Chicken Chowder

Farmhouse Chicken Chowder

Please do yourself a favor and make this soup.  I'm not kidding.  It's so yummy.  And it's easy, which means bonus points in my book.

Lucinda Scala Quinn, one of my favorite TV cooks, who's show is "Mad Hungry", makes this.  I ripped it off, plain and simple.  So, credit her when you taste this simply delicious delight.

She calls it Farmhouse Chicken Chowder.  I call it yum.

It's so simple I'm pretty sure my 12-year old could do it. Oh!  And it's economical, too.

First, you take two chicken breasts, bone-in, skin on and put it in a good sized pot with 6 cups of chicken stock.  I use low sodium.  I also happened to use 7 cups stock.  It so happened that's what 4 cans of the stock I bought (on sale) turned out to be.  Big deal.  It's one more cup.

Simmer the chicken, bone on, skin on in chicken stock.  

So, you simmer the chicken in the chicken stock for 20 minutes.  Take out the chicken and let it rest and cool off.  DON'T PITCH THE STOCK.

Parsnips, onion, turnip and carrot.  Yummy.

Meanwhile, chop up a carrot (I used two because they were teeny), a parsnip (I used two because I like parsnips), one turnip and 1/2 of an onion.

Now, before this recipe, I'd never cooked with turnip and parsnip.  I like turnip, but I now LOVE parsnip.  Yum.  Like a carrot, but white.  Oh, and did I mention these veggies cost pennies?

Except for the onions, I cut my veggies into little 1/2 inch cubes, but whatever.

In a pan over medium heat, melt 2 TBSP of butter and stir in the chopped onion.  Let those onions get good and transparent, but not brown.

Add 2 TBSP flour.

Lucinda recommends Wondra and what a wonder it is.  I don't know what rock I've been living under, what with never having eaten turnips and parsnips before, but I'd never heard of Wondra flour.  Now I do.  Now I love it.

Wondra.  What a wonder.  Ha!  So punny.

Add the onion and flour mixture and the other veggies and simmer for about 6 minutes.

Meanwhile, take the skin off the chicken and the chicken off the bone.  Shred or cube the chicken.

shred it

Add it back into the broth and get it warm again.  Add salt to taste.  And then stir in 1/4 cup of heavy cream.

I've done this with just milk (2%) and it's just fine.  Half and half?.  It's fine.  I even think leaving out the milk/cream is just fine.  But man, is it delicious with it.

Pour that goodness into a bowl and top with a little dill.  I didn't because the dill I had in the fridge looked icky and black and I was sure it was grotty.  And it was delicious without the dill.

(Pete says he likes it better without dill - just an FYI).

I served it this time with some outstanding homemade bread Pete had just made.  (different post down the road).  But I've also made it with these cheesy biscuits Lucinda makes too.  They are so good. But I gotta keep some pounds off, so not this time.  Next time.

Let me know what you think.  I think you (and your family) will love it.  Soooooooooooo good.


RECIPE
Farmhouse Chicken Chowder (by Lucinda Scala Quinn)
2 chicken breasts, bone-in, skin on
6 C low sodium chicken stock
1/2 onion chopped
1 small turnip, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 or 2 parsnips, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 large carrot, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 tbsp flour (Wondra is best)
2 tbsp butter
salt to taste
1/4 C heavy cream
Chopped dill to garnish (optional)

Simmer chicken breasts in stock for 20 minutes.  Remove breasts to a plate to cool.  Leave stock in pot.

Melt butter in pan on medium heat.  Add onions and cook until translucent.  Add flour.  Pour flour/onion mixture into stock.

Add other cut veggies into stock and simmer for about 6 minutes, until tender.   Meanwhile, shred chicken and discard skin and bones.  Add chicken back into stock.  Salt to taste.

Stir cream into soup and serve with a garnish of dill (if desired).

Enjoy!!

Nutella Fudge - OH MY!

Nutella Fudge.  Yep.  Nutella Fudge.  No kidding.

Okay, I admit that I don't always eat well.

Did I just say, "don't always".

Let's correct that.  Mama always said not to lie.

I almost always eat something really rotten for me at LEAST once a day.

So, when I saw a recipe on Pinterest (totally addicted to this site - but that's another blog post), for Nutella Fudge, I knew I had met a new love of my life.

And, oh baby, is it good!

Wait, I said I wouldn't lie.

It's abso-freak-your-face-de-lummy!

And even better.  It's so easy.  Five ingredients.  Top that.

So hats off to whomever originally came up with this idea.  It certainly wasn't me.  I'm a fan.

This is how easy it is:

Over a simmering pot of water, mix in a bowl:
-a jar of Nutella (the smaller one - about 1 cup)
-1 tsp of vanilla extract
-8oz. good chocolate (at least 60% cacao)
-1 can sweetened condensed milk

Melt it all together (don't let the water touch the bottom of the bowl).

So easy a 14-year-old boy can do it.

Pour into a parchment lined 8 x 8 pan.  I don't have one of those, so I used two loaf pans.  Cool it, flip it onto a plate, peel off the parchment and sprinkle on the key ingredient -- sea salt.

Done.

I don't know, but I'm thinking you could use kosher if you needed, but I don't think table salt would be a smart choice.

That's it.  Simple.  Delicious.  It's chocolate, Nutella, vanilla, condensed milk and salt.  How do you mess that up?  Sweet.  Salty.  Yum.

It's so good, the kids have been eating it like it's completely calorie free.  Which it isn't.  I can already tell it's going to cost me more time in the gym.

Oh well.  It's worth it.

Roast your own almonds

My friend Shelley is a nut.  Well, a nut freak.  And, frankly, so am I.  I don't love nuts in my baked goods so much. What I really like is a nutty taste.  Peanut butter makes me swoon (I know, it's a legume, but you get what I'm saying, right?).  Almond butter is delummy.  Almonds, I think, are delicious in general.  But man, are they expensive.  And, if you buy the already roasted and salted ones, they are often too salty.

So Shelley showed me how she roasts her almonds.  It's so simple it makes me laugh out loud.  And it makes me and my belly really happy.  And an extra benefit - it's economical and healthier than many other options.

That's because you start with raw, unsalted almonds.  They sell them in nice big packages for about $3.99 at my grocery store in the produce section, of all places.

Pour a handful or so onto a microwavable plate.  Drizzle on some olive oil and mix 'em up with your fingers so some oil gets on all the almonds.

Pop the plate in the microwave and cook them for 3 minutes.  That's approximate.  You sort of need to play this one by ear.  I like them cooked for 3:30 minutes, but that sometimes means I get a more burnt almond - which I really don't mind too much.  It also depends on the strength of your microwave.

Then, salt them with as much or as little salt as you like.  I usually use kosher or sea salt.  I just like the texture better, but table salt works fine.

And here's the hard part.  Walk away and let them cool down.  Sure, you can eat them hot.  But, I think because the moisture still in the nut, they'll be kinda chewy.  Yuck.  Ten minutes later, they are fabulous.  Heck, when I get up in the morning, I often pop a plate of them in the microwave and let 'em sit until they are cool and then throw them in a little ziploc-style baggie and take them to work to snack on all day.

They are nutty and yummy and worth a try if you, like me, are a little nutty about nuts.  Enjoy!

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

How many times have you heard that?  It must be true.

I am constantly on a quest to lose what I feel is about 10 pounds.   And every trainer, nutritionist and gym rat tells me, 'you gotta eat a great breakfast'.

So, I've learned to love oatmeal.  In all forms.  I make a wicked baked oatmeal, which I will definitely share later.  Delicious.  But mostly, I nuke a quarter cup of quick oats, add some almond butter and splenda and call this a done deal.

But as I said, I'm always on a quest.

So, at the gym the other day, I'm eating oatmeal and this 5'11" amazing blond instructor is creating a concoction fit for the birds.  Yet, I'm interested.  It was a combination of hemp seeds (yes, that hemp), chia seeds (as in, 'cha cha cha chia'), goji berries and almond milk.  Now, I like nutty flavors and textures. I love nuts.  And this combination was right in my taste and texture wheelhouse.

Plus, she says it fills her up all day.

All day?  Awesome.  I'm in.

A trip to the local Whole Foods bulk department and I left with Almond Milk (vanilla) chia and hemp seeds.  No goji berries. They were out.  So, I got raspberries.  I like them better anyway.

I've come up with my own little muesli of sorts, so here is what I"m eating (right now, as it happens) for breakfast:

2 tbsp chia seeds
2 tsp hemp seeds (if I test positive for drugs I will be so mad)
2 tbsp flax seeds
raspberries
1/4 C vanilla almond milk (plus more because all those seeds suck up the milk in a hurry and it's like glue)

This will NOT be for everyone.  No doubt.  And, I'm not an extreme eater, let me just state that clearly.  But I'm giving it a shot.  Say, a week or two.  It's supposed to make me not jones out for food in an hour or two and give me energy.  We will see.  I'll keep you, as they say, posted.

Meanwhile, I need some floss.