the outer thirds of the dough in strips, about an inch wide, trying to have a similar amount of strips on each side. It doesn't have to be perfect.

Starting at one end, start overlapping the dough strips over each other, alternating strips and pressing down a bit to make sure that the filling is nicely tucked in. When you get to the end, do your best to tuck the ends in and make it look cute. If you don't have an even number of strips, just fake it. Everyone will be impressed with your pretty braided bread, they won't notice. Make sure that both ends are pressed closed. Spray a large baking sheet or stone with oil spray and shape the bread into a loose half circle on the pan. Be careful while you are transferring it, but if you lose some filling, just tuck it back in. This is pretty forgiving, really. Brush the top of the bread with some milk and sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper, to make it look pretty. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until it's nice and golden brown. Remove and cool on a wire rack. Do not cover it while it's warm or your bread will turn soft from the condensation while it cools. You'll be sorry. Make sure you serve it whole with a little knife so that everyone can see how pretty your stuffed bread is.

So there are endless fillings that you can stuff this bread with. Here are a few of my favorites:

Grilled chicken (2 c.)tossed with Buffalo sauce, chopped celery and onion, shredded cheddar and crumbled blue cheese. Football party fabulous.

Mashed potatoes topped with sliced turkey and spread with a little cranberry sauce. Serve with warm gravy. Weird and wonderful.

Sauerkraut, rinsed, drained and squeezed dry, cooked with onions and layered with kielbasa. Spread the dough with a little spicy mustard first. You'll love it.

Really, you can't go wrong. Use whatever you love as a filling. Have fun in your kitchen.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day? Oh Yes!

A few months ago, my friend Beth turned me on to the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I was so excited by the concept after watching this video on Youtube that I ordered the book right away.



After I made our first batch, using the recipe from the video, my family was hooked. They love the fresh, hot bread and I love the simplicity. Jeff and Zoe's method and recipe produced a delightful loaf that was crusty outside and soft inside, our favorite. After my book arrived I began experimenting more. So far the European Peasant Bread in the book is my favorite. There are so many other variations in the book, but I can't seem to get past the European Peasant because we love it so much. In our last batch, I doubled the rye and wheat flours and cut back on the white flour with good result.

I confess that I use an empty ice cream bucket to make and store the dough in the fridge. It also doesn't get washed between batches because it develops a little sour dough effect from the bits of dry dough that get stirred in. That's another interesting thing about this recipe. After the dough sits in the fridge for a few days, the flavor does change just a bit, making it a little like sourdough. We like that. A plate sprinkled with cornmeal works just fine if you don't have a wooden peel. Just use a spatula to transfer to your preheated stone. The bread dough also makes really wonderful pizza with a nice, chewy consistency. Cinnamon rolls would probably turn out nicely too.

If you've never baked bread before, or you think you don't have enough time, or you're tired of bread that needs lots of kneading and time to rise, this book is for you.