Kids in the Kitchen: Chicken Noodle Soup

J and I made another recipe from his Sesame Street cookbook this Friday.  Well, really we made something loosely based on the recipe - it doesn't seem that close now that I look at it!

He chose Big Bird's ABC Chicken Noodle Soup:

 According to the recipe, there wasn't really many steps the he could do (only measuring pasta) so J did that.  But he also counted out carrots, handed me a partially peeled onion, poured the chicken broth from the can into the pot... and asked a zillion times if it was ready yet! :o)

 Of course, I can never find alphabet pasta when I want it, so we made do with tiny stars instead.  J loved it.  So did C (mostly throwing pasta around).  It was pretty tasty for the 'big kids' (me and N) too. Guess we'll be having "Chicken and Stars" regularly this winter.  (And I need to buy alphabet pasta in bulk next time I spot it!)

Chicken and Stars Noodle Soup

3 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 sticks celery, chopped (approximate - I just used a large handful from the freezer!)
1 onion, sliced
1 large chicken breast (I chopped it into 4-5 pieces to help it cook faster)
1 can (14.5 oz) chicken broth
5 c water
1 bay leaf
1/2 - 1 tsp salt (depending on saltiness of broth)
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 c uncooked little noodles

Combine vegetables with chicken, broth, water, herbs and salt in a large saucepan.  Heat to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce heat to low and simmer until chicken is cooked (approx. 30 mins).  Remove chicken and chop or shred into very small pieces while returning the soup to a gentle boil.  Add noodles and cook until noodles and vegetables are tender (approx. 7 mins).  Add chopped chicken back to soup and simmer 1 minute to heat through.  Serves 4-6.

J Tip*: To cool chicken and stars quickly, place spoonfuls on your placemat and pick out the bits.  Drink the broth last, straight from the bowl!

*Only partially endorsed by Mum.

Pulled Pork and BBQ sauce

Pulled pork sandwiches are pretty popular here, so here are my recipes, cobbled together from multiple ones found online to suit what we had in our pantry.

Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork

5 lb boneless pork shoulder (butt roast)
1 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water

Combine spices and rub on meat.  Put seasoned meat in a 6 qt slow cooker.  Add water.  Cover and cook on LOW 6-8 hours / HIGH 4-5 hours, or until tender.  Remove meat and rest 10-15 minutes.  Pull apart with two forks, slice or chop meat.  Serve with barbecue sauce on soft rolls.

Not-Your-Traditional Barbecue Sauce

(This was heavily adapted from an online recipe - one of the few that didn't include root beer, because I don't like it - but is mangled beyond recognition from its source... mostly because I kept adding stuff!)

4 oz apple sauce (1 baby jar!)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup red wine
1/2 - 1 Tbsp hot chilli sauce (start low!)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp dry mustard
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp Vegemite or Marmite
1 Tbsp molasses
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Combine ingredients over low heat.  Simmer for 30 minutes, or until thickened to your liking.  Cool and refrigerate.

Fun food

The last wee while has seen us ordering our food co-op basket every fortnight (every 2 weeks for the North Americans).

Here was one week's treat - corn that had pretty red kernels when raw...

 that faded when cooked but still had the red colouring on the cob!

In August I ordered an 'extra' one week - 20lbs of tomatoes.  More about that later.

And this week we have squillions (well, it feels like it) of Hatch chiles.  Quite a seasonal treat down in the Southwest!  We had a casserole version of chiles rellenos for dinner, since it seemed easier than the rellenos I made a while back when Grant visited.

The Aftermath

Now that N is back home you'd think life would have got slightly less hectic, wouldn't you?  But then you add in a language course and... you get my drift.

It has been a relief having him home though.  The boys are over the moon.  C started to crawl properly (knees) within a day of N being home but reverts to commando style when he wants to get somewhere fast!  And we celebrated our first "total potty success" (a.k.a. "accident-free") day for J last week too.  He's also been telling us when he needs to go (hooray!) and yesterday even took himself off and sat up there without any prompting from us (I just happened to wonder where he was when I hadn't heard him for a couple of minutes).

N also returned with lots of gifts (from family and friends) so they boys have been playing with new toys, reading new 'favourite' books, J wearing his new aprons (sometimes one at a time) and I have been revelling in an influx of magazines.  Here is my stack at present: Dish, Martha Stewart Living, Family Fun, NZ Healthy Food (which came with a slow cooker recipe section - next on my list of things to try to keep the oven off!), Dallas Child, and our church magazine, The Angelus.

We had some of N's language buddies with families over for lunch on Sunday so we made pizza and tried out this recipe from MSLiving.  It was yummy.  We'll be making it again.  Of course, we adapted the recipe slightly (frozen corn, grated mozzarella, spread on unbaked homemade crust).

And I got the good news yesterday that our friends' wedding in NZ today will be streamed live, so we get to 'join' them after all.  Yay!

Lovely Leftovers

On Tuesday we were getting a bit tired of leftovers from our Easter meal.  So I 'invented' something new for both mains and dessert.

Ham Salad

Combine (in proportions you have to hand):

ham, cubed
pineapple pieces (I cut up the pineapple on the ham itself)
asparagus, chopped (steamed or boiled)
green beans (I used the last of the leftover green bean casserole so it had a bit of mushroom soup too)
cooked pasta shapes (we had some gifted Italian Pesto pasta from Pappardelle's at Pike Place Market)

Dress with mayonnaise thinned with orange juice.  Serve with romaine lettuce leaves and crusty fresh bread.

Notes: adding something crunchy (like nuts) or peppery (like radishes) would be good too.

Hot Cross Pudding

This is inspired by bread pudding, strata, and "Poor Man's Souffle" - so it is basically a bread and egg bake.

Ingredients:
1/2 doz stale hot cross buns (or thereabouts!)
2 eggs
2 c milk
2 T sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp orange essence
1 Tbsp butter (plus more for greasing, or oil)
2 handfuls of blueberries (about 1/2 a small punnet? Sorry, they were frozen in a big bag!)

Method:
Grease a shallow baking dish.  Cut the buns into roughly 1-inch cubes.  Spread in the baking dish.

Whisk together eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon and essence.

Pour over buns.  Gently turn pieces to soak up more egg mixture.  Turn on oven to 350*F/180*C.  Leave buns to absorb egg mixture while oven heats. When oven is heated, sprinkle blueberries over buns and dot with butter.

Bake for 50 minutes or until egg is cooked (a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean).  Serve warm.

Notes: Not overly rich or sweet.  Would be good for breakfast, too.  (Construct night before and bake when first getting up.)  Try substituting ginger for the cinnamon, and zest for the orange essence as neither flavour was particularly strong. Make sure you grease the dish well!

Menu Mash

Well, I got a bit behind in blogging my menu plans for Lent, and now we're past Easter Sunday!  So in no particular order here are the meals I planned.  (I've removed any repeats and you can throw in a few "leftovers" meals to make up the difference.)

• Sweet potato wedges with the works (minus the bacon, of course!)
• Salmon bake and salad
• Potato, pea and cauliflower curry on brown rice
• Smoked fish pie and veges (Our Good Friday traditional meal)
• Caesar salad
• Bean tacos
• Fish cakes and salad
• Vege stirfry
• Peasant salad (based on this recipe - pretty well-off peasants in my opinion!)
• Chicken tacos (with chicken courtesy of my friend, Bekah)
• Homemade fish and chips with salad
• Cheese burritos
• Sweet potato & salmon fish cakes with mango salsa
• Crunchy chicken casserole (from the freezer)
• Pasta with tomato and vege sauce
• Baked salmon and seasonal veges (This one has been a hit with J lately.)
• Corn chip casserole
• Burgers (eating out at JG's - a treat!)
• Chilli rellenos (I plan to blog about this one...)
• Macaroni cheese
• Salmon quiche
• Stuffed peppers
• Eggs ( in various guises)

And for Easter Day... Ham with pineapple, mustard and apricot glaze; sweet potato and carrot mash; green bean casserole; cranberry sauce; cheese and crackers; sparkling apple juice; and carrot cake and Easter eggs for dessert.

(Isn't it strange how J and C have  mirror image expressions in this photo?)

Needless to say, I'm not planning to keep blogging my meal plans, but this week features a LOT of leftover ham! :o)

On reflection, we haven't been particularly successful in keeping our Lenten fast (due to Spring Break temptations and a couple of guests that we've eaten out with).  In fact, I have reached Easter Sunday with more guilt than usual, especially as I haven't been consistent with my devotional time either.  Thankfully, I serve a Lord who is gracious and merciful, as the Easter event reminds us each year.  Here's praying that I can maintain my prayer life more regularly and meaningfully in the coming year, and that next Lent (or Advent) I submit to the discipline of fasting with more success. 

Sopaipillas & Posole

Our visit to the US over Christmas had some pleasant foodie sidetracks. As well as savouring homemade hamburgers for dinner on Christmas Day at April's mom's place in Denver, we had the pleasure of staying with April's friends, Eric and Gentry, in Laramie, WY.

Here we are from left to right: Jada (3), Gentry... holding Eric... holding Macy (under 1), me, April, and Nathan.

They treated us to a special American meal, usually tasted in New Mexico (where Eric grew up). First on the menu was posole, a stew made with pork, green chillies, and hominy (corn kernels soaked in lye).

It was hot and delicious! (Sorry, the photo of Chef Eric was too blurry to keep.)

Gentry was trying to make sopaipillas (soap-a-pee-yas) for the first time and enlisted my help as a baker. We used this recipe, which is much like a scone dough. The dough is rolled out to a few millimetres thickness,

cut into pieces (squares and triangles are common too)

and then deep fried for a few seconds each side until golden brown.

The sopaipillas puff up in the hot oil and develop a crispy crust.

Next you split a side open and squeeze in some runny honey.

Gentry and I felt very decadent as we supped on sopaipillas and posole that night. The sopaipillas certainly help temper the heat of the posole, and they taste great when washed down with Eric's Belgian home-brewed beer!

I have since discovered recipes for both posole and sopaipillas (called Navajo Fry Bread) in a Christmas present I recieved from April's mom; "I Hear America Cooking: The cooks and recipes of American regional cuisine" by Betty Fussell. (Betty is a cousin of April's grandmother, and was featured in the August 2008 edition of Vogue.)

Food Course: Taste and See

Our class was really a book discussion on May 15. Our reading assignment was "the WHOLE book if possible"... that is, "The Supper of the Lamb" by Robert Farrar Capon. I had read this book for the Christian Thought & Culture class last year, so this was a pleasant refresher for me.

Capon focusses on the need to be mindful of the world we live in, in order to appreciate God's goodness more fully. He sees our role in the world as priests; making meaning in our actions, living in a posture of thanksgiving to God, paying attention to things for their own sake and appreciating and using them at their best. Our discussion ranged far and wide, bringing together many strands of our previous classes.

The whole book is quotable, so here are some of my favourites that the class picked:
“… let us eat. Festally, first of all, for life without occasions is not worth living. But ferially, too, for life is so much more than occasions, and its grand ordinariness must never go unsavored” (p.18).
“Against all that propaganda for fancy eating and plain cooking, I hope to persuade you to cook fancy and just plain eat" (p.144).
"Man's real work is to look at the things of the world and to love them for what they are. That is, after all, what God does, and man was not made in God's image for nothing" (p.18).

In the afternoon, we had a visit from a friend and farm meighbour of the Wilkinsons, Sherri Koster. Sherri is a clinical counsellor, and we had a helpful Q&A time with her about food disorders from a medical (and Christian) point of view.

Our final mindful meal was centred on a Turkish theme:

We ate appetizers with headscarves on, before Debbie read a New Testament passage about our freedom in Christ. We were then invited to either remove our headscarves, or to eat with them on, in solidarity with persecuted Christians around the world.
Olives, Hummus, and Pita Bread

Roast Lamb, Kabouli Palau, Eggplant Bake, Greek Salad (accompanied by raki/ouzo... much better with water!)

Halva, and Turkish Apricots Afterwards, Ben set up a houka for some to smoke...

and some of us just enjoyed the turkish coffee...or giggled our way through some belly dancing!

The night ended with a little talent sharing... poetry, banjo, piano, story reading... and an impromptu campfire on the beach.

Food Course: The Hungry Soul

The discussion this day focussed on food disorders: obesity, anorexia, bulimia, and the greatest food disorder, hunger. Mary Ruth explored three basic roots of all these disorders - geographic change, cultural change, and familial change.

The conversation about geographic change focussed on the effects of urbanisation, changes in the size and nature of farms, and the change in how we use our homes (especially how zoning and consumerism 'feed' our lifestyles in the latter). We talked about how cultural changes are shown in the denial of real stages of life (e.g. in fashion, aging or anti-aging, tween culture), conformity to a prescribed beauty, and denial of classic sources of wisdom (family, place, and self are replaced with media influences). Familial change reflected the impact of households where both parents work, changes in food preparation and preservation, and children's schedules that rival their parents.


Some possible small steps we discussed were:

• refusing to buy into fads - thinking carefully before we buy/do things
• choosing to walk - a way of promoting community, exercise, safety, slowing down...
• reducing meat consumption - awareness of animal care issues, sourcing food resulting in intentionality, seasonal eating, meat flavour trumping size
• modelling healthy attitudes to food and our bodies - acknowledging that most people hunger for love, joy, acceptance and approval... and that churches ought to be places of healing in these areas too

Our reading was from two books: Harvey Levenstein's "The Paradox of Plenty" and "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. The quote I chose comes from the latter, page 81: “But the industry’s influence would not be nearly so great had the ideology of nutritionism not already undermined the influence of tradition and habit and common sense – and the transmitter of all those values, mom – on our eating.”


Our mindful meal this evening was an Indian meal with a focus on our senses. We started by washing our hands. The meal looked beautiful, as did the spice illustrations. We ate with our hands (even though we tried to use only one - as is traditional). We smelt all the beautiful spices as the group cooked and tried to identify them at the table. We tasted a wide variety of flavours: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, hot... And we heard the crack of poppadums, the crunch of radishes, the gentle whisper of naan scooping up dhal, and the satisfied sounds of diners as they tasted the chai tea icecream!
The menu was:
Appetizer - Poppadums serverd with Mango-Apple Chutney, Lime Pickle, Cucumber Raita, Cilantro (Coriander leaf)-Onion Relish Salad - White and Red Radish Salad Entrees (Mains) - Basmati Rice and Naan Bread with Baji Dhal (East Indian Spinach and Lentils) and Roasted Vegetables Dessert - Chocolate Cake with Chai Tea Ice Cream

This day also happened to be Mel's birthday, so the chocolate cake became a birthday cake...

complete with a hidden thimble - a la Nancy Willard's book, "The High Rise Glorious Skittle Skat Roarious Sky Pie Angel Food Cake" (illustrated by Richard Jesse Watson).

"Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see -- how good God is." Psalm 34:8

Food Course: Our Mindful Meal

One of the assignments for the food course was a 'mindful meal': "students will work together to plan, cook, serve, and present an evening meal to the class. The presentation should include 1) their rationale for the choices of the particular meal; 2) any history they can discover about the food used, the cooking methods, ethnic origin, and so on; 3) the point of origin and transportation details of the food items. In other words, their job is to awake in us a mindful appreciation of and sense of responsibility for what we are eating - AND a delight in food as a gift of God in creation."

My group discovered early in our discussions that we all came from different countries... me from NZ, Esther from England, Matt from USA, Elly from Canada, Claudia from Austria, and Soohwan from Korea. Consequently, we planned our meal around a simple lamb stew. Wanting to bring a bit of ourselves to this meal, we chose to unite 'homestyle' elements of each of our food heritages, in the same way a stew brings together many ingredients to add flavour to one another. Since the majority of our cultures were western, we chose not to include a Korean dish, but instead, to eat our meal in the context of Korean manners, where traditional ettiquette is governed by social class and respect for elders.

Our menu was as follows (sources in italics):

REFRESHMENTS
Beer, Water, Wine
Beer: Matt’s kitchen (with transport via the ferry with Roxy)
Water: from the farm well
House Wine: from the Wilkinson’s cellar
APPETIZER
Spinach Dip in Bread Bowls with carrots and bread for dipping
Spinach: Matt’s garden (again, thanks to Roxy)
Bread: made right here
Other ingredients from Vancouver Island
MAIN COURSE
Lamb Stew with Dumplings, Garlicky Mashed Potatoes, and Green Beans
Lamb: Campbell’s Farm, Saturna Island
Beans: canned by the Wilkinsons last summer
Fresh Herbs: from the Wilkinson’s garden
Other ingredients from Vancouver Island
DESSERT
Topfencreme
Quark: from Foothills Creamery, Alberta, that makes European style cheeses
Other ingredients from Vancouver Island

We each wrote about why we had chosen these foods and how they represented our cultures, and included this information, along with a summary of Korean table etiquette, on our menu sheets. My ingredient was lamb so I wrote about NZ sheep farming and my grandparents' farm. Our table decorations were 'homestyle' too: bouquets of grass, driftwood to sit breadbowls and hot dishes on, and simple candles.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Matt's beer and his spinach dip were great (and I don't even like beer much!) There was enough lamb stew and dumplings for two dinners (Esther and I made it stretch a long way, based loosely on this recipe). Elly's green beans and mashed potatoes were gobbled up quickly. Claudia's topfencreme (see recipe below) was delicious. By far, the most difficult part of the evening was sticking to the Korean manners that Soohwan explained to us - but that made for a lot of laughter, learning and conversation.

TOPFENCREME

• 250g quark
• 250g whipped cream (250ml whipping cream)
• 500g vanilla yoghurt
• sugar
• mixed berries (fresh or frozen)

Defrost berries if necessary. Add sugar to berries to taste.

Mix quark and yoghurt until smooth. Fold in whipped cream. Add sugar to taste.

Serve cream mixture with berries drizzled over. (Leftovers... if there are any... make a nice topping for sweet pancakes or waffles.)

Serves 4.

Food Course: Rest, Retreat and Worship

Sunday was scheduled as a day of rest. People had the opportunity to have family visit (and it happened to be Mothers' Day). We made pizzas (with lots of individual variations), sat and talked, and Anna pulled out her watercolours for people to have a go.

It rained some time, but it was a chance to catch up on reading, do some journalling and reflect on the course so far.

I loved the sound and sight of the rain in the forest area and wrote this poem (Disclaimer: I am not a poet!)

Tin roof timpani

Log trombone with moss mufflers

Slick, lustrous arbutus double bass

Invisibly-plucked fiddlehead strings

Shimmering pine needle chimes

Fern flutes a-flutter

Leafy piano keys fingered by raindrops

I fathom Beethoven's frustration

as I strain for the whispers

of the forest's symphonic crescendo

Thanksgiving Dinner

Here is our Canadian Thanksgiving dinner before: And after:We had roast chicken with cranberry sauce, roast sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and green beans. For dessert we had pumpkin pie with whipped cream (sorry, I forgot to take a picture).

As you can see from the first picture, I got the cranberry sauce from a can, and a ready-made pumpkin pie from the supermarket bakery. I had not intended to do this. Being on a budget, however, I was surprised to find that it was cheaper to buy both these items rather than to make them from scratch. Even cheating - by making it with pumpkin pie filling in a can - was more expensive!

Apparently, the North American art of baking is being lost. It is rare to find someone who has the time, budget, and inclination to cook from flour, sugar, butter, etc (except in food blogs - see links). Maybe this is why the faculty are gobbling up my baking so readily! It is generally accepted that cookies come from a tube of dough, frosting comes in a can, muffins are packet mix with milk added, pie crusts are not made but bought, and afternoon tea for guests is bought at a bakery on the way home. This is a tragedy! (Can you tell I'm calling for a counter-cultural revolution?!)

The tragedy of packet cooking aside, the other possible tragedy of big dinners is wasted leftovers. So the chicken and veges were made into potato-topped pie and the pumpkin pie was happily consumed in the following days. My one dilemma was what to do with the cranberry sauce because most of the can was leftover. After a stint in the freezer as I deliberated, the sauce was drained of excess liquid and became the filling, along with a red eating apple (skin on), for a cranberry & apple shortcake. Here it is with some apricot yoghurt, before being devoured.

P.S. Check out the library blog my mum contributes to here. It is a great resource for teachers and lovers of children's books. She is 'Lynn, P. North', and you can see a picture of her display "Kikorangi Blue" there too. Well done, Mum!