Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Long-Thread Egg Drop Soup

I had to share this super-simple and tasty recipe I just tried for lunch. It is a cold, gray and rainy day so soup was a natural for lunch. I pulled out one of the many pages I have torn from cooking magazines; this one was from Home Cooking submitted by Gwen Campbell. This soup was so simple and tasty that my mom and I ate the entire pan. Here are some pics along with the recipe.

Long-Thread Egg Drop Soup


2 C spinach leaves, coarsely chopped
4 C canned chicken broth
2 tsp dry sherry
2 tsp soy sauce
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp salt, optional
2 scallions, white part only, cut into rings
Chinese noodles


Prepare spinach, wash thoroughly; remove thick stems. Heat chicken broth, sherry, and soy sauce to the boiling point in a 2-quart saucepan. Add spinach; simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes. Beat eggs lightly in small bowl (I recommend the eggs be at room temp, because if they are cold they will want to drop, instead of stream into soup in the next step). Remove saucepan from heat. Add eggs slowly, in a stream, stirring constantly as you proceed so that they for long threads. Season with salt, if desired. Serve in warmed soup bowls with scallion rings scattered across top of soup and crispy Chinese noodles served on the side. Serves 4-6.

I added goldfish instead and they were mighty tasty!

Monday, November 29, 2010

Paying Homage to my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer

Like I said, I have so much to say about my Kitchen Aid mixer that it qualifies for its own post. I LOVE my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I originally bought my Kitchen Aid sometime in 2005 and it was well-loved it made numerous cookie doughs, tons of mashed potatoes and loads of bread doughs. Kitchen Aid was more then just my best friend, it was my husbands wing man for many endeavours. (Que romantic music) We called on our Kitchen Aid weekly. Then one day in 2007 something happened and my Kitchen Aid took its last sigh and did not work anymore. I was sad, and decided to call Kitchen Aid to see about having my mixer repaired. Well the folks at Kitchen Aid were amazing, in times where customer service is a joke and I fully expected to speak to someone with an accent so heavy I could not understand them, even if I could have understand they would not have the authority to help me any. This was so not the case, they were American and they could and did help me. After a few questions about what sounds my mixer friend was making the customer service goddess on the other end said that they would ship me a new mixer ( I got to choose my color) for free and all I had to do was pack my old friend in the box and call the UPS carrier to come pick it up ALL FOR FREE! I have had my new bestest friend ever since. She stands on our counter, a near daily participant in our lives. I love that mixer and cannot imagine life without her, heck I have had her longer then 2 of my kids...what we have is serious. After all she has been there for my triumphs and my flubs, which most recently was just this morning, ever-faithful just like the Kitchen Aid customer service. Ever since I have been looking to make all my appliances and cookware Kitchen Aid.

Completely unrelated, just had to share one of those shake your head moments while I think to myself I cannot believe this is happening. Yesterday I went to gather the baby from his crib so that I could feed him breakfast. I opened the bedroom door and there he is standing up in his crib looking at me...pretty normal for most 19-month-old children, only he was butt naked and standing in poop. Apparently he decided upon soiling his diaper he would just remove his onsie pajamas, and his poopy diaper, discard them on the floor and then sit down and wait for someone to come rescue him. He must have been waiting a while and gotten cold which is why he was standing up most likely ready to let out a holler of distress. It was an interesting and unexpected way to start the day.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Recipes

I had a lot of success with some new recipes I tried the past few days. My favorite was a homemade pop tart recipe that I found at the smittenkitchen.com. The crust was amazing I really appreciated the tips about baking the scrap pieces, which I did after I brushed them with the egg and sprinkled heavily with cinnamon sugar...YUM! Definitely going to be making these again soon. I have a huge pile of recipes to try and I will be going through them slowly and posting any I find worthy of a mention.

Now I turn my sights completely towards Christmas and my homemade gifts. I started sewing log cabin design potholders I am now starting to quilt them and for the first time ever...bind. I am jittery at the thought of attempting this because I have never done binding and I am doing it all by hand. Yes, no sewing machine yet I am in the market for one and I have my sights set on the Singer Confidence 7470. I love it, and I hope that it performs as well for me as it seems to for all the other people who have rated it.

I am a brand loyal type person, when I find a product and a company that treats me right I buy them FOREVER. I would talk about my Kitchen Aid mixer now, but I have so much more to say then I have room to write so I will continue that story tomorrow. I have to talk about a brand I loathe, Nikon. I bought a lower end model of their Coolpix and the POS has had the same mechanical failure twice, the first time I paid to have the repair done, the second I just applied duct tape and have continued to limp along with it until I can go out and buy a new camera. The issue is the battery door, there is so much pressure exerted on the door from the batteries it cracks and breaks so that the batteries do not stay in the camera-very unconducive to taking pictures. The other issue is the monitor on the back is losing pixels, they are literally going black so I have a large void that is growing larger and larger. The thing sucks!

Anyway enough complaining, I am thankful for my family my reason for taking pictures.

I am off to get my potholders put together and to plan my baking strategy, it is time to make candy. I will post my favorite marshmallow recipe later along with any successful recipes I make this week. Wish me luck.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Totally off topic

Since I find myself like so many others today, stuffed with food I really do not want to write about Thanksgiving or food. I have something totally off topic to share. I was watching E and A, thick as thieves, playing under the table throwing cocoa puffs at each other then eating them off the dog hair-ridden carpet. The boys were giggling and really getting along, so naturally my thoughts went to our stroller. We have a side-by-side (2 kids) stroller, you know the jogging kind. The thing is awesome it is light weight, you can fit two kids in it and it is WAY easier to push then the other Cadillac-like strollers that I used to have. The one drawback, the kids sit next to each other, which in a utopia would be ideal because the older child would help the younger child and they would play together and maybe break out some show tunes to entertain me, maybe not. However, here in reality that is not what happens when the boys sit in the stroller together, what most often occurs is E (the 3-year-old) gets in and A (the 19-month-old) starts hitting E. Then E screams or yells at him after holding his arm and telling him no fails miserably. Then we all share a good cry. It is those times, the things you never think of when you start something, like a family that leave me mystified. Who would have thought I would have to tell someone to stop licking the fridge? Or what about all the times I have to remind K to get his hands out of his underwear; I swear he must think his penis is a worry stone. Life who could have guessed?

Well I am off now to ponder why it is they have a word for Turkey stuffed with chicken stuffed with duck and not one to describe a human stuffed with turkey stuffed with stuffing...turhumstuffin?

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Why start blogging?

I am not sure why, but I figured I had so many thoughts running around in my head that maybe I might write them down. I figured I would be more apt to writing if there is the slight chance I might get some feedback. I have found a few blogs that I really enjoyed following and they inspired me to commit my ramblings to cyberworld, however dangerous that might be.

I am not sure how so many people I see on here manage more then 3 kids, but I am at my limit. Three boys, 7, 3 and 19 months are more then a handful for me. With 2 I had a handle on it, I did not feel outnumbered, when the third one made it home from NICU I quickly realized I was outnumbered. I just hope that they become productive members of society, and my house does not crumble down around my ankles before they leave home.

With Thanksgiving tomorrow I have been busy baking. This morning started out with my first try at homemade cranberry jelly, then using the leftovers to make cranberry bread (again an untested recipe) for tomorrow's breakfast. If that was not enough why not throw in my first attempt at homemade pop tarts and the pumpkin pie. Of course I have made pumpkin pie plenty of times and I love the recipe my mother passed down to me from my grandmother, however I could not just go with the tried and true but had to throw in a few changes. So either tomorrow is going to go REALLY well with all these awesome new recipes to add to my collection, or it will be a flop and the oldest son will be truly disappointed. K my oldest is a pumpkin pie lover. I have to laugh at myself because I am not one of those people that can change up recipes successfully, but that never stops me from trying. What better day to experiment on then Thanksgiving? Yeah not so much.

Today is the last day at school before the holiday break and K comes home really soon. So soon like I better get my butt of this chair get E and A's coats on and head down to the bus stop.

BRIEF INTERLUDE

When will the day come that I am not sticking my nose next to someones tushy in order to inhale deeply of the malodorous diaper fillings? Stayed tuned for that answer...

Well I have to feed K and the poor birds are starving because I keep forgetting to fill the bird feeder, but after this last visit from the bear I agreed with my mom that we should not keep it completely filled.

Recipes to follow after taste testing tomorrow