Chicken Soup for the Soul?

Lesson 1.1: chicken stock




Not a lot of work, just a lot of time. I was also disappointed that the recipe in the book only yielded 8 cups - enough for chicken soup tonight and chicken tortilla soup tomorrow.

Lesson 1.2: Chicken (noodle) soup - I added the noodles : ) This was really really good but again, time consuming. Realized late in the process that I bought turnips instead of parsnips - oops. Didn't want to go back to the story since I'd already been there twice and sent my husband once.







While I'm at it, I'm making the chicken tortilla soup tonight to reheat for dinner tomorrow. Bought fresh chiles instead of dried chiles ... Wondering if that's going to be a problem... Oh, and I got to test out my new mandoline slicer to thinly slice the onion : )

I also learned how to chop an onion properly - not as hard as I thought.

All in all, a good day - I will probably be less ambitious for how many 'lessons' I can complete in a day from here on out though.


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The Basics

Half New Years resolution, half inspired by Julie & Julia (the book - not the movie) ... I'm embarking on an adventure of my own:




That's right. I'm learning to cook - the Martha Stewart way. Let me define this a little further ... I'm not just talking about following recipes and not screwing them up - I've actually been doing that for a few months now. I mean really LEARNING how to cook.

Martha's book has 7 chapters:

1) Stocks and soups
2) Eggs
3) Meat, Fish & Poultry
4) Vegetables
5) Pasta
6) Dried Beans and Grains
7) Desserts

Some chapters are longer than others, I don't plan on making every single recipe, and I'm not on any set schedule. I should be able to finish it this year ... But again - I'm not Julie Powell and as cool as I think she is, I don't have that much free time or a desire to make this stressful. So here goes nothing - tomorrow I will learn 1) how to properly chop an onion, 2) make chicken stock and 3) hopefully end the day with chicken noodle soup - not Campell's.

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