Chicken Stock/Chicken Noodle Soup

I’m currently in the process of moving, exciting! (Not really) and while I’m still apartment hunting with the impending doom of my lease running out at the end of this month, I also have so much stuff in my freezer that needs to get eaten so I don’t have to carry it with me to another place. Cue the chicken stock.

A while back Caleb and I decided to tackle some fried chicken at home but I bought some drumsticks that were not a cut that Caleb enjoyed so along with a rotisserie chicken carcass in my freezer, it was time for my first run at homemade chicken stock.

I did some googling to get some basics and came up with a whole onion and 2-3 stalks of carrot and celery each to go into the stock. I cut everything up and dumped it on a large pot with all the chicken and about 3 quarts of water (my pot fit about 2.5 quarts and I added the last half quart partway through the cook once some of the water evaporated.) 3 hours later my stock was born!

Im so happy I did this because with all of the stress of apartment hunting in the age of Coronavirus, I needed the kitchen to smell like home. The smell of chicken stock made me feel like I was back in Rochester with my parents making some homemade soup with chicken stock starting early in the morning. Even on a hot summer day, I welcomed the warmth of this smell and I could just feel myself let things go just for a little while.

I ended up with 1.5 quarts of stock once i strained out all the solids and cleared out some of the excess fat on top, which I packed up and partially froze. I kept out the half quart and refrigerated it and 2 days later I made some noodle soup for myself. Ironically I didn’t have any chicken for my soup but I had tons of veggies and a box of little noodle rings that I purchased just for this occasion.

I followed Molly Baz’s recipe and it all came together very quickly in just one pot.

The stock could’ve used more salt and I topped it with some black pepper and was super happy with the result. I’m so excited to reheat the rest of this stock later when I need another warm bowl of soup. It felt so easy and satisfying to make my own stock at home and it was simple beyond belief. No wonder different soups were made this way growing up. I’m so happy they were. I needed home right about now and I’m happy I found a way to do it. Of course my parents would’ve have meat galore and home grown asian veggies like lotus root and winter melon but this was close enough.

Lentil Burgers

I’ve been trying to get a little adventurous with my recipes and figured I’d get through some more of my BA video recipes that I’ve saved. This week was Chris Morroco’s Lentil Burgers from the Healthyish line of recipes. It’s summer and it’s hot and I’m not a huge Burger person all the time anyway so I like trying out these lentil/veggie burgers and this one has mushrooms which I’ve totally been into lately. Our friends Matt and Holly have been making a lot of veggie burgers both store-bought and homemade lately and I’ve been drooling at them. Caleb isn’t into veggie burgers really so this was all for me. Lunch prep for the week so fingers are always crossed it comes out tasting good because I have to eat it all until it’s gone.

Chris’s recipe is super easy with just lentils and mushrooms and of course some seasoning. Like before, lentils were a trick to find but now that I know what grocery store there in, I made a beeline and was ready to go. Cook the lentils, mix everything together, mash a little, and cook it in a pan.

I didn’t have a ring mold but I did have an egg mold which is just a ring mold with a handle and it’s the perfect burger size so that worked out great! I didn’t mash the mixture super well to combine so it did fall apart a little while I was cooking it and later when I was reheating and assembling it didn’t keep the patty shape but it didn’t fall apart completely so that was alright.

Chris also makes a yogurt sauce to go on top which I love because its so fresh and garlicy but also tart from the plain greek yogurt.

This was super easy to keep eating all week and held up well. I did it open face with some lettuce and I was so happy with the miso and mushroom flavor it in the whole time. I would totally make it again and recommend it.

Banana Chocolate Chip Monkey Bread

It’s socially distanced outdoor bbq day here at the crooked cabin and I’ve decided to finally make the banana chocolate chip monkey bread which is a terrible dessert to make seeing as it’s traditionally picked at with your hands. Inspiration strikes and it cannot be ignored!

I saw this Tasty video pop up on facebook a very long time ago and kept it saved and bookmarked for the day I felt motivated enough to make it and today was the day. I love monkey bread and I feel like it’s so fun to pick at something with your friends like this and enjoy something sweet and gooey but now with serving forks and in shifts. It’s a little less magical but that’s okay.

Monkey bread is super easy but always fun and I enjoyed the addition of chocolate chips and banana in the building process. This tasty video/recipe is super easy to follow and I think it came out great. Honestly it could’ve used a little more bake time for the middle pieces but I’ve been noticing this oven needs a little more time so that’s just a nuance I have to keep taking into account when I bake here.

I wish we had more people to enjoy it and I feel like in the right crowd it would do super well. Next time I think I’d make them into cupcake sizes just so they’re easier for people to enjoy.

Mushroom Carbonara

Not gonna lie, today was a rough day. I woke up not feeling too great but had the day off work which made it feel a little daunting during social distancing. Everyone else in the house got up to work or video chat with friends but I didn’t have major plans today and felt drained before I even opened my eyes. It’s a sunny day but it’s still clocking on under 50 degrees so it’s a little tough to go out for a hike. Instead, I decided to cook and get my spirits up so I checked out my list of recipes I want to try and figured out I had just about everything I needed to make Molly Baz’s Mushroom Carbonara. Of course, I’ve only seen the Bon Appetit video but I was super excited to see that it’s actually a Basically recipe which made it even more motivating to make today. High success rate for delicious food; it was a task for the morning.

So I started off browning the mushrooms, cooking the pasta, and cooked off the onions and garlic. (I didn’t have shallots so onions would do today.) The mushrooms went well it started to smell super great. I made the egg/parm sauce and combined everything together. All in all, it was a super easy dish to make with a simple amount of ingredients. I’m not good at keeping herbs on hand because I always end up wasting them when they wilt in the fridge. I need to get a little herb kitchen garden going so I can just pick what I need when I’m cooking.

Caleb came back in for lunch right as I was finishing up and got the first taste. I was pretty happy with the consistency of the eggs and the cheese was melting as I scooped the pasta into my bowl. He okayed the pasta and get more excited about the flavor as he had a bite with mushroom and got everything together. I figured I could’ve cooked the mushroom down a little more because some pieces weren’t cooked down all the way but it wasn’t a bad doneness the way it was. I”m happy with this and the ease of it and the return from it was great. Not a perfect day but this helped.

Tie-Dye Cookies

I’ve been wanting to make these cookies for some time now but haven’t felt super motivated to do it. I’m trying to cut down on the number of baked goods we have in the house because if there are too much they don’t get eaten and I don’t want so much food to go to waste. I also don’t want to have too many sweets laying around that make us feel like we need to eat them before they go bad. Healthier fruits are the way go to for snacking so I don’t want to make too much temptation. Still, I was feeling motivated on Sunday and decided to make Rick Martinez’s Tie-Dye Butter Cookies.

Rick is super cute in his video and like most people, I grew up liking tie-dye. My mom is a huge fan and gets excited when she sees tie-dye things that are super colorful. What a better way to spend Mother’s Day. I didn’t end up going home but it was really nice to think about her while I was making them and I'm excited to show her photos of it then next time I see her.

The recipe for the tie-dye cookies are super simple and I liked how quickly the dough came together. I still haven’t gotten cookie cutters so I ended up using an egg mold to cut the cookies our and that worked out fine. They’re a little large but they didn’t spread in the oven and ended up being the perfect thickness and they just melt in your mouth.

The glaze was also super simple and the recipe says to split it and make two colors but Ii actually did 1 batch of just white and i split the other half into red and then blue. Honestly, I was a little worried they would be kind of patriotic accidentally but figured if they mixed together they would be a really nice purple which did happen.

I tried to scoop a spoonful of white glaze onto all the cookies then drizzles spoonfuls of the red and blue on top and kind of swirled them around just like in those paint pour videos that were so popular not that long ago. I should’ve done them in batches because the glaze hardened a little on the last few before I could get to them and swirl them. It was messy but I had a really nice time with it. I do love the unexpected nature of tie-dye and paint pours and I love the way these cookies came out.

These remind me of the hard glazed cookies from the grocery store that I loved so much growing up that I have such a hard time finding now. Everyone uses frosting now that is too much and I’m happier with a glazed icing like this. These are going on my baking list and I’m going to be making them a lot more for gatherings in the future. A huge party pleaser for sure.