Mom's Chicken Soup...Keep Those Spring Colds Away!

     One of the first recipes I posted when I started this blog was good old chicken soup. Considering that no one was actually reading my blog back then, I've decided to post it again. It is perfect for this time of year as the temperatures change 20 or 30 degrees from day to day and many of us end up with colds and allergies. I believe in the healing powers of homemade chicken soup! 

     The first thing to know about cooking with chicken is to be very careful with sanitation. Rinse the chicken in cold water before cooking it. Wash your hands and all surfaces that come in contact with raw chicken with hot, soapy water and/or a product made for kitchen clean-up.

     For this soup you can use whatever form of chicken you want. You can buy a whole chicken and cut it into pieces (I don’t think it is worth the effort), frozen bags of boneless breasts, or assorted fresh chicken pieces from the meat case. I like to use a whole chicken already cut in pieces. The skin gives the broth more flavor than the boneless, skinless bagged pieces. I generally cook the gizzard, liver, heart and back in a small pan of water and give it to my dog. Some people actually eat those parts. We don’t.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, cut in pieces. Do not use liver, gizzard, or heart for soup.

1 cup chopped carrots (baby carrots or whole carrots peeled)

1 cup chopped celery

2 tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

2 bay leaves

15 cups water (I have a big pot)

7 oz. dry egg noodles (I try to buy the most homemade looking I can find)

     Rinse the chicken and place in large pot. If you are cooking for one or two people, and don’t have a large pot, just use one or two pieces of chicken and cover it with water. You will need to cut down the other ingredients as well, including the salt. You really can’t mess this up. Cover the chicken with the 15 cups of water, add the carrots, celery, salt, pepper and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer and let cook for about 2 hours until the chicken is very tender. Remove the chicken from the pot to cool. Remove the bay leaves.

     At this point in the process, I remove 5 cups of the broth and put it in a freezer container. Let it cool, and freeze it. You will be very glad to have it on a different night. Bring the remaining broth back to a boil, and stir in the noodles. Reduce to simmer and cover. The package should give you the amount of time for your particular noodles to cook (mine took 20 minutes). While the noodles are cooking, remove the chicken from the bones and skin. Cut or shred into bite size pieces. Measure 2 cups of chicken and add to the cooked noodles and broth. Add salt and pepper as needed. The remaining chicken can be placed in freezer bags and frozen, or you may refrigerate it for sandwiches the next day.

     At a later date you can thaw the frozen broth, add the frozen chicken and simply place in a pan and bring to a simmer. Add a handful of rice, pasta or noodles and you have a second meal.

     *Mom hint-Bay leaves are not poisonous but they do have sharp edges and can be a choking hazard. Make sure you always remove them before serving the food.

Foodie Friday-Harvest Beef Stew

     I'm participating in my first Foodie Friday. Please visit Michael at Designs by Gollum to see all the delicious dishes.


     When the weather gets cold, I tend to want to create “homey” meals. Generally that means a lot of soups, chili and stews. We don’t eat a lot of red meat at our house, but my husband really loves beef. So, I decided to put together a fall meal that I could pop in the oven and have ready a few hours later. This actually could be done completely on top of the stove, and be done in a shorter period of time. I happen to like that slow cooked flavor and the smell of the spices in my house.

Ingredients:

2 pounds stew meat or chuck roast cut into chunks
2 T. olive oil
Season salt or grill seasoning
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup carrots sliced (I prefer regular carrots, baby carrots would work)
1 cup chopped onion (optional-I don’t cook with onions, but most people like them)
1 large potato cut into chunks
1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
½ tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. thyme
½ tsp. rosemary
½ tsp. basil
2 T. tomato paste (you can freeze the rest of the can in a container for later use)
2 ½-3 cups of beef broth (I always use low sodium)
2 bay leaves
2 tsp. sugar
2 T. balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper
1 cup frozen peas
2 T. cornstarch.


     Sprinkle the meat with a small amount of season salt or grill seasoning. In an oven safe pan (Dutch oven) on the stove, heat the oil and stir in the beef chunks. Stir until browned on all sides, remove from pan.

     To the pan juices add celery, carrots, onion, potato, sweet potato and stir. Cover and cook about 2 minutes, just to slightly soften the vegetables. Put the meat back in with the vegetables. Add garlic powder, oregano, thyme, rosemary, basil, tomato paste, beef broth, sugar, vinegar, a pinch of salt and pepper and stir. Add bay leaves.

    Put in oven at 350 degrees for 2 hours. Remove from oven, meat and vegetables should be very tender. Put pan back on stove burner and turn to medium high heat. Mix cornstarch with a 2 T. water and stir into stew. When the stew is thickened, add frozen peas and stir. It only takes about a minute for the peas to cook. If the stew is too thick, you can thin it with a little beef broth or water. Don’t forget to remove the bay leaves before serving.

I served ours with crusty bread and a fruit salad. The house smelled wonderful. Enjoy.

Apple Cinnamon Cake-One Bowl, Great Smells...Yummy!

I had a request for a recipe for an Apple Spice Cake. I remembered that my mom had a recipe that she made often, so I searched my recipe box and found it. The great thing about this recipe is that you can eat it for dessert or for breakfast. You can dress it up with a dip of ice cream or whipped cream. It is really easy to prepare, all in one bowl and no mixer necessary.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups chopped apples (notice I didn’t even peel the apples, simply core them)
1 ½ cups flour
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts, but pecans or almonds would work)
3 T. sugar mixed with 1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In large bowl put everything except the cinnamon/sugar mix. The batter will be very stiff and crumbly. Put it in a 9” pan. I used a small rectangular pan because someone has my 9” square.

Sprinkle the top with the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Enjoy!

Mom's Homemade Vegetable Soup

My mom makes this soup and so do I. I thought we did it exactly the same way until we compared notes when I was making mine for the blog. I’ve made a few adjustments over the years without even knowing it. I’m sure you will make your own adjustments to my recipe. That is what cooking is all about.

I actually used a nice pot roast to make my soup. I cooked it the night before (slow roasted in the oven with potatoes and carrots) and used the leftovers for the soup. You can do that with any kind of beef roast. I haven’t tried it with chicken, it would probably be different, but good. When I was newly married I couldn’t afford a pot roast. So I would make this same soup with a pound of ground beef that I browned. It was delicious. I still do it that way on occasion, simply because we like the flavor.

Let’s talk a bit more about the beef used in the soup. You can use cooked leftover roast, hamburger that has been browned or a raw roast if you are going to cook your soup all day. It tastes best if you are using a raw roast to at least brown both sides in the pan in a little bit of vegetable oil before you add the other ingredients. I have been known to take a raw chuck roast, dump in the rest of the ingredients and let it cook for hours, it tastes great. You can also put it all in a crock-pot. In other words, it would be difficult to ruin this one.

Ingredients:

Beef-I used about 3 cups of cooked leftover pot roast with the pan juices. It made a very meaty soup. You can use more or less meat, whatever you prefer or whatever you have.
½ medium head of cabbage, chunked into pieces
2 potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces
1 large bag of frozen mixed vegetables (you can use canned veggies, or fresh ones…frozen is easier)
1 cup V8 or tomato juice
Approx. 7-8 cups water

In a large pan (soup pot) put the beef, cabbage, potatoes, and frozen vegetables. Add water just to the level of the other ingredients, add the tomato juice or V-8. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cover. If your meat is cooked, this can be done in about an hour, but I really prefer cooking this for several hours to let the flavors blend. If your meat is raw, it will take several hours. You want to cook it until the meat is very tender and falling apart. If you use a raw roast, use 2 forks to separate the meat into bite-sized pieces before serving. Salt to taste. Enjoy.

One Bowl Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies

I have made this recipe for many years. I love it because you can make the basic dough, and add whatever ingredients you want to flavor the cookies. The ones in the pictures are raisin and walnut, which are my husband’s favorite. I prefer chocolate chips and pecans. I’ve also made them with white chocolate chips and dried cranberries. Many times I make the dough and split it into 2 bowls, I add my chocolate chips and pecans to half and his raisins and walnuts to the other.


Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.


Ingredients


½ pound (2 sticks) of butter softened (you can use margarine, but butter tastes better)
½ cup sugar
1 cup of brown sugar packed
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 T. cinnamon
Pinch of salt
3 cups of uncooked oats (old-fashioned or quick oats)
2/3 cup raisins (or chocolate chips, dried cranberries, white chocolate chips)
½ cup walnut pieces (or pecans, almonds, macadamia nuts)


*Mom hint-when I make them with chocolate chips, I use more than 2/3 cup. I like chocolate. I also use more of the fruit or chips if I leave out the nuts.



In a large bowl with mixer (or by hand) cream the butter and sugars until blended, add the eggs and vanilla and keep mixing until creamy (about 2 minutes). Blend in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt until well blended and do the rest by hand. Stir in the oats. Now is when you should split the dough if you are making 2 flavors of cookies. If not, stir in the raisins and walnuts (or whatever you have decided to add). Drop by teaspoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 11 minutes or until lightly browned.

This makes about 4 dozen cookies depending on the size you make them. Enjoy!

Knox Blox-A Blast From The Past

When was the last time you played with your food? Knox Blox were a family favorite in my house. My kids loved eating Jello with their fingers! You can make them in almost any color of the rainbow, they are inexpensive, easy and fun. I don't even like Jello, but I love Knox Blox! When I'm really ambitious, or trying to show a bit of holiday spirit (red and blue, green and red) I make them in more than one color. You can also cut them into shapes with cookie cutters for special occasions. I can't take credit for the recipe, it has been around for years.

Ingredients:

4 cups boiling water

1 box (4 envelopes) Knox Gelatine

3 small boxes Jello, any flavor (do not use Sugar Free Jello)

Pour the Jello and Gelatin into a large bowl, stir in the boiling water and continue to stir about 2 minutes until dissolved. Pour into a 9x13 pan and refrigerate. Chill until firm and cut into squares. We think of this as a "kid food" but it has no fat, and makes a great dessert. Enjoy!

Mom’s Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

The first thing to know about cooking with chicken is to be very careful with sanitation. Rinse the chicken in cold water before cooking it. Wash your hands and all surfaces that come in contact with raw chicken with hot, soapy water and/or a product made for kitchen clean-up.

For this soup you can use whatever form of chicken you want. You can buy a whole chicken and cut it into pieces (I don’t think it is worth the effort), frozen bags of boneless breasts, or assorted fresh chicken pieces from the meat case. I like to use a whole chicken already cut in pieces. The skin gives the broth more flavor than the boneless, skinless bagged pieces. I generally cook the gizzard, liver, heart and back in a small pan of water and give it to my dog. Some people actually eat those parts. We don’t.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, cut in pieces. Do not use liver, gizzard, or heart for soup.
1 cup chopped carrots (baby carrots or whole carrots peeled)
1 cup chopped celery
2 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
2 bay leaves
15 cups water (I have a big pot)
7 oz. dry egg noodles (I try to buy the most homemade looking I can find)

Rinse the chicken and place in large pot. If you are cooking for one or two people, and don’t have a large pot, just use one or two pieces of chicken and cover it with water. You will need to cut down the other ingredients as well, including the salt. You really can’t mess this up. Cover the chicken with the 15 cups of water, add the carrots, celery, salt, pepper and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer and let cook for about 2 hours until the chicken is very tender. Remove the chicken from the pot to cool. Remove the bay leaves.

At this point in the process, I remove 5 cups of the broth and put it in a freezer container. Let it cool, and freeze it. You will be very glad to have it on a different night. Bring the remaining broth back to a boil, and stir in the noodles. Reduce to simmer and cover. The package should give you the amount of time for your particular noodles to cook (mine took 20 minutes). While the noodles are cooking, remove the chicken from the bones and skin. Cut or shred into bite size pieces. Measure 2 cups of chicken and add to the cooked noodles and broth. Add salt and pepper as needed. The remaining chicken can be placed in freezer bags and frozen, or you may refrigerate it for sandwiches the next day.

At a later date you can thaw the frozen broth, add the frozen chicken and simply place in a pan and bring to a simmer. Add a handful of rice, pasta or noodles and you have a second meal.
　
*Mom hint-Bay leaves are not poisonous but they do have sharp edges and can be a choking hazard. Make sure you always remove them before serving the food.