Chicken Noodle Soup

One of the classic comforts of home is chicken noodle soup. It might come out of a can, it might be from scratch. One thing is certain- it's feels good to eat a big bowl of chicken noodle soup. This is a fairly quick soup to make and simple. This recipe will serve about 4, I didn't want to make very much, but double it if you have more mouths to feed!

Ingredients:

6 cups of low sodium chicken broth

1 skinless, boneless chicken breast

1 yellow onion, diced

2 carrots, peeled and sliced

2 celery stalks, sliced

Dried thin egg noodles (how much is up to you)

3 TB finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

Salt and ground pepper

Step One: Bring chicken broth to a simmer and add the chicken. Simmer until no pink remains. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a while (You can use that time to work on your veggies).

(Looking back, I should have cut the chicken breast in half so that it was completely covered by the broth. It took about 30 min for this breast to cook all the way through. If you cut it down the middle length wise, I suspect it'd take 12 or 15 min.)

Step 2: As chicken is simmering, prepare or finishing preparing the veggies.

If you like your soup with more broth, you'll want to omit some of the veggies AFTER they have cooked in the broth. You don't want to loose any of that wonderful flavor.

Step 3:

Transfer chicken to a cutting board. Return the broth to a simmer on medium-high heat and add the veggies. Simmer veggies about 10 min or until lightly soft.

Step 4:

Shred or cube chicken and chop parsley

Step 5:

Do your best to skim away any foam on the top of the soup. At this time you can remove some of the veggies if it's too much for your taste.

Step 6:

Add noodles and 3/4th of the parsley. Season will salt and pepper to your taste. Simmer until the noodles are tender, about 3-5 min depending on how many you use and what size pan you are using.

I used around 5 oz of noodles, which is a lot. You can use as few as 2 oz though.

Keep warm until ready to serve. Scoop into warm bowls and sprinkle with the remaining parsley. Curl up on the couch and watch a good movie!

Y'all Enjoy!

Thankful

Today has been a positive day, it really has. Which is a bit different because things have been a little tough this week. Having a very sore throat and loads of ear pressure doesn't help when I'm trying to write a huge bible paper I've been putting off all semester! After much hard work and 8 hours in the library so far this week I've written the bulk of my paper! The rest is a breeze. I've got to write my introduction and conclusion, then add footnotes and do my bibliography. That's it! So I'm taking a break to write some of things that made me very happy today despite feeling awful and sleepy.

1. Last night I slept on the couch, mostly because when I feel sick I become irritable and just the sound of breathing will take over my mind. I also couldn't sleep because I thinking about my throat hurting. I was watching "16 and Pregnant" on MTV until 3 in the morning. I was a sleepy camper. BUT here comes the good part. When Blake woke up he came and got me and walked me into the bed. He re-set my alarm to later time so I would get more sleep. That made me so happy :)

2. I got a Starbucks pumpkin spiced latte and a piece of pumpkin bread before my afternoon class.

3. I was able to get a book that I've already read approved for my book review for a class. That means I don't have to read a whole book next week!

4. At tutoring today this sweet kindergartner boy ran up to me and gave me the biggest hug and said "MS. KRISTIN!!!!!!" :)

5. Blake went and got me chick-fil-a for dinner.

6. I joked about wanting a brownie from there and he went BACK out and got me a brownie from there AND cookies from McDonalds so I would have something another time. Though I told him not to go out at all!

7. I've gotten a lot done on my paper

8. The weekend is coming soon

All these things have made my day feel positive even though I'm not feeling good. That's a "God thing". God is watching over me, and hearing my prayers. I'm so thankful for how He's blessing me.

Driving Peeves

This has nothing to do with being a wife or with cooking or with crafting.

It has everything to do with being a citizen and a driver. Can you relate to those two things? OK... good... now listen up.

There are a couple of driving rules that people forget about and when they do I loose my patience with them. I have to take deep breaths and think about Christmas music.

Always be sure you can see the tires of the car in front of you!

When people ride my tail it makes me want to drive slower not faster.... in fact it makes me want to drive in the center of both lanes really slow so that they can not pass by. (But don't worry I don't do that last thing)

When I'm stopped at red lights I like to leave a pretty good distance if I can. If someone should hit the car behind me and they hit me I would like to not hit the person in front of me, or at least not cause much damage.

Let me just say that I would like for the person behind me to be so respectful themselves. Many times they are. Many times they are not.

And when they are not... I scoot up a little bit. And then some people are rude and scoot up more... so that they are still on my tail. So I scoot up a bit more... and go figure they scoot up more. At this point I have my sunglasses off and am looking at them through my mirrors not hiding the fact that I'm annoyed with them. I scoot up a bit more... but I can't do this much more because then I'll loose too much space between the car in front of me. This just really works my nerves.

And if the person is a huge car it works my nerves even more... because I think about what that huge thing could do to my little car if they got a big hit.

Anyways... this morning there was some lady in a fancy smancy Lexus mini SUV who was doing this to me. So I decided to write about this and plead with anyone reading this to NOT drive like that. Leave some space between you and the car in front of you please!

My other biggest driving peeve is when people don't know how to merge. Oh my goodness does that one drive me crazy. I'll pull my horn out on that. Or when people pass every one up to cut. That makes me mad too. If I can I'll pull out to the middle to keep people from cutting. Yes I'm one of those people.... but if you've had 2 miles of warning signs it's time to get over. I love it when the huge 18 wheelers will block so people can't cut. That just makes me smile.

But anyways.... please be a respectful driver!

What are your driving peeves?

Kristin's Chili Corn Bake

This is a great fall meal! It's warm, hearty, and who doesn't love corn bread! It's also on the healthier side of things and if you substitute the ground beef for ground turkey it would be even healthier. If your pantry is well stocked this is also a CHEAP dinner! Woo hoo! If you don't use corn meal very often then just buy a package of JIFFY mix. One should be enough.

Here is what you need:

1 lb lean ground beef or turkey

1 small onion, chopped

2 cups frozen corn

1 regular can of pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon low sodium Worcestershire sauce

Cheyenne pepper and crushed red pepper to taste (Start with 1/2 teaspoon of each, then add more as needed)

Cornbread toping (if not using a mix)

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

2 generous tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup skim of low fat milk

1 TB of oil of choice (I like to use corn oil for corn bread)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and grease an 11x7 baking dish

2. In a large skillet, cook meat and onion over medium heat. Rub a couple of paper towels in the pan with spatula to pick up extra fat. Add beans, tomatoes, spices and Worcestershire sauce; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer, uncovered for 5 min. Add corn and simmer about 3 to 4 min longer.

3. Transfer to the greased baking dish. For the topping, combine your dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately then add the wet to the dry ones. Stir just until combined, don't over mix. Spoon over the meat mixture.

4. Bake, uncovered for 14-18 min or until the filling is bubbly and a knife inserted into topping comes out clean. Let stand 5 min. before cutting.

Enjoy!!! Make some this week!

Cleaning a Non Self Cleaning Oven

Alright, now I'm gonna warn you about this post. It's sort of gross. It shows the more unglamorous side of mastering the kitchen. In fact- much of that is unglamorous. Anyways... I'm getting real with you.

When we first moved into our apartments I was a bit disgusted from the oven. I tried wiping it with Windex which did nothing... so I became comfortable with it. However, after a couple of spilled over pies and other dishes it was getting harder and harder to deal with. I tried baking soda which did nothing. Time went on. Smoke was coming up from the oven too often! On Sunday I made a chicken pot pie which spilled A LOT. I knew I wouldn't be able to use my oven again until I cleaned it. See take a look....

Take a look at the whole oven actually. It's all disgusting. I don't think it's ever been cleaned.

Take a better look at the pot pie spot. GROSS!

Now that your grossed out let me change the subject to food. Haha. On Monday I made some beef stew and thought, "mmm biscuits". So I whipped some up and had them rolled out and on the pan ready to go. Then I noticed smoke coming from my pre-heating oven. Lots of it. If our smoke alarm hadn't been ripped down from the last time I set it off it would have been beeping. So I had to trash my biscuits :-(

So I texted my mother in law and asked her how to clean an oven because I remembered her talking about it before. She told me about cleaning her oven when she first got married- said she used Easy-Off oven cleaner and a rough cleaning pad and scrubbed a lot.

So that's what I did. I woke up this morning and went to exercise then I headed to the grocery store. Came home and got to work.

Here is what I used:

Note: You have to use the rough stuff. I tried a regular sponge before... did nothing. I used all 3 of these today.

And of course some gloves... I love these things:

I sprayed it in the oven

Then closed the door let it work it's magic and ate breakfast (because I'm not quite as disgusted by these things anymore).

Then I put my gloves back on and got to work:

Over 2 hours later:

I know there are still some spots and it's not perfect but I worked HARD!

And then there was STILL cleaning to do... like all around the oven. And the floor because grease had gone everywhere. But I finally did it. I was very proud of myself.

I changed clothes and folded the clothes in the dryer. Put lots of lotion on my hands and made lunch for me and Blake. Then I went to class! Very productive morning!

Then I enjoyed using my clean oven tonight to make toast for our stew leftovers.

The joys :)

You know I'm loving every bit!

Cranberry Sauce

With fall in the air I think of one thing- food. OK I think about other things but food is a huge thought. Cooking is a huge thought. Cranberry sauce is one of my favorite holiday sides. I haven't always liked it... but once I tasted it I was hooked. This year I decided to make it all though fall... why just save it for holidays! I decided to share my recipe. So here it is:

Ingredients:

12 oz fresh cranberries

1.5 cups packed brown sugar

3/4 cup of water

.5 cup seedless raspberry jam

1. Mix cranberries, brown sugar, and water. Bring to boil on high heat, then reduce to medium high. Cook 8-10 min until mixture is thick and all of the cranberries have popped. Cool about 10 min.

2. Strain cranberry mixture, pressing berries to extract juice, toss the skins or leave some in. This whole step is completely optional. Stir jam into the juice. Let cool at least 30 min.

My favorite part is watching the cranberries pop!

And of course watching it thicken is fun too.

And when it's finished.... taking a bite. Just to taste.

And who says you have to serve it with turkey? Top chicken with it!

I hope you'll make your own cranberry sauce this season! It's so easy and so worth it!

Enjoy!

Dreamer

My ideal dream home is one that has a porch. Maybe even a wrap around porch. It's got a white swing and whicker chairs for lots of conversation as the sun sets. There are bushes of blue french hydrangeas lining the the porch. There is a cobble stone path to the mail box. You can see this better in the spring, but right now it's late fall or early winter.

There are trees... lots of trees. Old oak trees maybe? With a tire swing on one of them.

When you walk inside you hear laughter. Your instantly filled with the aroma of something sweet and the spice of cinnamon. There is warm apple pie on the counter and you help yourself. There is freshly brewed coffee next to it.

You take a seat at an old oak table with barley twisted legs. You look around and old old mason jars are all around the kitchen. Some might even have candles in them.

You walk into the living room and take a seat on a comfortable couch, pull up a knit throw, because this house lives where it's cold. You can hear the crackle from the fire place. I'll bring you some hot wassle if you want. There is some old big band music playing on a record player. The TV is hidden away in a solid oak entertainment center.... only used for foot ball games, movie nights, and the morning news.

When you look out the window (which is a straight shot from the couch) you might mountains that are covered in snow. You'll at least see snow covered trees.

The Sun is almost set.

You'll stay up into the evening playing cards and just talking. Talking about anything. You'll drink more wassle.

Everyone will finally decide to retire to bed.

You'll arise to the smell of fresh coffee and the smell of breakfast. Maybe it's jelly rolls made from scratch, or bacon and eggs. But there will be breakfast. Everyone will squeeze around the old oak table in the kitchen and say grace.

We'll go outside until our toes turn blue and we have to come inside. We'll unbundle and warm up by the fireside. Play an old record maybe? Have some soup?

We'll be out again later.

This house is away from the city. It's away from everything and everyone too busy to stop and enjoy life. It's less complicated of a place. It's beautiful.

Sure it's a little too much of a dream, but what's wrong with being a dreamer?