My first from-scratch soup made without a recipe! Ta-Da!
First, I boiled a whole chicken. Yep....just threw it in a pot with some onion, carrots and celery and filled it up past the chicken. Oh, and I added plenty of salt, a small handful. I'm usually guilty of not seasoning enough. I boiled that chicken for about 45 minutes, then took it out and carved it. And by carved, I mean pulled the meat off barbarically. :) I threw it back in the pot with some sauteed peppers and onions and cooked tortellini. Lastly, I tossed in fresh baby spinach leaves. Voila! Lunch, with a ton of leftovers. The only thing that I thought that it could use was some mushrooms.
Can't wait to make some homemade soup again. This weather certainly calls for it.
Showing posts with label ginny. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ginny. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Taking the Reins
As I've mentioned before, my husband is the cook. I CAN cook, but he's more of the family chef than I am. I can certainly feed my family, and I can make good food, but fancy food is not in my reparte.
Except for last night, where I have to say I made a pretty damn good Chicken Marsala.
Chicken Marsala is my favorite meal. It's what I judge a new (to me) restaurant on, and a favorite at some of my favorites. So when I saw that Brian had put it on the menu with rice and steamed zucchini, I was excited for a Monday night dinner. Being excited for anything on a Monday is a stretch, so this was a big deal.
In comes Murphy's Law. Good Ol' Mr. Murphy likes Mondays. And a big monkey wrench was thrown into the Chicken Marsala plans. Huge accident on the MassPike involving a coffee truck overturning and leaking fuel, which naturally brought gridlock and a rotten commute for all. Even for me, the lady who has nothing to complain about now that she has a itty bitty commute compared to the big honking 35-miles-each-way-through-Hell that I had years ago. I called Brian on the way home and reported the mess, and told him that it was going to take a while. He said that we could order sandwiches when he got home, whenever that was going to be.
Upon getting home though, I remembered that driving in that kind of mess just sucks the energy right out of you. Sometimes Brian would have a hot meal waiting for me and the travel stress would just slide away like water off a duck's back. So my mind was made up...dammit, I'm going in.....to the kitchen.
Instead of rice, I chose mashed potatoes since potatoes go bad a lot faster than rice. I pounded chicken breasts, sauteed mushrooms and onions, made sauce from scratch. All while feeding the kids sliced apples and leftover homemade mac n cheese with ham and fielding math questions from Sean and Minecraft video recaps from Will. At one point my house grew very smoky, and I had to run around opening doors and windows. (No fire alarms!) I was plating the chicken as the garage door opened, and everything was perfect. Well, truth be told the house was a little chilly because I forgot to close the dining room window. Usually I'm the chilly one but I was in a camisole and busting my butt in the kitchen! The chicken was perfectly cooked, soft without a hint of "rubber." The mushroom and onions didn't burn at all and the sauce was blended nicely. Awesome, I pulled it off!!!
And Brian? He loved it. Not that our local sandwich place doesn't have mighty fine wares, but a homecooked meal from someone that loves you at the end of a stressful day....nothing better than that.
Except for last night, where I have to say I made a pretty damn good Chicken Marsala.
Chicken Marsala is my favorite meal. It's what I judge a new (to me) restaurant on, and a favorite at some of my favorites. So when I saw that Brian had put it on the menu with rice and steamed zucchini, I was excited for a Monday night dinner. Being excited for anything on a Monday is a stretch, so this was a big deal.
In comes Murphy's Law. Good Ol' Mr. Murphy likes Mondays. And a big monkey wrench was thrown into the Chicken Marsala plans. Huge accident on the MassPike involving a coffee truck overturning and leaking fuel, which naturally brought gridlock and a rotten commute for all. Even for me, the lady who has nothing to complain about now that she has a itty bitty commute compared to the big honking 35-miles-each-way-through-Hell that I had years ago. I called Brian on the way home and reported the mess, and told him that it was going to take a while. He said that we could order sandwiches when he got home, whenever that was going to be.
Upon getting home though, I remembered that driving in that kind of mess just sucks the energy right out of you. Sometimes Brian would have a hot meal waiting for me and the travel stress would just slide away like water off a duck's back. So my mind was made up...dammit, I'm going in.....to the kitchen.
Instead of rice, I chose mashed potatoes since potatoes go bad a lot faster than rice. I pounded chicken breasts, sauteed mushrooms and onions, made sauce from scratch. All while feeding the kids sliced apples and leftover homemade mac n cheese with ham and fielding math questions from Sean and Minecraft video recaps from Will. At one point my house grew very smoky, and I had to run around opening doors and windows. (No fire alarms!) I was plating the chicken as the garage door opened, and everything was perfect. Well, truth be told the house was a little chilly because I forgot to close the dining room window. Usually I'm the chilly one but I was in a camisole and busting my butt in the kitchen! The chicken was perfectly cooked, soft without a hint of "rubber." The mushroom and onions didn't burn at all and the sauce was blended nicely. Awesome, I pulled it off!!!
And Brian? He loved it. Not that our local sandwich place doesn't have mighty fine wares, but a homecooked meal from someone that loves you at the end of a stressful day....nothing better than that.
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