Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

My family doesn't eat much meat. It's not on purpose, we're just really not all that into it. But we do eat a decent amount of bacon, and then there's chicken. Chicken is one of my favorite foods - whether it's in an Italian, Chinese, Mexican or American dish. Chicken is just plain awesome. And it shows its flavor the best in one of the most classic recipes on Earth - chicken noodle soup. Chicken noodle soup is the soup that soothes the soul, warms the body, and brings a family together. It's an unforgettable smell and flavor, and it heats up the whole house while it's cooking. And let me just say the canned stuff doesn't do this - the home cooked kind - justice.


For the best soup, use high quality ingredients with superb flavor. The broth is going to be the most important part, so don't skimp on it. If you can, make your own. If you can't, buy the best you can. But even if you only have access to the bare minimum, a little broth, chicken, noodles and salt still makes a superb soup. So give it a try.

I can promise you this is going to be delicious. :)

Serves 8

You Will Need:

• 1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken, cubed
• 4 cups broth (use chicken for best flavor, but beef, turkey, vegetarian and pork also work)
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, sliced (optional - I don't like celery so I don't add this)
• 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced or minced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 oz pasta
• 1-2 handfuls dark greens (kale, spinach, chard, etc.)
• Salt and pepper, to taste

In the bottom of your soup pot add olive oil. Over medium heat, saute onion and chicken until cooked and lightly browned. Add broth, carrot, onion, celery, garlic, bay leaves and dried thyme. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Uncover and return to medium heat. Add in pasta and dark greens. Bring to a low boil, stirring occasionally. Cook until pasta is fully cooked (about 15 minutes). Add salt and pepper as needed.

Serve and enjoy. :) This is a great dish to cook on cold nights, because it fills the house with warmth and yummy smells. For a complete meal, serve with these teff dinner rolls.

Easy Garlic Croutons

I love garlic. I also love butter. And french bread. So when all three are combined to become something else I love, croutons, it just about makes my day. These are great served over onion soup, salad, or just eaten plain. :)

You Will Need:

• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups stale french bread, cubed

In a pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic, saute until it starts to turn golden brown. Then, add bread cubes. Toss and saute until they start to golden, add salt, and continue to saute until lightly browned. Let cool, then serve, or store at room temperature.

Recipes of the Week

We got to go to the farmers market again this week, and oh joy, did I love what I found! Fresh honey, roasted coffee beans, rice crispy treats, berries, and.... lots and lots of fresh vegetables. We ended up coming home with:

• Pluats, a cross between plums and apricots (SO delicious)
• Raspberries, tay berries and blackberries
• Swiss Chard
• Red candy onions
• White zuchini and green zuchini
• Fresh honey, in a plain ol' mason jar (no lable or anything, they're officially my favorite honey dealer)
• Lots and lots of kale

Anyways, here's what I've been cooking this week. As always, I've personally tried each and every recipe listed here, and they've been a huge success. I hope you'll like them as well.

• Herbed-Baked Eggs by Ina Garten (I added sauteed kale, cheddar cheese and red onions to mine)
• Chai Tea from Eating from the Ground Up
• Oven Fried Onion Rings from Zoom Yummy
• Instant Cocoa Mix from Take Back Your Table 
• Onion Soup with Garlic Croutons from Eating from the Ground Up 
• Homemade Coffee Creamer from Deliciously Organic (Cinnamon Strudel and Peppermint mocha were the ones I made)

You might notice all of these are vegetarian. This is totally on accident, but my mom pointed it out and I thought it was pretty cool. My family went vegetarian for a few months last year, and we've just never totally transitioned from it. We still eat bacon, chicken and fish, but not much else. We buy the majority of our meat from a local, organic, grass-fed farm. The current method of corporate agriculture is awful to the animals, so our lack of meat consumption is largely compassion-based, but it's also health based. Too much meat just isn't healthy for you.

So, if you're interested, give it a try. It's pretty cool being a vegetarian. And you don't even have to eat soy!

There are lots of amazing foods you can still have being vegetarian. I love cooking so many lovely recipes. It makes my mealtime, and through it my life, absolutely beautiful and delicious. :)

How to Dry Garlic

I recently found myself with a fairly large amount of fresh garlic, and realized that it wouldn't last long enough for me to use all of it. I quite often buy garlic, dried, from the grocery store but I've never dealt with fresh garlic. And let me tell you, the smell alone of fresh garlic is simply sublime. But the taste... ooh baby~

So I've got a whole bunch of delicious local, organic garlic and I don't want it to go bad. The logical solution? Dry it.

Here's how you can dry your own fresh garlic (from your own garden or the farmers market) yourself:

Take a bunch of fresh garlic. Tye it up, and hang it in a cool, dry place. Let dry there for a couple weeks (elephant garlic needs four weeks or more). When dry, store it in a cool, dry place. I keep mine in a basket on the counter. It'll keep like that for months.

I think this is one of my favorite parts of gardening: preserving the harvest. It remind me of Under the Tuscan Sun...

Enjoy!