Lemon Chicken Soup

 For cool fall days not much beats a pot of homemade soup to warm you to your core. This week is one that called out for something hot, soothing and delicious, so Lemon Chicken Soup is what I cooked up for the family.

Lemon Chicken Soup

 

 

8 cups of homemade chicken broth is best or substitute with store bought

2 cup Orzo

3 cups shredded chicken

2 - 3 lemons for juice and jest

3 large eggs

salt and pepper to taste

 

 

Parboil one whole chicken and shred or pick up a precooked rotisserie chicken at the grocery. You will use approximately three cups of shredded chicken.

 

Pour eight cups of chicken broth into a large pot and let come to a boil.  Add two cups of  Orzo and allow to cook for about five minutes.  Reduce heat to simmer and add the shredded chicken to your pot.  In a separate bowl break open three large eggs and whisk.  Juice 2 - 3 lemons (remove any seeds) and add to the eggs and whisk mixture together.  Reserve some of the lemon zest from the lemons to add to the soup.  Temper your whisked eggs by taking one cup of the hot chicken broth and add it slowly to your egg and lemon mixture a little bit at a time whisking as you add the hot liquid.  Now you can slowly add your eggs to the pot of soup.  Allow to simmer for about 25 - 30 minutes.  Salt and pepper to taste.

 

 Enjoy your hearty bowl of lemon chicken soup!

What is your favorite soup?

Chicken Mull - A Southern Favorite Comfort Food

Graphic Courtesy of FPTFY

 

When I was a child we lived in the city and most of my father's birth family lived in the country.  They lived a couple of hours away but we visited often.  I loved going to my uncle Ed's and aunt Ethel's house around meal time because my aunt Ethel was a wonderful southern country cook and you were bound to be fed delightful, made from scratch, home cooked meals.

I giggle when I recall how she would busily, but happily, be running all around in the kitchen and would bring out about every pot, pan and dish she owned in preparation for her feasts.  There would be multiple runs to the root cellar and to the pantry, which was filled with her home grown and home canned fruits and vegetables. She was delightful!

Cast iron or stainless steel pots and pans and skillets filled her kitchen.  And her kitchen cabinets held mostly common ironstone dinnerware.  She had no fine china or silverware.  But every inch of her home was filled with love and her kitchen was filled with the best home cooked food you would ever want to put in your mouth.  And when you were there you knew you would not leave hungry!  

Most of the rest of my father's family lived near to my aunt and uncle and sometimes they would all just gather there when we came to visit. Come mealtime all of the women folk would gather in her huge country kitchen to help prepare the meal. It was a wonderful time in the kitchen and some of my fondest memories of my father's family were made right there in my aunt Ethel's kitchen. 

One of my favorite dishes that my aunt Ethel made was a dish called Chicken Mull.  I know that this is a southern dish and many of you may have never heard of it.  I also know the name of this dish is not a very appetizing sounding kind of name!  But it is a really good and satisfying and is a simple dish with not a lot of ingredients.  It's a family favorite comfort food for a cool weather, snuggle up kind of day. 

Chicken Mull

my version of my aunt Ethel's chicken mull

 

Ingredient list:

 

1 whole chicken (cooked and shredded) and the liquid that you cooked your chicken in

1 12 ounce can of evaporated milk

12 - 16 ounces of whole milk

if more liquid is needed add an additional quart of homemade or store brand chicken broth

2 tablespoons of butter or margarine

1 - 2 stacks or sleeves of saltine crackers

Salt and Pepper to taste

 

In a large pot cover one whole chicken with cold water and add some salt and pepper and cook until tender.  Once the chicken is done and fall off the bone tender, remove it from the pot and place it  on a plate.  Save the liquids left from cooking the chicken.  Allow the chicken to cool enough to handle so that you can remove the chicken and shred it.   Once shredded, place the chicken back in the pot

and add 2 tablespoons of butter or margarine, and if needed add a quart of homemade or store bought chicken broth, a 12 ounce can of evaporated milk and 12 to 16 ounces of whole milk.  Allow to come to a rolling boil.  Once a rolling boil has happened, take your stack (or two) of saltine crackers and break them up and add them to your pot.  Allow to boil for just a few minutes and then turn down to low heat allowing the crackers to cook a bit and absorb some liquid into them.  Season to your taste with salt and pepper. 

 

This recipe is very forgiving.  If you want it thicker add more saltines or less liquid.  Want it not so thick?  Just add more liquid.

 





Can I Grow a SCOBY?



Can I Grow a SCOBY for KOMBUCHA?

I have recently been drinking kombucha purchased from my local health food store. What is kombucha?  It is a fermented black tea drink that supposedly has good gut health benefits because of the probiotics that are in the drink.  But at nearly $4.00 (current price as of this writing)  for a 16 ounce bottle of kombucha it can get a bit expensive.  So, I decided that I wanted to try to brew my own.  To do that I needed a SCOBY and kombucha starter. 

What is a SCOBY?  Well SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast.  So basically it is a culture.  And in the case of a kombucha SCOBY, it is made up of yeasts that thrive on black tea and sugar. 

If you have a friend who makes their own kombucha you may have a resource for some starter and a SCOBY, but after asking around all I got were blank or confused looks and questions like what IS kombucha and what IS a SCOBY.  Next, I  looked at my local health food store but I could not find a SCOBY there either.  I know that a SCOBY and starter can be purchased online but my thinking (right or wrong) was maybe I grow my own SCOBY?    Once upon a time  I used to make make sour dough bread and I had to use a starter culture in my bread making.  So,  I figured that maybe I could make my own starter for my kombucha.   If it can be done for sour dough bread starter, then maybe it can be done for kombucha.....of course not the same starter as used for sour dough bread, but a starter and SCOBY used for the making of kombucha.

So after doing a bit of research this is what I did to try to make my starter and to try to grow a SCOBY.

I sterilized a one half gallon Ball canning jar and the utensils that I was going to use. 

Ingredients that I used:

6 cups (48 ounces) of bottled purified drinking water
one tablespoon of  loose organic black tea
1/2 cup of raw organic sugar
one cup of GT's Original Raw Organic Kombucha (at room temperature)

I brought the water to a boil and added the loose black tea.  I steeped the tea for about 10 or 15 minutes.  I strained out the tea leaves and added the sugar while the tea was still hot, stirring until the sugar dissolved. I let the tea cool to room temperature.  After the tea cooled I added one cup of room temperature GT's Original Raw Organic Kombucha.  I did not put a lid on my jar,  but instead I covered my jar with an unbleached coffee filter and secured it with a rubber band and then covered it with a cotton flour sack material (I got that at Walmart years ago).  I will keep it sitting out on a shelf or counter where it does not get any direct sunlight. 

SO, this is a test! An experiment!  I am not sure how long it will take for my tea to ferment and for the SCOBY to grow.  In fact, I don't even  know if  I will be able to grow a SCOBY.  But I am giving it a try.  If you are interested and want to grow your own, check back and see if I am successful.  I will update this blog to let you know what happens! 

I am keeping my fingers crossed!  I am even whispering sweet little things to it as I pass by ......like......"hello my sweet little baby SCOBY " and "grow my little baby SCOBY, grow!"  Not sure if it will help, but I talk to my plants too...... Yes..... I do.


******UPDATED 8/23/15:  Yes, I was able to grow my own scoby using the above method! I have been happily making and drinking my own homemade kombucha ever since!  As of today, August 23, 2015 I have two very full scoby hotels full of healthy scobys!  Give it a try if you love kombucha and skip the nearly $4 per bottle cost by making it yourself!

Pea Soup

I guess that peas are one of those things that you either just love or just absolutely don't. 
As for myself, I love peas!  My husband...well he absolutely don't.  In fact I guess you could call him a pea hater. Yes...a pea hater. Says he can't stand to look at them.  Says he can't stand to smell of them. And says he just can't stand to sit at the same table in the company of a pea.

Personally, I like fresh or fresh frozen peas. I don't care too much the store bought canned ones. But since my husband hates them well.... there hasn't been any pea cooking going on in my kitchen lately.

My sister loves peas too. In fact she can eat peas just about any way you want to fix them. She loves cold pea salad, can peas, frozen peas and today one of our topics of conversation was pea soup. Seems one of her neighbors was making some and she is now wanting a bowl of hot pea soup.
So for those of you who do like peas I thought I would share this recipe!

               

SPLIT PEA SOUP

       Serves approximately 4 - 5 people

Ingredients:

One ham hock or ham bone with meat on it or a pork shoulder bone with meat on it

One pound of dried split green peas (rinsed)

One medium onion diced

Three stalks of celery sliced thin

Three carrots sliced thin

One bay leaf

1 tsp. of salt

1 /4 tsp. white pepper preferred, but you could use black pepper

1 clove of minced garlic (optional)

2 lemon slices

1 small can of chicken broth

2 quarts of water

1/4 tsp. nutmeg (optional)

1 small container of sour cream (to add as topping to the soup)

1 /4 cup chopped parsley (to add as a topping to the soup)

1. In a Dutch oven combine all of the ingredients except the parsley and sour cream.

2. Bring to boiling. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 2 1/2-3 hours until ham and peas are tender and the soup has thickened. Keep a check and stir now and then because the soup will thicken as it cooks and you don't want it to burn.

3. Remove the lemon slices and the bay leaf.

4. Remove the ham hocks, ham bone or picnic shoulder bone Remove any meat from bone. Discard bone and add the meat back into the soup.

Optional: If you want a smooth creamy soup you can puree the soup in a blender.

Serve in a soup bowl and garnish with a spoonful of sour cream and / or parsley if you choose.

 

Sorry that I don't have a beautiful and enticing photo of a fresh cooked, piping hot bowl of pea soup, but like I said....no pea cooking has gone on here in a long time since Mr. Nifty Thrifty can't bear sharing the table with a pea. He doesn't  know what he is missing does he?

Enjoy!! 

 

Do you have a pea recipe to share with other pea lovers?

Linked in with:
Coastal Charm's Thrifty Tuesday Frugal Days Sustainable Ways

Homemade Crystallized Ginger Candy

I have been wanting to make some crystallized ginger candy for a while now. Especially when I looked at how expensive it is to buy it ready made! It's great to snack on but it is also great to add to other recipes too! Add it as a topping on your icecream, chop it and add it to your home baked cookies and so much more.

I am sure that there are many recipes out there on the internet but I just kind of winged it and here is how I made mine!

Although I do have some ginger growing here at home it is not quite mature enough to harvest. So I had to purchase it.

I purchased about one and one third pounds of ginger. I peeled it easily by just scraping the peeling off of the ginger root with a spoon. I then sliced it in thin slices.  You might prefer to grate the ginger root into strips or cut it up into chunks or however you like to eat it. Place the prepared ginger in a pan and cover it with water, bringing to a boil for a few minures and then reduce the heat to medium heat until it begins to get tender. Keep a check and stir every now and then. Once it is tender remove the ginger from the pan. Remove the water and set it aside but save it. (I reserved one cup of water for my ginger candy and put the remaining water into another saucepan so that I could also make some ginger syrup.) Then I added the ginger back to the pan and added back in one cup of reserved ginger water and one cup of sugar (next time I will try using Xylitol as it has less calories and tastes great.) Continue to cook on low to medium heat to allow the ginger to envelop all of that sugary goodness. I would say about 20 minutes. Keep a watch and stir frequently. Now remove from the heat (reserve whatever water / sugar is left and you can use this ginger syrup to flavor tea or make ginger ale.) Allow the ginger to cool for a few minutes. You can lay it out on a cooling rack just as it is or if you want you can dip it in sugar or Xylitol once it is cool enough to handle and then lay it on the cooling rack to continue to cool. Yes....I coated mine with sugar!

Makes a "sweet" little gift in a jar!

Remember the ginger water that I set aside to save? If you would like to make some more of the ginger syrup just measure it out to see how much water you have and add sugar to it in a 1:1 ratio of sugar and water. Allow it to come to a boil stirring continually until the sugar dissolves. Some of you may want to add more or even less sugar. It's up to you! Allow to cool and poor into a lidded jar and refrigerate.

Ginger is not only a tasty treat but made into a ginger tea it seems to help me and my family if we have an upset tummy. I have used it also to help my family with a cough and sore throat.

What's YOUR favorite use or recipe for ginger?

Also, please check out how to make Violet Syrup here!

Linked in with: Petite Hermine, The Shabby Nest's Frugal Friday, Farm Girl Friday, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways The Home Acre Hop, Thrifty Thursday,  Coastal Charm's Thrifty Tuesday Bouquet of Talent