Chicken Noodle Soup

Greg made soup Sunday. It's the best chicken noodle soup I've ever had. He's made it before when I had a cold and maybe it's just my imagination, but it did seem to make me feel better. Try it :)

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Cooking + prep time: About 2.5 - 3 hours

1 whole raw chicken (with bones & skin for flavor) cut into it's parts
3 celery stalks, cut into 2 inch pieces
1 large onion, cut into big pieces
2 carrots, cut into big pieces
3-4 stems of fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried)
3 ounces 'fine' egg noodles
Chicken broth/stock

Put chicken in a large pot, cover with water and bring to a boil.

After about 20 minutes, skim off the icky foam that floats to the top.

Turn down to a simmer and cover. Cook for 30 minutes.



After 30 minutes, add the veggies and the thyme - put the lid on and simmer for another 1.5 hours.





Remove from heat and strain into a bowl that's big enough to hold all the broth.

Put the the liquid and the vegetables back into the pot.

Separate the chicken from the bones & skin, cut into bite sized pieces and put in with the broth.




Bring the broth back to a simmer, add in the egg noodles then cover and cook until noodles are done.




Add another 2 to 4 cups chicken broth to make up for what has evaporated during cooking.



Enjoy a bowl of delicious homemade chicken noodle soup!

Happy Valentine's Day

In honor of Valentine's Day, I share this with you.

So Sweet!! <-- click link

Have A HOT Valentine's Day!

And, today I want to make hot sauce! The woman in the video reminds me very much of someone I don't like so that was unfortunate. But maybe she'll remind you of someone you do like! Or may she'll have zero affect either way! :)

Urban Cheesecraft

This is pretty darn cool. I'd really like to make some cheese now :)

Bacon Jam

**UPDATE: The bacon jam was at hit at the pot luck!

Bacon jam. I know, I know. Totally unhealthy but it's not something you eat all the time.

I'm faced with having to go to a lunch pot luck at work tomorrow. Trust me, if I could find a way to politely decline, I would. But this time getting out of it would be hard to do. I had to think of something to bring that would be easy. I leave the house at 6:45am so I don't have time to be making something before work. I also didn't want to bring anything that had to be either hot or cold because that's just a total pain in the ass. I looked at pot luck stuff on the internet and most everything was a hot dish. Then I saw this bacon jam recipe. I've never had it and it sounded good and it also sounded kinda gross. However, people who had tried it and left comments raved about it! And.....it can be served at room temperature! When I read that part, I decided I was making it. I did consider a few other things off and on because....well....it's bacon jam. It just doesn't sound all that appetizing. But then I figured I could make it over the weekend and if wasn't any good I'd still have time to get something else.

I made it yesterday. While I was cooking the bacon, I got the idea to take pictures of the process. Mostly because of the photo below. I don't think I will ever have another chance to take a picture of 3 pounds of bacon. Again....I know.


Cook the bacon in the oven. This is the only way to cook this much bacon. If you do it on the stove-top, it would take forever and would be soooo messy.





Now cook 4 gigantic onions that have been thinly sliced until they are mostly translucent.





Add all the liquid (cider vinegar, brown sugar, maple syrup, strong coffee, pepper) and bring to a boil.








Add the bacon.





Here it is reduced by half.




Here it is cooked all the way down and the onions are caramelized. This isn't as dark as I think it's supposed to get, but getting it to this point was probably 2 hours. I wasn't keeping track of the time. I called it done here because I didn't want to risk burning it. After cooking that long, having it burn would have been really sad.





Let if cool off a bit and then zap it in the food processor. I have to admit, when I saw it at this point I was worried. This is not what I call appetizing. If I were serving it to family, that's one thing. But this will be people at work, most of whom I hardly know, so if it looks gross, no one will touch it. And no one wants to have the dish everyone is whispering about and making faces at.





I put it to the true test. Smeared it on some bread and gave it to Greg. He's on the picky side and I know he'll tell me what he thinks. If he made a face or spit it out, I was going to the store for plan B.







He ate the whole piece of bread and gave it 2 thumbs up! I also tried it and it's good. It's kinda sweet but not a lot, oniony, and definitely bacony. I wasn't able to taste the maple syrup or coffee at all. There is a cider vinegar flavor but it's not overwhelming or too strong. A plus is, it smells really good :)

I think it looks better on the bread so I'm going to make some up on the tray that are ready to eat. That way people who are considering it can try it on an impulse. When people start saying it's good, others will go for it. It's bacon so there will be people who will just see the fat and calories on a slice of white bread....but oh well. I'll let you know how it goes! Wish me luck!!

Passive Agressive

Passive-agressive BS....I can't even tell you how annoyed I get by this. Don't be one of those people.

I work with people who are passive-agressive to their core. They do it so blatantly but if you call them on it, they act surprised at this revelation. It's really difficult for me to deal with people like this because I don't tolerate BS very well. I usually say what I think and I don't mince words. Then they've become a victim at your expense and play it up.

I've had to step away from people at work to avoid all this. I used to chit chat with people or go to lunch with them, but now I rarely talk to anyone at work and only go to lunch if it's some kind of work related thing. Doing this has really made things at work a lot more peaceful. They're still doing it to each other, but I'm not involved.

The only time this doesn't work is when they are clearly leaving me out and they know I can hear what they are saying. Like having a conversation (loudly) about a new policy and what has to be done. They exchange notes on it but don't bother to give me the information.

"Oh, you don't already have these notes? Oh....I thought you knew...." said wide-eyed in a shockingly innocent tone.

This. Makes. Me. Insane. INSANE.

I'm doing better at not making a comment. It's hard but it helps that I understand what they're up to so I don't play into it. I go back to my work and keep in mind that karma is a bigger bitch than they are.

This is an article by JD Roberto, Writer and TV Host.

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The Best Parenting Advice I Never Got

I got a lot of parenting advice before my first child came into the world. I think people feel obligated to bestow their wisdom on expecting parents and, overall, I guess that’s a good thing. Still, the advice I got – though well meaning and thoughtful – was almost entirely useless once the actual odyssey of being a dad began. Phrases like “life changing” and “wonderful adventure” came up repeatedly, but no one bothered to tell me I should go see a movie. These days, going to a movie involves two weeks of planning and forty bucks worth of babysitter — and that’s before you pay fourteen bucks for a ticket and six bucks for some Twizzlers.
Sleep was high on the recommendation list. “Get as much sleep as you can!” is what they tell you, but that particular pearl of wisdom seems entirely backward to me. What you should really be doing is training yourself to function on less sleep or sleep that is frequently interrupted. I guess you could try to stockpile sleep but, trust me, when you’re up all night with a sick four month old, knowing you got a solid nine hours back in June doesn’t help.

A few times, kindly grandparents summed up their parenting philosophy with something along the lines of, “Just shower ‘em with love!” It’s a heartwarming sentiment but I have yet to figure out how an exhausted parent is supposed to apply such sage counsel when his two-year-old is howling, spread eagle in the grocery store because he won’t buy a pair of Elmo shaped oven mitts.

The most common phrase I heard in the run up to parenthood was the seemingly benign, “It’s a tough job but it’s all worth it.” This is both true and diabolically misleading at the same time. Something about “it’s all worth it” suggests a proposition where some small majority of the time things will be blissful. “Yes,” you’re led to believe, “it’s going to be tough forty-nine percent of the time, but don’t worry because the other fifty-one percent it is great.” Guess what, it’s not. The ratio is frequently twenty percent enjoyable to eighty percent aggravating. Some days clock in at fifty-four percent bearable with thirty-five percent maddening rounded out by a dash of bewildering. I’ve been through entire weeks of eighty-seven percent exasperating, and experienced good-night cuddles that are one hundred percent ecstasy. It’s not balanced, it’s bipolar. It’s worth it not because it’s easy as often as it’s difficult, but because the perfect moments are so overwhelmingly sublime, you somehow forget the maniacal pajama tantrum you endured the night before.

If I could go back and give myself some more practical advice it would look something like this:

1. When they nap, you nap. Don’t send emails, don’t catch up on work. Nap.

2. Travel with your children when they are very young. At six months old it’s just as easy to keep them entertained in Cozumel as it is in Cleveland. You might as well get a tan out of the deal.

3. Buy a rechargeable, cordless hand vacuum. Your floors and cars will thank you.

4. It’s perfectly acceptable to make an entire dinner in the microwave.

5. In every parent-child relationship someone has to be the grown up. Try to make sure that someone is you. A two-year-old has the right to act like a child, you do not.

6. Take everyone who volunteers to babysit up on the offer. Repeatedly.

7. Buy everything you can second-hand.

8. Make time for the other relationships in your life — seeing you in the role of good friend or devoted spouse teaches your kids way more than a Baby Einstein marathon.

9. There’s no such thing as using too many wipes.

10. There will be times when you’re sure you are a terrible parent and, secretly, wonder why you ever had kids in the first place. This is normal. Forgive yourself these occasional moments of self-doubt and, from time to time, let yourself mourn your life pre-parenthood. Then have a healthy glass of wine, get some sleep and get back to work. After all, as you’ve no doubt heard, it’s a tough job, but it’s all worth it.

Oh, and go see a movie while you still can.

Songs I Love

Loving these songs right now. And I just have to say, I don't understand the audience in the first one. They are all just sitting there....doing nothing. I can only think they were told to be that way because the song rocks and Maroon 5 was awesome.

Recipe

I made these last night to go with our veggie stuffed shells. I hadn't read any reviews on them and wasn't sure if they would be any good. Verdict was: I like them and Greg did, too. I could eat them with nothing on them but Greg had to dip them in ranch dressing. You do have to eat them warm because....well, because they are just one of those things that taste better warm! They definitely are the healthy version of fried zucchini. Going into it there was no illusion that they would be just like the fried version, which is always important when making a healthy version of anything. Having said that, they are crunchy and satisfying and worth a try! The whole wheat flour is noticeable so if you don't like that, you better use white flour....but they will start being a lot less healthy!

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Zucchini Chips

1/2 cup panko
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp black pepper
heaping 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup cold milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 1/2 cups sliced zucchini (about 2 small zucchinis)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
In a medium bowl combine breadcrumbs, cheese and black pepper. In separate bowl add flour, milk and vinegar. Gently stir until combined but do not over stir. Dip zucchini slices in flour mixture and then dredge in breadcrumb mixture. Place coated zucchini slices on a baking sheet lined with non stick paper and bake for 30 minutes, flipping the slices over once halfway through cooking, or until browned and crisp.

(from thejoyofcleaneating.com)

A few things to consider...

I think you are...

This is my take on clean and simple for the Clean & Simple Card Class. I found this stamp set at Michael's last summer in the $1 bin and had to get it. Isn't it cute? It reminds me of high school crushes! I'll give it to my husband and check each of them :)

Hope you like it!