January 18, 2012 – Beef Chicken and Veg Soup, Chicken Nugs, Kale Chips, and Love aka Cousinship

My dahling cousin Katie is taking a semester off from college and living at home at my fabulous Aunt and Uncle’s out in the burbs of the City of Brotherly Love and working in her industry so there’s great potential for many more cousin dates.  Also, Katie is a food science major so it’s delightful cooking with her.  We determined that she’d come over, I’d make soup, and in general there would be friendship.  She was a bit late coming over, which was perfect because I was a bit late getting out of my doctor’s appointment so instead of having dinner mostly ready upon her arrival, I had last minute request of hot cocoa available on the frigid night but dinner yet to be made.  As things were constructed we chatted and enjoyed each other’s company.  We decided to make soup (because it’s soup month) and some other items.

We started dinner by making some Kale Chips, since I still had leftover Kale from Tapas night.  They were thoroughly enjoyed by all as the rest of dinner cooked.

Beef Chicken and Veg Soup – from my brain

Ingredients:

• Beef stock – roughly 2 cups? I used the rest that I had in the fridge
• Chicken stock – roughly 2 cups, same method of use as beef stock
• 1 Bay leaf – check
• 3 cloves garlic – check
• Handful carrots – check
• Pinch of red pepper flakes – check
• Oregano  - check
• Marjoram – check
• Onions – check

Step 1: Cut onion into cube-like nature. Smash and slice the garlic.

Step 2: Combine Beef stock, chicken stock, onions, garlic, bay leaf, red pepper flakes, pinch of marjoram, pinch of oregano.  Set to simmer for a while.

Step 3: Make cousin peel a giant carrot while you prep the chicken nuggets you intend to make.

Step 4: Cut up the carrot into a bit of a cubelike strategy.  Nice bit about this part is that the soup has been simmering for a while, and you can cut the whole carrot up and parcel out the bits you aren’t going to eat in tonights soup into ziploc’s for future lunch or soup.  Add about a handful of cubed carrot to the soup.

Step 5: Simmer until the carrots are soft; turn off heat; remove bay leaf and serve.

Beef and Chicken Veg Soup

Chicken Nuggets – from my brain

Ingredients:

• Bread crumbs – check
• Red pepper flakes – check
• Chicken – check

Step 1: Thaw some chicken breast. You previously froze it into normal people sized portions.

Step 2: Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.

Step 3: In a Ziploc combine some bread crumbs (roughly ½ cup?) and red pepper flakes (the more the merrier) and mix. Add the chicken bites and use the old shake and bake method.

Step 4: Bake in the oven at roughly 400F for 15 to 20 minutes.

Chicken Nuggets

Other items that were included in the dinner menu were some rolls that were reheated, and leftover Cucumbers in Cream.  I thoughly enjoyed everything and Katie agreed!  The soup was spicy but delicious, and there was more than enough food to go around. Almost too much, woops.  We watched Betty White’s 90^th Birthday from my dvr and chatted, and agreed that our Staramama’s 90^th birthday is going to be better (sorry Betty, you’re still pretty). 

This foodsperiment gets an overall +5 for taste, +5 for ease, +5 for easy cleanup, +5 for great company, -3 for too much breadcrumbs, +5 for leftovers, and +5 for Betty White.  Happy Sperimenting!

Cousin Dinner Spread