Chicken Noodle Soup

Cool weather is here and it seems like it is here to stay. 

One of the things I love about cold weather is soup. 

I love soup and Ray will eat it when it is cold out...so win/win. 

One of the most popular soups out there is Chicken Noodle Soup.
 For some it brings back childhood memories. 

It is the go to soup when you have a cold or don't feel good.

Now while this is a very popular soup, I have only made it a couple of times in the many years that I've been married.  The main reason is because I can not stand mushy, overcooked noodles or pasta of any kind.  Pasta needs to be el dente!  It seemed that the longer the noodles would sit in the broth, the more they became over cooked.  Another problem that I noticed recently at an event that had this soup, they had added extra pasta while it was cooking which in turn added so much starch to the water that I thought they had actually put flour in the soup in an attempt to make it cream of noodle soup.  Anyways, I knew there had to be a way around the mushy noodles.  Now maybe you already knew the solution but I didn't.

So last night I decided to conquer this problem.

I started off with my chicken.  I used boneless, skinless chicken and I diced it up as small as I could.  I have found that if the chicken is partially frozen it makes it a lot easier to cut.  Then I put the chicken with a little olive oil in the bottom of my large pot and sautéed it until the chicken was no longer pink. 

To this I added diced up onion, celery, carrots, and lots of garlic.  Sautéing slightly until veggies begin to soften.  Now if you are using a strong onion you want to make sure and cook it pretty good so that it doesn't over power your soup.  I didn't have chicken broth so I used several bouillon cubes and water. 

For seasoning I used black pepper, hot sauce, oregano, a touch of onion powder (my onion was not strong), garlic powder, and a touch of steak seasoning for an extra zing.   I allowed this to simmer for some time.

Instead of adding the uncooked noodles directly to the soup, I cooked them in a separate pot of boiling water with a bouillon cube for about 2 minutes, no longer.  This started the cooking process.  Then immediately drained the pasta and completely rinsed it in cold water...this stops the cooking process.  Right before serving, I put the noodles in the soup and stirred it.   I used the medium Egg Noodles, by the way.

Perfection!!! 

 

The noodles were the perfect consistency and the soup was full of flavor.  We both ate seconds last night.  When I heated the leftovers today for lunch, the noodles were still good and not mushy.  
 

Yes!  I finally found a way to make this work. 

So, I had to share.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today would have been my Mom's 73rd birthday. 

She has been gone almost 4 years come December. 

Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday.

 

Loosing your parents leaves a huge void

in your life that can never be filled. 

I know they are in a better place

but sometimes it hurts so much.

 

Mom was such a precious lady,

as sweet as could be. 

Always taking care of others and

hardly ever taking a second for herself. 

She was always cooking, baking, cleaning,

working in the yard with her flowers, having company,

teaching piano, and of course taking care of her family. 

Just about the only time she would sit down

was to take time to read her Bible. 

 

Sometimes I wonder how she did it all. 

She kept her house spotless,

her yard and flowers looking like

a picture from a magazine.

 

She always had a smile,

a kind word,

and time to listen. 

 

There's no one like mom. 

I miss being able to talk to her so much. 

She could always make everything better.

 

Both of my parents left such big shoes to fill. 

I feel so unworthy to have had such great parents

but I am so glad that I did.

 

Happy Birthday Mom! 

I miss you and love you so much!

My Dad

Dear Dad,
It is so hard to believe that you left us eight years ago today.  There are times when it feels like it was just yesterday.   My life has been so blest by having you as my Dad.  Some might say I am just being partial, however I have to say that you were the best dad a girl could ever have. 
You left us long before your time....leaving a large void in our lives.  You were a very special person and touched so many lives.  You never met a stranger and always cared for others before yourself.
I love you so much and am proud to have had you for my Dad.
Love,
Your Baby Girl

Quote

Hello there.  Sorry I have been slacking the past few days or is it weeks.  Anyways, I came across something on pinterest today that I wanted to share. 

We all know that life has it's ups and downs.  This past week has been one of those down times.  I've been reminding myself that you have to encourage yourself at times which isn't always easy.  That's life.

Anyways I came across this quote and thought 'that was just for me'.

Surrender to what is.

Let go of what was.

Have faith in what will be.

(Sonia Ricotti)

Hope you get something good out of that as I did.

 

 

On another note, I finished my fall decorating a while back but just haven't gotten around to posting pictures.  I will try to work on that this coming week.  So be sure to check back for those. 

Have a great weekend, what is left of it.

Dessert, Dessert, Dessert

Isn't that a sweet title? 

 

I was asked to make desserts for about 100 people.  Although we didn't end up having as many people as we normally do, we sure had plenty of desserts to choose from.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

(started with a recipe from online and ended up making it up as I went)

 

 

Fudgy Oatmeal Cookies

(mom's recipe)

Cinnamon Roll Cookie Bars

(Pinterest)

Candy Corn and Peanut Mix

(my sister)

Snickers Caramel Apple Salad

(Pinterest)

 

You know the drill, check under recipes.

Enjoy!

Anniversary Cake

Last Friday, some friends had an anniversary party for

their parents/in-laws. 

It was a very nice dinner party and I was asked to make the cake.  

The happy couple have been married for 30 years.

I took a few photos of the cake before I boxed it up and delivered it.

 The "squiggly" lines (as it was referred to) on the cake is a technique called

Chantilly Lace.

White vanilla cake and dark chocolate fudge cake with a vanilla frosting.

 

Here is a picture taken by the photographer at the party.

 

Happy Anniversary and wishing you many more years together!

 

Western Activity Day

After going back through old notes and things, I realized that I had been planning this activity day for the children since January!  Then started doing the physical work on it around the beginning of August.  Well, the day finally arrived this past Saturday.  It was for the children in our local church and the community. 

This party was a lot of work because we made just about everything.   As soon as you walked in the door, you entered a western town.  Complete with a bank, hotel, jail, and even a hitching post.

We had games, crafts, activities, a skit, of course we served lunch.

 

Road Sign

We had to have something for our robbers to hide behind.

Supposed to be rocks and bushes. 

My disclaimer, I am not an artist.

Then from there they went into the dining hall.

 Complete with a Chuck Wagon. 

We were going to do a covered wagon but that just wasn't working out.  We did have a wagon seat though!

 

 

Over in the other corner, we had a campsite complete with a campfire.

 

 

Ok, I believe that covers the decorations.

Now onto costumes.  First off, we broke it down into age groups. 

So, ages 5 and under were the little Indians.  When they came in, they made feather headbands to wear and got to play in finger paint.  (Sorry, no pictures)

Ages 6-12 were the cowboys and cowgirls. 

They received a hat, bandanna, and we made vests for them. 

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of our vest.  However here is what they looked like, minus the badge.  This is courtesy of Amanda at Dixie Delights.  She was kind enough to share her pattern with us.  They are made out of felt. 

 

Both groups made horses out of pool noodles.

 

The older children made Faux Leather Journals.

The small children made Indian pouches.

 

For games we had...

A Sack Race

Lasso Betsy

(this consisted of tossing 3 hula hoops over this poor cows head)

 

A Gold Rush

We had sand and gold coins mixed in.  They were each given tin pie pans with little holes punched in them.  Then a scoop of the sand and coins that they sifted through.

 

Cattle Round-Up/Buffalo Round-up

They were broken up into groups.  Riding their horses, they had to round-up their branded cattle (balloons) with paint sticks, and put them in the corral.

 

Horse Race with an Obstacle Course

We ran out of time and didn't actually do this one.

 

Shooting Gallery

When we went out to do this, a storm was blowing in so it was too windy to actually play this one.

 

Our skit was taken from the Bible story, "The Good Samaritan."  We put a western twist on it and made it into "The robbery on Jericho Road."  Everyone performed their parts great.  We had three robbers, Chick Toadrie, Bullfrog Jenson, and Upchuck Dickson.  There was the devil, an angel, a hotel worker.  The victim...Ronald Rodgers, and the three men passing by...Highland Mighty, Miser Lee Heart, and Sam.  Our pastor's wife did an excellent job transforming this Bible story into a western skit for us to use. 

 

Afterwards, the children made Deputy Badges.

 

Once they had them finished, there was a surprise visit by the sheriff requesting their help in rounding up the three robbers who had escaped from jail.  The children had a blast chasing after the adults.  They were even talking about it the next day.

 

The little Indians had fun making a bunch of noise on the drums and other musical instruments that we had.  Of course, we took them outside for that!  We taught them the song

"Jesus Loves the Little Children."

 

For Lunch we had...

Hot Dogs

Individual bags of chips

Brownies

Rice Krispie Treats

Bottled Water

Little Hugs (which was juice served in little barrels)

 

Here is a nifty tip that I came across on pinterest and it really does work!

That's right!  Hotdogs in a crockpot!

You simply stand the hotdogs up and cook on low for 4 hours. 

Do not add any liquid as the hotdogs produce some as they cook.

Next time you need hotdogs for a crowd, try this!

 

Well, that about wraps it up.  Thanks for stopping by, pardner.