Forty-first Post ~ A Word on Mussels

So I've taken a little cooking hiatus, since I've spent the better part of the holidays at home with my family. And I think nearly all of my readers would agree that when you're given the opportunity to enjoy home-cooked meals from your mama's kitchen every day of the week, you seize that opportunity and you don't let it go. While staying at home, I did learn some valuable recipes from my mom, which I'll be detailing in later posts, including:

~ Perfect hamburgers, every time

~ New Year's Lobster Tails

~ Luscious Cranberry Torte

~ Melt-in-your-mouth Pork Tenderloin...

And many more. But tonight, I'd like to focus on a particular mollusk that I'm a big fan of.

Tonight was one of my first nights back in my apartment, so I thought it apropos that I cook one of the first meals that started me on this interesting journey: mussels in a tomato and wine sauce. I know I featured this recipe when I blogged a few months back about clams, but to be honest, I think that the little-recognized mussel deserves its day in the sun.

Mussels, to begin with, are a heck of a lot cheaper than clams. Clams ring in at $14.99 for a bag of 50 while a 2 lb bag of mussels runs you $4.99. I paid just under $2 for my usual boat of 15 mussels. As previously stated, they're not called "famine food" for nothing.

Call me crazy, but I also just think that mussels taste better than clams. As soon as they hit the sauce this evening, my kitchen filled with the fresh smell of the sea. And by that I don't mean "of seafood," I mean "of the sea" - fresh, clean, pure.

I crave mussels every so often, and maybe for good reason: one pound of mussels contains over 450% of your daily value of vitamin B12. Not to mention a good helping of iron, phosphorus and potassium.

So here's the recipe, in case you didn't catch it the first time around. Don't forget a nice crusty baguette (Paneras or Wegmans fit the bill on this one!) to soak up the sauce.

Here's what you'll need if you're cooking for one:

~ Mussels (about 15-20)

~ 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce

~ 1/2 white wine

~ clove (or teaspoon jarred) garlic

~ 1-2 bay leaves

~ Dash of dried thyme

~ Depending on wine used, a splash of lemon juice for some added acidity

Combine sauce, wine, garlic, bay leaves, thyme and lemon juice in a medium sauce pan with a well-fitting lid. As the sauce starts to simmer, add the mussels after cleaning them under running water.

Slap the lid on and walk away for 3-4 minutes. Pour your wine (I highly recommend Pinot Grigio; tonight's was by Pepperwood Grove) and lay a towel down over your tablecloth. Seriously. You may think I'm joking, but I need it, and I was the child that had my grandfather install a bench at the corner of my sandbox so I could play in the sand but not get myself dirty.

Discard any mussels that don't open. Transfer the open mussels into a bowl and enjoy with the bread and wine. A fine, nutritious, inexpensive, easy meal! What's not to love?

Yours in the love of good food and wine,
AL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Fortieth Post (Yay!) ~ Rustic Beef Stew

This stew is very easy, and it fit the bill the other night when I wanted to throw something together that would cook itself while I worked. Here's what you'll need for this stew, which is good to have on hand during stormy winter weather!

~ One package stew beef

~ Carrots (about two handfuls)

~ 2-3 slices from small onion

~ Mushrooms (I used pre-washed criminis and thew them in whole)

~ 5 or so small red potatoes cut into wedges

~ 2 cups water with 5 beef boulion dissolved

~ A splash of red wine

~ Herbs (I used fresh thyme and tarragon. While I recommend the thyme, the tarragon gave the stew a distinctive "sausage" taste and aroma, since, come to find out, it's one of the key herbs used in sausage. So if you like that taste, go for it, if not, find a different herb!)

Here's the tough part - get your crock-pot out of storage and dust it off. Then dump everything in it, slap the lid on, put it on high, and stir every so often. It takes a few hours, but the resulting aroma and taste are worth it! Plus, prep doesn't get much easier than this!

I paired this stew with Sangre del Toro's tempranillo, since that's what I splashed into it to give it a nice balanced taste. It helped diffuse some of the stronger herb taste (ahem ) and its earthiness brought out the flavors in the beef. A good pairing, and a good stew for lunches and dinners to come!

Yours in the love of good food and wine,

AL

Thirty-ninth Post ~ Duck with Tempranillo Reduction

I realize that this is my second post in a row featuring duck. I don't really see that as a bad thing. I bought a package of duck breasts the last time I was at Wegmans, so I guess you should prepare yourselves for at least two more duck entries before the winter is up!

Tonight's dinner was inspired by the fact that I had a Tempranillo on hand and it was just too darn nasty out for me to spare an extra trip to the store. I decided that I could do something creative with the duck to make it red-wine worthy.

So here's what you'll need for tonight's dinner:

~ Duck breast, skin off

~ Red wine

~ Balsamic vinegar

~ Olive oil

~ Garlic

~ Onion

~ Fresh (or dried) thyme

~ Fruit preserves (I favor apricot)

~ Potatoes

~ Salt/Butter

~ Grated parm

In a pan, start the olive oil, and tiny amount of garlic and onion sauteeing with a little less than a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. After it starts hopping around a bit, add some red wine, about two tablespoons of apricot jam, thyme, salt and pepper. Get it really simmering nicely.

In the mean time, boil some sliced red potatoes with some salt, the stalk from the thyme you used for the reduction, and a little olive oil.

After your reduction is starting to meld, add the duck cut into strips. I do this for two reasons: 1) It's faster to cook and 2) There's more surface area to cover in the yummy reduction sauce as it cooks.

As the duck is starting to seem done, move it out to the edges of the pan or take it out completely. You want to cook the sauce down so that it is a true reduction - that is to say, mostly sugar. View the close-up to the left so you can see the texture with all of its sugary goodness.

After the potatoes become "forkable," drain them, butter them, and top with grated parm and a bit of parsley, if you wish. Transfer the duck to the plate and top with a generous amount of sauce.

I served tonight's meal with the same red I used to make the reduction: Sangre del Toro's Tempranillo, direct from Spain. As it is an old-world wine, it is more earthy than fruity, which made a nice complement to the "wild" taste of the duck. This reduction turned out sugary, yet still a bit on the tart side, so if you're cooking with an old-world wine such as this one, you may wish to add a touch of sugar to the reduction. New world wine, with their fruit-forward nature, might not need the extra sugar.

In the end, I thought meal came together nicely, and served to warm me from the inside out against the howling winter storm rattling at my windowpanes!

Yours in the love of good food and wine,
AL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Thirty-eighth Post ~ Duck with Pear and Walnut Dressing

Tonight in class, I created an analogy using Duck à l'Orange. My students have pretty much come to the conclusion that I'm a dork (albeit, I'd like to think, a likeable dork), so that's not really the point of the story.

The point of the story is that as of 8:00 tonight, I began thinking about duck. Therefore, I peeled out of the UB parking lot and headed over to Wegmans, where I bought some duck and a pear.

This is one of those meals that looks a lot more time-intensive than it actually is. Here's what you'll need for tonight's meal:

~ Duck (preferably a breast, skin on or off. I cooked this one with the skin on, but cut it off before I ate it.)

~ Pear (I bought one smallish bosc pear, but I was really hoping for some Seckel pears, but have been unable to find them at Wegmans since I cooked with them once a few months ago)

~ Seasonal dried fruit (I used raisins and cranberries)

~ White wine (I used chardonnay)

~ Apple juice (or cider)

~ Walnuts

~ Olive oil

~ Spices (sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove)

~ Fresh thyme (or dried)

Slice up your pear. Toss it in a stick-free pan with some olive oil, chard and sugar. Add the nuts and dried fruit. Sprinkle liberally with whatever spices you fancy. Add a sprig of thyme. Keep moving it around so it doesn't scorch. As it runs low on liquid, add some apple juice so it remains sweet and fruity and doesn't become too acidic.

In a separate pan, brown the duck in a little oil, thyme and wine. Salt and pepper it.

Once your fruit and walnuts are bubbling at that dangerously hot temperature that only cooking with sugar and oil can produce, move everything around to create a spot in the center for the duck. Place it in the pan carefully with the thyme and oil from the pan you browned it in, and slap on a well-fitting lid with a steam hole.

That's it.

Seriously. Keep checking it every so often, stir it around, take the duck out to check if it's done, but really, this whole meal is a pretty laissez-faire kind of dish.

Once it's done, serve it on a plate with the fruit and walnut dressing all around it. Garnish with a fresh sprig of thyme if you wish. I would recommend scattering a bit of thyme over it once it's served, as it adds a nice fresh taste to the dish.

I served this meal with a chardonnay by Pepperwood Grove, an international wine negotiant that brings us affordable wines from a number of different countries. This chard is Californian, making it fruit-forward, but also oaky enough to balance the earthy taste of the duck and the walnuts.

Overall, this meal encompasses all of the rustic tastes of autumn that I so dearly love!

Yours in the love of food and wine,

AL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Thirty-seventh Post ~ Caramelized Curry Salmon

All day today, I craved salmon. It was all I could think about. Not quite sure why. Raw, roasted, broiled, baked, patty, fillet, steak... I didn't care in what form it presented itself, all I knew was that after teaching tonight I was gonna get me some salmon.

So I got this farm-raised Alaskan fillet for just under $4. Given that I would have gladly forked over $20 at that exact moment of desperation, I thought this was a pretty good deal. I hurried home with it and a fresh bottle of olive oil.

Here's what you'll need for tonight's dinner:

~ Salmon (obviously)

~ Olive oil

~ White wine (I used some leftover chard)

~ Side (I broiled up some red creamer potatoes)

For the rub:

~ Salt

~ Brown sugar

~ Curry powder

~ Dried thyme

~ Ginger powder

~ Paprika

Inspired by my love of sushi, I thought I'd bring a little warmth to this salmon by rubbing it down with the flavors of ginger (my favorite thing to eat with salmon sashimi) and paprika for a little wasabi-like heat.

::PAUSE::

In all reality, my paprika is pretty mild, most likely because it's the same bottle of paprika my mom had in her spice cabinet that we used when I was a child, which is probably the same bottle that was in said spice cabinet when she received it as a gift in the 1970s. So this paprika has had some of the kick aged out of it.

::UNPAUSE::

So get your potatoes cooking, then get your rub prepared for the salmon. Into a prep bowl dump some brown sugar, curry, thyme, ginger, paprika and salt. Mix it around a bit. Take the salmon fillet in one hand and a handful of rub in the other and start rubbing it in. Pat the sugar into the crevices a bit, and then let it sit while you do the dishes from this afternoon, check your email, whatever. Let about 5 minutes pass.

Turn the heat on your stick-free skillet and add some olive oil. Next, pour in a bit of white wine. Shake it around so most of the alcohol burns off. Now, add the salmon, rubbed-side down. Don't shake the pan, just let it sit for a few moments. Let the brown sugar caramelize. After you see the salmon is cooked about 2/3 the way up toward the other side, flip it carefully, as the oil and sugar will be about the temperature of molten rock. Let it cook for a few more moments. Put the side on your plate, then serve up the salmon, again, being really careful of the high levels of heat that have been created in the pan.

I served tonight's meal with the leftover Chilean red from the other night. It paired wonderfully with the salmon, offsetting the sweetness of the caramelization, the earthiness of the thyme and the warmth of the curry and paprika.

All in all, a fulfilling meal. Hopefully this will calm the cravings... at least until my next sushi outing!

Yours in the love of good food and wine and the power they can have over us,

AL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Thirty-sixth Post ~ Sirloin with Mushrooms in Sweet Wine Reduction Over Parmesan Risotto

Ever have one of those days? Not a day where anything bad happens, just a hectic, harried, frenzied day during which your brain is active 110% of the time, and you could really use it an additional 15% or so, if it could just kick it up a notch.

That was today. I came home, changed, played with Ginny, sent emails, worked on a paper, figured out my next day's plans... and then decided that I needed a break. A mental break. So I got out some basic ingredients (steak, risotto, mushrooms, olive oil) and then just let my mind go blank. Absolutely, self-hypnotic, deep, relaxed breathing, trance-like blank.

And I experienced what I can only describe as a culinary black-out.

In the end, sitting down to eat this meal, I thought it was pretty darn good. But the trouble was, I had to think really hard about what I had actually put in it. How did I get from Point A to Point B? So I listed out the ingredients I had used, and marveled at the fact that for probably the first time since I started this blog, my ingredient list made it from one end of my magnetic refrigerator pad to the other.

So basically, tonight's blog entry serves to document this dinner, but it probably fits less into the category of "quick, easy dinners" and better into the category of "what happens when you let your mind empty of thought completely."

So... here's what you'll need for tonight's dinner:

~ Olive oil
~ Sirloin steak cut into cubes
~ Mushrooms (I use triple-washed baby bellas. Always have, probably always will.)
~ Green onion (the stalks of mine went bad a few days ago, but I discovered that the bulb is actually quite nice - same mild onion taste with a bit of sweetness)
~ Fresh (or dried) thyme
~ Red wine
~ Slice of Brie (it's for the sauce, so cut off the rind, and, if you're a hard-core brie-fiend like I am, you'll eat the rind as you cook.)
~ Salt/Pepper to taste
~ Apricot jam
~ Balsamic vinegar
~ Lemon juice
~ Crushed garlic (I've decided to give my garlic crusher a rest for a while - it's just so darn messy and during my 12-day recuperation this past month, I observed that lots of the chefs on the Food Network use the bottled crushed garlic. A little milder taste, which, in my opinion, is fine and dandy, and waaaaay less work.)

~ Risotto
~ Parmesan
~ Thyme

Make your risotto ahead of time. I stirred in a bit of thyme and in the end, some parmesan. I've never made risotto before and was shocked (almost offended!) to read in the directions that I was expected to stand at the stove and gradually stir simmering water into it for 15 minutes. I decided to cut my losses and slapped a lid onto it after it had actively boiled for about 5 minutes and let it sit while I cooked the main attraction. Guess what? It turned out fine. Sometimes starches just need a little tough love.

Into my stick-free pan I tossed my cubed steak, mushrooms, sliced green onion bulb, thyme, red wine, brie, apricot jam, and small bit of crushed garlic. Over the top of the whole thing I sprinkled salt, pepper and sesame seeds. I then splashed it liberally with red wine, then sparingly with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and lemon juice.

I put the whole thing on the stove for a few minutes until the steak was browned. I removed it and cooked the rest of it down until it was delightfully caramelized. I tossed the parmesan into the risotto and the steak back into the pan for a few minutes. I then found myself sitting at the table in front of this meal. I told you it was a whirl-wind.

I served tonight's dinner with a soft, relaxed Caménère by Aresti vineyards of Chile. I've been a long-time fan of Chilean reds, and this one offered exactly what I love about them - they're full-bodied, but soft as velvet; earthy, fruity, beautifully balanced. It went wonderfully with tonight's meal.

And now, my friends, I shall wash some dishes, review my work for tomorrow, watch a show, perhaps, and go to bed sooooo much more relaxed!

Yours in the love of good food and wine, and the great escapes they offer,
AL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Thirty-fifth Post ~ Pork Tenderloins en Papillote

As the third addition to the "en Papillote" files, I offer you pork tenderloins and potatoes. I made this a few nights ago, and just didn't want this to end up wasting away in the File of Meals that Don't Get Blogged. So I thought I'd take five minutes out to write it up. Here's what you'll need for tonight's dinner:

~ Pork tenderloin - cut a few pieces off then save the rest for another meal

~ Small red potatoes

~ Dried fruit (I used golden and regular raisins and cranberries)

~ A random few sloshes of whatever wine is laying around

~ Chives or green onions

~ Fresh (or dried) herbs - I used thyme and marjoram

Preheat your oven. Quarter and boil the potatoes in salted water with some thyme. Meanwhile, dice your pork and place it in one half of your paper heart (See Post #33 for directions on this one!) Salt and pepper the pork to taste. Add a sprig of fresh marjoram. This herb is nearly floral in its aroma - use it sparingly! Add a small bit of green onion or chive. Once the potatoes are forkable, place them over the pork and scatter some dried fruit all around. Fold up your heart and pour in the bit of wine. Cook for 12-15 minutes. All the flavors will meld, and the dried fruit will reconstitute with the juices, making it all sweet and savory at the same time.

I enjoyed this dinner with some leftover Cupcake Vineyard's Chardonnay. It needed something floral and sweet to downplay the serious oakiness of this wine. As it's fermented in stainless with oak chips added for taste, it comes off a bit heavy and not as well-rounded as a chard actually aged in oak barrels. Based on the tasting notes of this wine (warm vanilla, oaky, slightly spicy and well-rounded) I was hoping I had found a lesser expensive version of Cakebread Cellar's Chardonnay (truly the best wine I've ever had in my life - It's what actually started me on this whole path of food and wine appreciation two years ago!) but was disappointed. It still is a nice wine to pair with meals that would normally overpower a weaker white, like this one.

All in all, a good, quick meal to enjoy at the end of a long day!

Yours in the love of good food and wine,

AL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Thirty-fourth Post ~ Rosemary Lamb Tenderloins en Papillote

As Entry #2 in the previously mentioned "en Papillote Files," I feature my favorite red meat of all time: Lamb. I don't eat red meat that often, so when I do, I sometimes will splurge on lamb tenderloins. Lamb and rosemary are a beautiful combination!

I'm truly loving the "en papillote" style of cooking. It typically uses no oil and relies on steam for the cooking, so it's healthier than a lot of the pan-cooked options, and it has this way of melding all the flavors together in a way unlike any other!

Here's what you'll need for tonight's dinner:

~ Lamb tenderloins

~ Rosemary (fresh or dried)

~ Balsamic vinegar

~ Garlic

~ Mushrooms

~ White wine

~ Parsley (fresh or dried)

~ Salt/pepper to taste

~ Asparagus

Boil the asparagus in salted water just until tender. Mince some garlic, preheat your oven, cut your cute heart out of parchment (see Post #33). When the asparagus is just pierceable, drain and set aside.

Start a tablespoon of olive oil heating in a pan. Add some balsamic vinegar, minced garlic and parsley. Add the mushrooms and white wine. While that's cooking, ruminate on the essay you're writing. Try to come up with a great experiment design.

::PAUSE::

One thing I've noticed about cooking en papillote is that you don't need to add as much liquid as you'd think. I've been adding about a quarter cup of liquid, and I don't think you need that much. This lamb turned out a little "brothy" - which I guess is okay - and so did the pork I made the other night, about which I shall be blogging soon. The moral of the story: if you like broth, add all you want. If you want a more photogenic presentation, add a bit less liquid than you'd think.

::UNPAUSE::

So your mushrooms are done - add the lamb tenderloins for just a few seconds, browning each side. Now put the lamb onto the parchment. Top with a sprig of rosemary, then add the mushrooms on top, and the asparagus on top of that. Into the spout of the heart, add the juices from cooking the mushrooms (resist the temptation to add more wine and water). Seal up the parchment and bake for 12 minutes. During this time, flip back through four weeks of reading and confirm that the experiment idea you've thought of while cooking will work.

Take the packet out of the oven and carefully (so as not to burn yourself) cut an X into the top of the parchment, revealing all the goodness inside.

I paired tonight's meal with a French Merlot-blend from the Domaine du Poujol from Proteus vineyards. It's medium-to-heavy with an earthy foreground, perfectly complimenting the lamb, with a hint of raspberry. It pairs beautifully with this meal, and, I believe, would go quite well with a steak or beef dish. All in all, this meal was exactly what I needed: quick, nutritious, and brainstorm-worthy!

Yours in the love of good food and wine,

AL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Thirty-third Post ~ Salmon en Papillote

Parchment paper... where have you been all my life? If you think I'm being over-dramatic, consider the meal at your left. It went from raw ingredients to steaming hot on my plate in 20 minutes. I'm considering running a series in my blog called "The en Papillote Files" (which, translated from French means, "The In-Paper Files" which actually sounds quite boring in English, which is why I'll be writing it in French). Here's what you'll need for tonight's dinner:

~ Parchment paper

~ 1 small potato

~ 1/2 lemon

~ White wine

~ Butter

~ Veggie (I used snap peas, because they're lovely)

~ Fresh herb of choice (I used thyme, as it is one of my newfound favorite herbs)

~ Salmon fillet (this one was farm-raised and dye-free, and came to a whopping $3 and change)

~ Salt/Pepper

Preheat the oven to 375. Start a pot of salted water boiling. Slice your small potato and boil the slices until tender. Cut lemon in half, and cut two very thin slices off and juice the rest into a prep bowl. Add a good splash of wine. I used some Clean Slate Riesling from Germany.

While your potatoes are boiling, fold a large-ish piece of parchment in half and cut it into a heart, grade-school-style. Open the heart, and place the salmon in one half of it. Place fresh herbs on top with a couple dabs of butter. When the potato slices are pierceable with a fork, lay them on top of the salmon and herbs. Salt and pepper them to taste. Place the two slices of lemon on top. Now here's the part that's key to the whole "en papillote" part: starting at the top of the heart: fold the empty half over the top of the food and make little folds along the edge, sealing the packet. When you get to the V of the heart (the bottom) you'll have a little open "tail." Into this, pour your lemon and wine mixture. Seal the rest up.

Place it on a pan in your oven. Here's the best part: kill 10-12 minutes while your dinner cooks. Feed your dog, check your email, chat on the phone, whatever. In 10-12 minutes, your dinner is DONE, baby. Take the parchment package out of the oven, put it on a plate, and slice an X into the top of the parchment to reveal the goodness inside. Mine looked like this when opened.

So... what wine to drink? I had heard great things (on Food Network and in lots of wine blogs) about Cupcake Vineyards Chardonnay. I learned that its oakiness may be rendered in fact by oak chips in wine aged in stainless steel barrels, so I was a little disheartened. However, it was suggested that it would pair well with salmon, so I gave it a shot, with the nice, dry Clean Slate Riesling on hand as a back-up. The verdict: Riesling. The chard by Cupcake is so oaky, it actually overpowers the salmon. Which is quite a feat, for a white wine. It wasn't a bad pairing, but it definitely downplayed the delicate tastes of the fish (and salmon ain't that delicate, so...). The Riesling, like its name suggests, was clean, crisp, and refreshing.

So what to pair with Cupcake chardonnay? Aged Gouda. I got this 3-year aged Dutch Gouda from Wegmans, and it just sings with the oaky, buttery chardonnay. Consider it dessert after a very satisfying dinner!

Yours in the love of good food and wine,
AL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Thirty-second Post ~ "And on the eighth day, He created chicken soup."

It happens. The cold weather hits our bodies just the right way, and we wake up feeling ... sick. My mother has always been a firm believer in the healing powers of chicken soup. The past two weeks spent home recuperating from chicken pox (yes, at age 26) were well-accompanied by a big pot of my mama's golden, savory, healing chicken soup. She passed the recipe on to me, so that I too can wield this ageless power of common vegetables, herbs and meat.

I pass it on to you, so that you also may know its strength in your times of weakness!

Chicken Soup
A Curative Concoction for the Common Cold

Here's what you'll need.

~ Chicken Legs (4-6 legs; 4-5 lbs)
~ Celery
~ 1 Spanish onion (or 2 small yellow)
~ Chicken bullion
~ Carrots
~ Uncle Ben's long grain wild rice (fast cook recipe or microwavable pouch)
~ 1-2 bay leaves
~ Salt and pepper

And now, clear-cut, easy-to-follow-even-through-haze-of-cold-medicine directions:

In large pot or Dutch oven place chicken legs with enough water to cover plus 2 inches. Start boiling.

Add 1-2 bay leaves, 10-12 bullion cubes, salt and pepper to taste.

Chop celery - enough equal to 3 stalks. Add to pot.
¨ If not well, don't bother chopping, cut leafy top part off and add the stalks to pot, plus or minus a few leaves.

Chop carrots - one good handful. Add to pot.
¨ If not well, don't bother chopping, use baby carrots.

Chop onion - 1/4 inch slice from center of Spanish, or two golf ball sized yellow onions. Add to pot. A small piece of bread held in the mouth will prevent eyes from stinging while slicing onion.
¨ If not well, don't bother chopping, put slice of Spanish in whole.

Cover and boil all until meat starts falling off the bones (40-50 minutes).

Take meat out and cover on plate to cool (about 30 minutes). Continue boiling mixture on high heat (and watch it so it doesn't scorch!).

De-bone and skin chicken and dice. Put back into boiled down mixture.

Add Uncle Ben’s wild rice. Easiest to use the pre-cooked packages, but also can cook rice separately and add.
¨ If not well, just use the pre-cooked microwavable rice – don’t bother microwaving, just pour it in the pot.

::PAUSE::

Customarily, this family recipe calls for egg noodles. I, however, prefer grains in soup, such as barley and wild rice. Therefore, rice is used in this recipe, but if the idea of chicken rice soup is blasphemous to you, noodles can easily be substituted!

::UNPAUSE::

Repeatedly taste and boil until soup reaches desired strength.

Optional - draw out broth with ladle, let sit in clear container, and use turkey baster to pull out settled broth from bottom of container and place back in pot to boil (leaving separated fat in container to be disposed of).
¨ If not well, just wait until later when soup is chilled, then remove the hardened fat from the top of the pot with a spoon and dispose.

So there you have it. If you're truly sick, you may find that this pot becomes your sole sustenance, morning, noon and night. There's nothing wrong with that - it's one heck of a hearty, healthful soup - stew, really - that will have you back on your feet in no time!

Yours in the love of the restorative powers of food,
AL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.