Lemon Chicken Noodle Soup

The other day, we had roast chicken for dinner, mostly because I had a hankerin' to make chicken soup and needed the raw materials. As usual, the leaving all went into a pot with an onion, a carrot, a stalk of celery, some black pepper corns, and two bay leaves to cook down.  After cooking and cooling, I skimmed most of the fat and strained out the broth.   I picked the meat from the carcass, chopped it fairly fine, and added it back to the broth.

To make the soup, I rounded up all of the usually suspects:  chopped onion, celery, carrot, and garlic.  I also found we still had some very flavorful celery leaves and fresh parsley in the garden.  Last winter, we went the shore for a day and ate lunch at Yianni's Cafe in Ocean City, NJ.  The soup of the day was Lemon Chicken Noodle which I found intriguing and wanted to try, so in addition to everything else, I cut a lemon into thin slices, removed the seeds, and added them with the other vegetables.  For seasoning, salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste, of course, plus dried thyme, a little bit of dill seed, and a shake of dried mustard for good measure.  Cooked it all down, added potatoes and, just before serving, egg noodles.

By the time this was all cooked, the lemon slices had just the rinds remaining cooked through and soft, about like the carrot slices, with a little lemon flavor but no astringency.  I really like this soup.  It puts a whole new twist on chicken soup and I recommend that you try it next time you make it.

By the time we got to second leftovers, the egg noodles had about given up, having been cooked to death in rewarming, and much of the lemon flavor had faded, so enjoy this one fresh.

First Annual Traditional Family Thanksgiving Breakfast of Sausage Gravy and Biscuits

You don't need a reason to ride motorcycles around the countryside, but sometimes it's nice to have a quest, and one of ours (the buddies from my other blog and I) is to find the best sausage gravy and biscuits east of the Mississippi.  So far, the title goes to the Moose Lodge in Richwood, West Virginia ("You don't need to be member.").  Up until today, that is.

The other day, I got it into my head that I should try my own SG&B, and yesterday I realized that while we have a traditional family Christmas breakfast (creamed dried beef on biscuits), we don't have a traditional family Thanksgiving breakfast.  Up until today, that is.

From a Google search, the basic recipe is ridiculously simple and easy and just what you would expect it to be:  brown the loose sausage in a skillet, use 2-3 tablespoons of flour to whisk the drippings into a rue, add milk, cook to thicken, season with salt and plenty of black pepper (sans sausage, it is called black pepper gravy, after all).  Of course, in a garlic/chocolate universe there is only one thing to do.  And really, doesn't all good cooking start with "chop an onion and mince two cloves of garlic..."?

So, half a pound of Hatfield Pennsylvania Dutch sausage stripped from the casing, half a small onion, chopped fine, and two cloves of garlic, minced, into the skillet.  I also added half of a dried red pepperocini from the garden chopped to fine flakes for a little heat (optional, especially if you are planning to add a lot of black pepper and/or are not fond of picante).  By taste, I added some sage and a little thyme (dried) all of which smelled really good as the sausage browned.

Hatfield advertises this sausage as "reduced fat" and I actually has to add a little butter to the skillet in order to make the rue.  Flour and milk added by guess (gotta have gravy sense), then salt to taste and lots of fresh ground black pepper.

You could, of course, work up Grandma's famous buttermilk biscuits to make it really special, if you had a Grandma who had a buttermilk biscuit recipe which was famous.  Lacking same, we did not obsess over the biscuits, just Bisquick using the recipe from the box, but they came out fine.  We served up the SG&B Jo style:  with a poach egg dropped on top.  I ain't gonna lie, it was extrageniferous and more than enough to hold us 'til mid afternoon TG dinner.

A new family Thanksgiving tradition is born...

Anchovy Rice Eggs

Home alone tonight since Mom's colleagues are taking her out to dinner so an opportunity to try something new.  The other day I bought a can of anchovies on a lark since I had not had them in decades; last night we had stir fry and there is rice left over; the chickens have been laying eggs faster than we can eat them - sounds like the foundation for a plan.

Melt some butter in the skillet, add the rice, season with black pepper, add the anchovies and bring up to heat.  Scramble two eggs, add S&P, and add to the skillet.  Cook gently while toasting rye bread.

If you don't object to salty, fishy, anchovy flavor this is really good.

Because veggies are better with cheese

Hey folks,

Admittedly I haven't been cooking very much this fall.  Cooking for one isn't a ton of fun.  But I have started cooking a full size version of something on Sunday and then just eating that all week.

This week I sauteed a bunch of veggies together and threw it in a pan with some polenta and cheese.  Pretty tasty and a quick meal.  I like anything that gives me lots of veggies in one punch, so this was a great thing to make in the beginning of the week to have on hand.

Here's what a did...

Chop up and throw in a pan with some olive oil the following

• eggplant
• zucchini
• mushrooms
• broccoli (steamed it first)
• garlic
• onion
• spinach (wait til the other veggies have cooked for a bit and then throw it in at the end to wilt)

Once the veggies are done, add some tomato sauce and heat through.  Throughout this period throw in whatever spices catch your eye.  I did salt, pepper, oregano, and basil mostly.  

Then slice some polenta lengthwise and layer it in the bottom of a 9x13 pan (greased).  On top of the polenta, put some mozzarella cheese, then the veggie/tomato sauce mixture, then more cheese.

Bake it til the cheese is melted.  Eat.

Cheap, easy, relatively healthy if you aren't offended by cheese.

Molly

Savory french toast plus

In the middle of making french toast for breakfast the other day, I decided I didn't want anything sweet to start my day.  So, I decided to try to make a savory version of french toast.  My idea was inspired in part by a favorite recipe of ours for a savory bread pudding, since bread pudding and french toast are basically the same thing.  I ended up making the french toast into an open-faced sandwich, and it was a real winner.

Mix together eggs and milk just like you would for regular french toast.  Then, instead of adding cinnamon, vanilla, and maple syrup (which, by the way, makes a bangin' regular french toast), add some dried tarragon, salt, and pepper.  Soak your bread in the mix and cook on your griddle as for regular french toast.  In the mean time, caramelize some onions or cook them up a bit on one side of your griddle.  Wilt some arugula, if that's your thing (it's mine).  When the french toast is done, put some arugula on top, top with sliced swiss or cheddar cheese and place under the broiler briefly to melt the cheese.  Top with a heap of onions and enjoy!

Here's a picture of mine from this morning and one of Aleks enjoying his.