Chicken Noodle Soup

My household has, within the last 5 months, purchased a 1/6 of a cow and a 1/2 of a pig.

While at the indoor farmer's market at the Milwaukee Domes this last Saturday, I felt the need to complete the trifecta of delicious farm animals and purchase a whole chicken. With a plethora of winter root vegetables in season I thought, what would be better than to make a chicken noodle soup on a cold Packer-less Sunday. So I also picked up some carrots and celeriac, which is celery root. I've never cooked with or even heard of celeriac so I felt like being adventurous and gave it a try. Not very pretty, but tastes, smells and acts just like celery, but without the stringy texture. I approve.

Here is the link to the Winter Farmer's Market

First time making chicken stock from a whole chicken. I did have at least 2 phone calls into Mom.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Put the chicken into a large pot of water. The whole chicken I bought was cut up, which I definitely recommend due to the ease of it. Add 2 small onions, cut up into large pieces, 3 cloves of garlic, fresh sage, 1 bay leaf, 1 shallot and 1/2 of a cut up pealed celeriac.

Let this mixture come to a boil and simmer until the chicken turns white and starts to fall off of the bone. Strain the chicken and vegetables and you have your stock.

 

 

Pick the chicken from the bone and set aside. Peal 3-4 carrots, 1 1/2 bulbs of celery root and cut into pieces. Cut up 1 onion, 1 shallot and mince 3 cloves of garlic.

 



Add all ingredients to the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add salt, pepper and fresh sage. When the vegetables are starting to get soft add egg noodles and cook about 10 minutes or until noodles are cooked to your liking. I serve with fresh parmesan cheese on top and a slice of Italian bread with butter.

 



 

Frozen Herb and Oil Tarts

While I was chopping up garlic for the last post's fries, I realized I had lots of leftover garlic.

Can I say that I LOVE GARLIC.

But not everyone shares my love for this vampire deterring bulb. So I dug through the catalog of my brain and the many hours of trolling the food pins of Pinterest and came up with an idea for the leftovers.




I put the minced garlic in a tiny Tupperware (I also LOVE Tupperware) and simply added olive oil. Put this in the freezer and you've got a quick seasoning starter for sautéing meat, veggies or anything that you're cooking on the stovetop.

I also had some leftover fresh parsley and added that to another container.



Ta-Da! Herb and Oil Tarts.

End of a Football Season, Beginning of a Blog

Last Sunday marked the end of rollercoaster ride of a football season for the Green Bay Packers. It also marked the first meal I am going to document with the beginning of this blog.

Most of the meals I make in the months between September and January center around cooking for a crowd before, during or after watching the Packers. Nothing makes me happier than to spend all Sunday cooking, drinking and eating with friends. I will now have to come up with excuses to make meals for people...like my dog Vince's birthday

So let's get to the food.

Lamb Pitas with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce and Oven Baked Garlic Fries
My mouth's watering just remembering the meal.

Lamb Pitas
So I started by getting 4 lbs of lamb cut into about 1 inch cubes and marinated them for about 24 hours in a mixture of salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and of course, when in WI, stout beer.

After the completing the marination phase (did I make up the word marination?) I just pan fried the meat in some olive oil until slightly past medium. I wanted to keep them on the more medium side since I put it in a slow cooker to keep them warm and it would continue to cook slightly.

Cucumber Yogurt Sauce
Sauce is boss when it comes to pitas, and what's more tasty than cucumber sauce. Measurements are approximate.

2 1/2 cups plain Greek yogurt
1 cucumber, grated
2 tsp Greek seasoning (pre-mixed seasoning, but most important spice is oregano)
1 tbsp. minced garlic (I use the pre-minced refrigerator kind, quick and easy and you get more liquid)
juice of 1/2 of a lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Pretty easy to make, just mix all ingredients together and you've got your sauce. I usually grate the cucumber into the bowl first using a cheese grater on the large side to you can get bigger pieces and the cucumber juice too. I then add the yogurt, seasonings and lemon, mix together and done!

Oven Baked Garlic Fries
This was my first time making homemade fries and I have to say they turned out perfect.

5 large baking potatoes
3-4 large garlic cloves
1/8 - 1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper
1 bunch of fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Scrub potatoes and cut into wedges. I used an apple cutter and sliced them down the long way. It also made 1 piece a long tube, which make those pieces pretty fun to eat. Place potatoes in a large bowl and coat with 1/8 cup or more of olive oil. Toss potatoes and oil with minced garlic, salt and pepper. Once coated lay fries on a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes and turn, repeat 2 times for a total of 30 minutes. Mix remaining olive oil with remaining garlic and chopped parsley (aprox. 1 tsp.) brush fries with this mixture and crank up the heat to 500 degrees for 5 minutes. Once complete, you can test the fries buy poking them with a fork and if the fork goes in easily, you are good to go!

 


Garnishes for the lamb pitas included feta cheese, with the Greek seasonings of course, onion, tomato and olives.

The Packers may not have won, but this meal did.