Chicken stock & chicken noodle soup

We used to have a favorite chicken noodle soup (a recipe from Cooking Light that used canned chicken broth, boneless chicken thighs, and dumplings instead of noodles), until the day I happened upon Deb's recipe for homemade chicken soup...and then we had a new favorite. I posted the recipe I used here.

I make this soup at least once per week, no longer following a recipe, varying the amounts depending on whether or not I want ingredients to freeze or if I have another recipe during the week ahead that needs broth or chicken. And now that we've gone unprocessed, I've incorporated homemade whole wheat noodles, too.

Chicken stock
2 T oil (safflower or olive)
6 pounds chicken pieces (3 breasts, 3 leg pieces)
1 onion, cut into four or six large pieces
1 carrot, cut into three or four chunks
1 celery stalk, cut into three or four chunks
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tsp salt
a few turns of freshly ground pepper
12 cups water

1. Heat the oil in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Add half of the chicken and cook for a few minutes until browned; then flip. Remove to a plate. Repeat with remaining oil and chicken.
2. Lower the heat to medium-low and add the veggies. Cook for a few minutes until browned.
3. Add chicken back into the pot.
4. Add spices and water, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, partially cover the pot, and simmer the stock, for 60 - 90 minutes, skimming off the yucky stuff that appears on the surface.
5. Remove the chicken. Let it cool, and then pull the meat off the bones.
6. Strain the stock over a large glass measuring cup or a pitcher. Press on the vegetables to get out all of the flavor.

Egg pasta
4 eggs
3 c flour (2 c white whole wheat, 1 c all-purpose) ~ 14 ounces

1. Combine eggs and flour in a food processor until they form a ball.
2. Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and let rest for at least 30 minutes.
3. Roll the pasta thinly, dust with flour, roll up, and use a pizza cutter to slice into 1/4 inch strips.

Chicken noodle soup
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 - 4 carrots, chopped
3 - 4 stalks of celery, chopped
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp salt
a few turns of freshly ground pepper
8 c homemade chicken stock
2 - 3 c cooked chicken
5 - 6 ounces fresh pasta
1 cup frozen vegetables (1/2 c corn, 1/2 c peas)

1. Heat the oil in a large stock pot over medium heat. Sauté the veggies until softened, five minutes or so.
2. Add the broth, thyme, and salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 or 15 minutes.
3. About four minutes before you want to eat, add the chicken and pasta; two minutes later, add the frozen veggies.

Day one and plans for the week

Phew, day one of going unprocessed draws to a close.

This morning, as I contemplated getting out of bed, I thought about the meals we had planned for the day when suddenly I realized that our normal Sunday morning breakfast contained one of those secret processed foods! Eeek! We usually have steel cut oatmeal on the weekends, made with milk and water, combined with raisins and apples cooked with brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter. Milk...seemingly innocuous, is (when you think about it) actually quite processed between it's raw stage and what we buy at the grocery store. I came downstairs and told my hubby what I'd realized. He looked at me with one eyebrow arched and said, "Abby, that is not why we're doing this. Maybe we should say 'minimally processed.' We are not eliminating milk from our oatmeal; we're eliminating chemicals and other bad stuff from our lives." Oh, yeah, that's right.

So for breakfast, we had our normal steel cut oatmeal. I even left the brown sugar coated apples (at hubby's request), although I will continue to use maple syrup when I'm just making oatmeal for me.

For lunch, I had leftovers from last night's tater tot hot dish - the unprocessed part, covered with mashed potatoes instead of tater tots. It was delicious.

Then I got busy in the kitchen. This unprocessed thing takes a lot of planning and a lot of time. :) I started by making these wheat thins from KAF, as written up on Smitten Kitchen. Hubby and I are both concerned about having some unprocessed snacks in the house, so that we don't cave in to a craving in a weak moment. They were relatively easy to throw together, using my food processor to mix everything together and my pasta roller to roll out the dough. As Deb suggested, I made a double batch. And they were...okay. I'm hoping that they're better tomorrow, and I'm positive that they'd be better with cheese than just plain. I bookmarked this list from the Kitchn of other homemade crackers to try.

For snacks, I had part of a banana and some almonds. Hubby had leftover garlic bread with eggs.

For dinner, we had chicken noodle soup with fresh pasta, with grilled cheese sandwiches. This is where the mega-planning comes in.

I made this oatmeal wheat bread from KAF, subbing in white whole wheat flour for most of the all-purpose, and multiplying all of the ingredients by 150% to fit in my large pullman pan. This bread is mostly whole grain (oats and whole wheat flour) and uses honey instead of sugar, and it was completely delicious. We used a little less than half of the loaf for our grilled cheese sandwiches tonight. I'll use some for the little guy's lunches this week. The rest of the loaf will be used for eggs-in-a-nest on Thursday for hubby and the kids when I'm at parent-teacher conferences.

I made a large batch of chicken stock (recipe tomorrow), with three pounds of chicken. I used 8 cups of the stock for tonight's soup, and froze the other 5 cups. I used half of the chicken for tonight's soup, and saved the other half ~ part for tomorrow night's fried rice, and part for Wednesday night's chef salad.

I made 4 eggs worth of fresh pasta, subbing in white whole wheat flour for most of the all-purpose. I used 6 ounces in tonight's soup, and froze two other batches of 6 ounces for future batches of soup.

It was a busy day, but makes me feel better about the week ahead. It also makes me feel like I can make it through this month, as long as I have a full day in the kitchen each weekend. :)

The gift of years

When I started this blog a little over three years ago, I was an enthusiastic baker (and cook), but not a very experienced one. I wanted to broaden my horizons, but was nervous to try new recipes, reluctant to stray from recipes as written, and quick to panic when anything didn't go as planned. I eagerly joined challenges (the BBA followed by the Modern Bakers and the Mellow Bakers), hoping to learn more.



This Christmas, I really felt the difference the past few years have made. For one thing, I made everything - Christmas Eve dinner (chicken wild rice soup in bread bowls, salad with poppyseed dressing, doughnuts), Christmas morning breakfast (BBA cinnamon rolls), and Christmas dinner (glazed ham, mashed potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, sugared cranberries, rustic apple pie, and vanilla bean ice cream) completely from scratch, and without asking our guests to bring anything.



Recipes that just a couple of years ago gave me fits - Maida's big apple pie, which I swore I would never make again - came together without a hitch.

Mishaps were easily dealt with: when the roll dough I was working with (a new recipe that I'd altered slightly - still not sure what went wrong) just would not behave normally, even after an hour of doctoring/waiting, I tossed it and was still able to have fresh rolls on the table at 6:00.



I was able to add two new recipes: these sugared cranberries which looked beautiful and were a good way to use up part of a leftover bag of berries, and this from-scratch green bean casserole which I absolutely loved (but I'm glad I didn't try it for Thanksgiving because I don't think it would've gone over well with the traditionalists).

When I realized in the midst of getting ready to put the ham in the oven that I'd forgotten to buy apple cider, I confidently subbed in chicken broth, and wasn't upset when it meant that the final product wasn't quite as good as last year's.

I'm so happy that even though everything in my kitchen doesn't turn out perfectly every time, I now have the experience and confidence not to panic, or get frustrated and give up, or even worse, let it ruin the celebration. Because a happy, healthy family, gathered together around the table, laughing and eating, is of course what the holidays are really about.

I love this kind of Sunday

Hubby spent the day reading The Fellowship of the Ringto the kids and then watching football while the kids were upstairs building giant forts out of every pillow and blanket in the house.

I spent the day in the kitchen. Hadn't planned on it, but things kept coming up, and at the end of the day, I was looking at this counter full of food. I love it.



Today's breakfast treat was pumpkin doughnut muffins, recommended by Di. I made a half recipe, which made eight muffins. I baked them for 26 minutes; we loved the flavor but they were a tad dry...I'll take them out earlier next time.

Rebecca tweeted about Sara's baked applesauce yesterday, conveniently a day we spent at the orchard. I made 5 pounds of apples with a sprinkling of sugar, cinnamon, and fresh nutmeg, and they baked for about 55 minutes. It made a much smaller yield than I'm accustomed to, but this is easily the best applesauce I've ever tasted in my life (and that's with forgetting to add the pats of butter!).

My little girl has a cold and was sneezy and drippy all morning; I said, "What about chicken noodle soup for dinner tonight?" "YES! [it's a favorite] With flour bread!" That's what the kiddos call ciabatta, because of the dusting of flour. I got right to work, using the recipe from ABED, and letting five hours in the middle of the day sub for the overnight rest it's supposed to get.

And then I remembered reading Deb's post for chicken noodle soup the other day, and decided to give it a try. I always make turkey stock for gravy, but believe it or not, I've never made my own chicken stock for soup. I ended up using a combination of Deb's recipe and the recipe from ATK's family cookbook. Knowing that I wanted broth for tonight's soup, as well as tomorrow's dinner, I upped the recipe by about half. The soup was so good, with a light and clear broth. I'm not sure it will fit into our schedules to make it this way all the time (we eat chicken noodle soup a lot), but if I have a Sunday at home, I can certainly see stocking up (hehe) again.

Finally, I picked up a bag of Meyer lemons at the grocery store today and it's been ages since we've had homemade ice cream, so I whipped up a batch of Meyer lemon curd frozen yogurt.

It was a good day.

Homemade chicken stock
makes 13 cups broth, 6 cups cubed chicken
5 pounds chicken pieces (I used 4 leg quarters and 2 bone-in breasts)
1 1/2 onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
1 T salt
freshly ground pepper
12 c water
1 T safflower oil
1. In large stock pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened and beginning to brown, about 4 minutes.
2. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and add half to the pan, making sure the skin is touching the bottom of the pan. Cook 10 minutes, until chicken is nicely browned. Remove first batch of chicken and repeat with second batch.
3. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer with the lid mostly on until chicken is done (took about 45 minutes for me; some of my chicken pieces were very large). (Skim off scum as necessary.)
4. Remove chicken. Let cool, remove skin and bones, and chop.
5. Strain stock into a large measuring cup.

Chicken noodle soup
makes 7 servings
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 parsnips, chopped
1 small potato, chopped
1 tsp dried thyme
8 c broth
6 oz egg noodles
3 c cubed chicken
1. Heat oil in large stock pot (I used the same one I'd cooked the stock in) over medium heat. Add veggies and cook for 4 minutes.
2. Add broth, bring to a boil, and simmer 15 minutes.
3. Add noodles and cook for time on package, adding the chicken for the last 2 minutes of cooking time.
4. Serve with flour bread and fresh baked applesauce. :-)


A simple meal, but it makes me happy to know that I know the ingredients of everything I put on the table because it was all made right here.

CI veggie soup

The cool breeze in the air (it was in the 40s when we got up this morning!) makes me anxious for fall baking, and we started today with these pumpkin donuts from KAF.




But it's not fall yet, and we still have a fridge full of CSA veggies to use up. We are nearing the end of our CSA summer, and I'm breathing a little sigh of relief that the pressure to use all of these veggies will soon be gone. At the same time, I'm sad to say goodbye to the abundance of summertime produce...not to mention summertime weather. :-)

With school back in session, my free time to browse magazines and websites for veggie recipes is just about zero, so I was beyond excited to see a recipe in my newest issue of Cook's Illustrated (the iPad version, which I just love!) that used up almost every single vegetable from this week's box: eggplant, summer squash, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, basil.

I was a little skeptical because the recipe didn't call for any typical soup filler: no meat, no beans, no pasta. Still, I wasn't going to pass up a perfect opportunity to use up my veggies. I made the soup this morning; as long as it called for a 20 minute rest to "let the flavors meld," I figured it wouldn't hurt to let it rest all day. Besides, soups are usually better when they're reheated.

The flavors in this soup were just amazing, so complex and interesting; it has to be one of my favorites ever. I served it with cheese, fruit, and ciabatta from ABED. A perfect summer-turning-to-fall dinner.



I adjusted quite a few of the ingredient amounts because I just used what I had in the fridge. I get the feeling that this is quite a flexible recipe, and I would happily make it again with whatever amounts of the veggies I receive next week.

Italian vegetable soup
adapted from Cook's Illustrated
makes 6 servings

1/3 cup fresh basil
2 T dried oregano
2 tsp minced garlic
2 T evoo
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1 eggplant (mine was 7.5 oz), peeled and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/4 lb potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
2 T tomato paste
2 c water
28 oz fresh tomatoes, peeled and diced (or 28 oz can), save juices
1 - 2 summer squash (mine was 12 oz), cut into 1/2 inch chunks
2 bell peppers (mine were orange), seeded and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 T olive oil
basil

1. Process the first five ingredients (basil through red pepper) in the food processor to make a paste.
2. Toss the eggplant with 1tsp salt and lay on a plate covered in coffee filters. Microwave on high until shriveled, about 8 minutes, tossing half way through.
3. Heat 1 T oil in a large dutch oven over high heat. Cook eggplant, potatoes,and onion for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Push veggies aside and add 1 T and the tomato paste, cooking until the tomato sauce starts to brown, 1 or 2 minutes. Stir the sauce in with the veggies.
4. Add the tomatoes, tomato juices, and water to the pot, and bring to a boil. Turn down to medium, cover, and cook for 20 minutes.
5. In a large skillet, heat 1 T of oil over medium-high. Add the peppers, squash, and 1/2 tsp salt. Cook for 10 minutes, until veggies are browned and softened. Push them aside and add the paste from step 1. Cook for a minute until fragrant, and then stir it in with the veggies.
6. Turn off the heat on the soup and then add the squash/pepper mixture. Pour a little liquid from the soup into the skillet and use it to scrape up any browned bits; stir those in to the soup, too.
7. Cover and let the soup rest for 20 minutes, or refrigerate until later in the day. Add fresh basil before serving.

Turkey wild rice soup in bread bowls

Sometimes, things are just supposed to happen: within a few days, I finished the Mellow Baker challenge, which means I can bake any bread I want (yay!), KAF wrote a post about bread bowls, and Nancy, Rebecca, and I, visiting over Twitter Saturday night, decided Sunday should be soup day. Yep, this meal was meant to be.

I actually made a really similar meal last year for Christmas Eve (here's the post). These bread bowls came together more quickly, a really easy recipe. And I much preferred this wild rice soup recipe (plus it made a whole lot more).

Bread bowls
adapted from King Arthur Flour

50 g unsalted butter, melted
283 g lukewarm water
100 g bread flour
100 g white whole wheat flour
50 g semolina flour
200 g all-purpose flour
10 g (1 1/4 tsp) salt
15 g (1 tbsp) sugar
35 g (1/2 c) dry potato flakes
14 g nonfat dry milk
9 g (2 1/2 tsp) instant yeast

1. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. (I used my stand mixer.) Knead or mix with the dough hook for 3 or 4 minutes until a smooth dough forms.
2. Place the dough in a large bowl lightly coated with cooking spray and allow to rise until doubled (about 60-90 minutes).
3. Divide the dough into six pieces (mine were 144 g each) and round each piece into a large ball. Place the balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap.
4. If baking right away, allow to rise until puffy, 60-90 minutes. I mixed the dough early in the morning, so put the covered baking sheet into the fridge for the day. I pulled the tray out about an hour before baking the rolls.
5. Bake the rolls for 25 minutes at 350º. Cool on the pan.
6. Cut a cone shape out of the top of each bread bowl, fill with soup, and serve!

KAF instructs you to pull out all of the bread from the bowl; I just use my fingers to press it in. The bowl isn't quite as big that way, but you get lovely chunks of bread in each spoonful of soup. These bowls are fairly small; each only held 1/2 cup of soup. I'd be wary of making the bowls bigger, though; that's an awful lot of bread. The 1/2 cup was perfect for the kiddos. Hubby and I just refilled our bowls once.

Creamy wild rice-turkey-ham soup
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 8 servings (about 1 to 1 1/2 cups each)

1 tbsp butter 
1 1/2 c chopped carrot (3 large carrots)
2 1/2 c chopped onion (1 giant onion)
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp minced garlic
32 oz fat-free chicken broth
2 c chopped turkey (I used Christmas dinner leftovers that I'd frozen)
1 c chopped turkey ham
1 c uncooked wild rice
3 tbsp butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 3/4 c 2% milk
2 tbsp dry sherry
1/2 tsp salt

1. Melt 1 tbsp butter in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add carrot, onion, ham, spices, pepper, and garlic, and sauté until softened, about 8 minutes.
2. Stir in wild rice and turkey. Add broth and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for one hour, or until rice is tender.
3. About 10 minutes before the timer beeps, make a roux. (Cooking Light didn't include this step, but it was suggested by one of the commenters. Ours definitely didn't taste floury, so maybe it was worth dirtying the extra pan.) Melt 2 tbsp butter in a saucepan. Whisk in the flour and stir until flour turns a nice light brown, about 5 or 6 minutes. Whisk in the milk a bit at a time until smooth.
4. Add the roux, sherry, and salt, and cook (uncovered) for about 8 more minutes or until thickened.

Sesame bread sticks (Mellow Bakers) and winter veggie soup

My second Mellow Bakers bread for October is a rarity in my bread baking books: the kids and I mixed up the dough for sesame bread sticks when we got home (about 3:00), and we ate the bread sticks for dinner at 5:30....talk about fast!

The dough is made from bread flour, salt, instant yeast, water, olive oil, and malt syrup, mixed together in the stand mixer for about four minutes. It rises for an hour, and then is scaled into 24 pieces weighing about 3/8 ounce each. These rest for 15 minutes and then comes the fun part; Natashya commented that little kids would love to help roll the "snakes," and she was absolutely right. My kids were thrilled to roll the pieces into long snakes, which I lengthened a bit, rolled on a wet cloth, and then rolled through a plate of sesame seeds. They're baked immediately for 20 - 25 minutes (ours were a little fat, so took a little longer).

These were a huge hit, and a perfect accompaniment to one of our new favorite soups. Next time, I'll probably skip the plain sesame seed topping. The kids made me scrape them off so they could eat the bread sticks plain, and the hubby and I preferred the "everything" version I made when I ran out of sesame seeds (sesame seeds, dried garlic, dried onion, and poppy seeds). I kept the sticks in a large zip baggie, and they were still good days later.

And now the soup! Several weeks ago, I was looking for a way to use up some leftover ham and a huge amount of CSA vegetables. I found this recipe, which I doctored based on what we needed to use up. Even if this soup wasn't delicious (which it is!), I would seriously make it just for the gorgeous array of colors in the bowl!

Winter veggie soup
adapted from Cooking Light

2 tsp olive oil
4 oz (125 g) chopped ham or turkey ham
1 large onion (125 g), chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
4 c (520 g) peeled, cubed acorn squash
2 c (315 g) peeled, chopped potatoes
1/2 c (80 g) carrot, chopped
1 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper
28 oz tomatoes (I've used cans of stewed, diced, whole, and even fresh), drained (or not)
4 - 5 c chicken broth
4 cups (130 g) chopped greens (my favorite combination is kale, spinach, and red cabbage)
15 oz can small white beans (I've used pinto, great Northern)

1. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the ham and sauté for 3 minutes.
2. Add the onion and garlic and sauté for another 3 minutes.
3. Add the squash, potatoes, carrot, and spices, and cook for 4 minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes, and cook for 2 minutes.
5. Stir in the broth and bring soup to a boil. Simmer for 8 minutes.
6. Add greens, and simmer for 5 minutes.
7. Add beans, and cook for 4 minutes.
8. Serve.

makes about 8 servings (2 cups each)