(Crock Pot) Chicken Noodle Soup

     The other night, I wanted to make something with the crock pot and since it's cool outside - the next day was the first day of fall - soup sounded like a good thing to do. I didn't think about making it until around noon, so I had to use a meat that could either go in frozen or would thaw quickly.
     After a lot of googling, I came up with a recipe from About.com. However, I chose to alter it some. The original recipe can be found here.

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Chicken Noodle Soup

     Ingredients:

          2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed

          4 cups water

          1 package Mrs. Grass chicken noodle soup, prepared

          1 tsp Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb seasoning

          1 tsp salt

          1/4 tsp pepper

          2 carrots, chopped

          1/2 tsp dried marjoram

          1/2 tsp dried basil
          1 tsp dried minced onion (I was too lazy to cut an onion)

          1 bay leaf

             egg noodles (as many as you want)

     Directions:

          Place all ingredients except noodles in the Crock Pot. Stir. Cover and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours. Remove bay leaf from pot. Stir the soup every now and then during the 3 to 4 hours.

(before noodles have been added)

          Add noodles. Continue cooking until noodles are done (about 1/2 hour on high)*.

(after noodles have been added and soup has been "plated")

          *The original recipe also mentioned that you could cook the noodles separately and add them just as you are about to serve, but I chose not to do that as it would just make for more dishes to wash. However, I think this might have been a better way to do it as the noodles were too done. If I were to just put them straight in the soup again, I would reduce the amount of time that they were in there by about half.

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     We had this with some Homemade Rosemary Garlic Bread that I had made about a month or so ago and had stored in the freezer. It would also be good with fresh Homemade Dinner Rolls or even just some fresh rolls from the store.
     It was an ok soup; nothing like the one that Mom makes. As Dad said, "It's just something different."

"Good manners: The noise you don't make when you're eating soup."

- Bennet Cerf                           

Mini Bagel Pizzas

     As promised, here is my post on the Mini Bagel Pizzas. They are super easy to make, are quite delicious, and taste better (and are better for you) than the frozen varieties. Plus, you can make these in any flavor/variety you want!
     The ones featured in this post are cheese, but in the past, I have used leftover taco meat, mini pepperoni, etc.

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Mini Bagel Pizzas

     Ingredients: 

          Mini Bagels (whichever brand you prefer)

          Pizza Sauce (store bought or homemade)

          Cheese (I used Colby Jack)

          Your Favorite Toppings

     

     Directions:

          Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

          Split bagels in half and arrange on cookie sheet. (I like using a SilPat so I don't have to worry about the melted cheese sticking, but you can use a normal cookie sheet if you want. If you use a cookie sheet, make sure to spray it with non-stick cooking spray VERY WELL.)

    
          Spread pizza sauce on bagels. (I have found that using a spoon is best;you are able to control where the sauce goes easier. When you use a brush, it tends to send sauce everywhere but your bagels.) Put a little more sauce on than you think you want because the bagels tend to soak up a lot.

 

          Put cheese on top of sauce. (It is best to do "pinches" of cheese at a time so there is more control over the placement of the cheese. If you just grab a handful and try to place it on, a lot of the cheese will end up on the cookie sheet.) Put enough cheese to completely cover the bagel and then some as it reduces quite a bit when melted. (If you are planning on putting more toppings on, you don't need to put as much.) Pat the cheese down some. (This prevents the cheese from falling off too easily.)

          Place any additional toppings you want to use on top of the cheese. After doing so, you may want to put a tiny bit more cheese on top of them so the toppings do not fall off.

          Put mini bagel pizzas into preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is fully melted and bubbly. Rotate pan at least once during baking to ensure that each bagel is getting an even amount of heat.

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     I apologize for not having a picture of the finished product, but our oven stopped working before I could bake mine so I had to settle for putting them in the microwave. If you end up being in the same predicament as me, I suggest putting them in the microwave until the cheese begins to melt and then transferring them to a pan (that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray) on medium heat with a lid on. Leave them in the pan until the cheese is completely melted. (Make sure to check on the bottoms so they do not get too crispy or burnt.

     By putting them in the pan, the bagels do not get all sweaty on the bottom while cooking them in the microwave and this gives them a little bit of the nice crispy bottom that they would get in the oven.

"When the moon hits you eye like a big pizza pie; That's amore"

-Dean Martin "That's Amore"                                

New Cookbook!

     I just got a new cookbook in the mail today!!! It is the Taste of Home "Treasury of Christmas Recipes" cookbook. Hopefully it is going to be used in the writing of many blog posts.

You can buy your own copy at www.shoptasteofhome.com.

     I am looking through it right now and there are several delicious looking recipes such as Pizza Poppers (page 31), Sausage Bacon Tidbits (page 36), and Turkey Almond Salad (page 56) and I'm not even 1/4 of the way through the book.
     My mouth is watering just looking at these. As with any cookbook, there are some recipes that I will not be attempting, Glazed Dijon Carrots (I can't bring myself to eat cooked carrots) or Glazed Whole Beets (beets, need I say more), but for the most part, they all look scrumdidlyumptious.
     Happy cooking!

"This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook -- try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!"

-Julia Child          

Oven Update

     So, an update on the oven... The bottom coil thingy (don't you love my technical term?) is dead. We went to Home Depot to buy another one, but due to the fact that there are so many different types available now, they do not carry them in-store anymore so we had to order online.
     The part was shipped out yesterday so it will be here whenever the post office gets it here and then Dad will need to install it. Hopefully it is a quick and easy process.
     Once it is fixed, the first thing made in it will either be dinner or cookies. Yum!
     Oh! About those Mini Bagel Pizzas that I was planning to make the night the oven went out, I ended up microwaving them for a little bit to get the cheese to start melting and then finished them off on the electric griddle (the same one I used to make Fluffy Apple Pancakes the other day). I will write a post about them in the near future with instructions on how to make them in the oven.

Fluffy Apple Pancakes

     Go figure, I wake up this morning wanting breakfast. However, after the whole oven fiasco yesterday resulting in no power to the stovetop to actually make breakfast, it looked like I was out of luck.
     Then I had a stroke of genius. (Ok, not really, but it seemed to be one at the time.) I remembered the electric griddle that was in the hall closet. Normally, we only really use it for quesadillas because it's faster and easier to be able to make two at a time on that versus one at a time in a pan on the stovetop. But what to make on it? Pancakes! Nice, fluffy pancakes. (Yum.)

     The recipe that I used was originally from somewhere (don't ask where, I have no idea) on the Internet, but I figure I have changed it up enough that it isn't really that same recipe anymore. Here it is:

Fluffy Apple Pancakes

   Makes about 8 pancakes

     Ingredients:

3/4 cup milk

2 T vinegar

1 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

2 T butter, melted

1 medium apple, grated     

     Directions:

1. Combine milk and vinegar. Let set for at least 5 min.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk egg and butter into milk mixture. Combine flour mixture and milk mixture. Whisk until lumps are gone. Add grated apple.  Let sit for a minute or so. (This will allow the vinegar in the milk to react with the baking soda resulting in fluffy pancakes.)
3. Heat skillet over medium heat. Spray with cooking spray or drizzle a little olive oil in the pan.
4. Using a ladle, pour on batter & cook. About 3 minutes per side or until golden brown.

     If you don't like apples in your pancakes, you don't have to use them. It doesn't affect the outcome of the actual pancake other than taste.
     These are also good if you replace the apples with blueberries. If you do choose to use blueberries, coat them in flour first. This prevents the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the pancakes.
     I personally do not think that these pancakes need anything other than a little butter or margarine on them, but how you serve them is entirely up to you.

"'When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,' said Piglet at last, 'what's the first thing you say to yourself?' 'What's for breakfast?' said Pooh. 'What do you say, Piglet?' 'I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?' said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. 'It's the same thing,' he said."

- A. A. Milne,  'The House at Pooh Corner'

Oven failure...

     I was planning on doing a post either later tonight or tomorrow about the Mini Bagel Pizzas I was making for my dinner tonight. However, my oven felt differently.
     Here I was just minding my own business, innocently making Mini Bagel Pizzas for my dinner  (taking pictures of the process so I could include them in the post) when my oven started making an odd popping and snapping noise. (It was heating up at the time.)
     In order to be on the safe side, I turned the oven off both on the actual oven and at the circuit breaker. Now I will not be able to use the oven or the stovetop until Dad comes home sometime tomorrow and fixes it, but it will most likely be a while after that because I have a feeling it is more than a simple fix. This also means if I want anything warm to eat before he comes home, it will have to be made in either the microwave or toaster.
     So much for my dinner and the doughnuts I was planning on baking tomorrow. I guess I'll just eat bagel bites which are not nearly as tasty or filling.
     Until the oven gets fixed, any and all posts I write will not include baking (at least in the oven).

First Post!

     This is my second serious attempt at writing a blog. The last attempt was not so successful because even though I really wanted to start a blog, I didn't really have a way to ensure that I would consistently post.
     So you may ask, how am I going to guarantee that I am going to keep this blog up? I have decided that I have to post every time I bake something, within reason. When I say within reason, I mean that I will post when I make something other than the usual (such as breakfast, lunch, and dinner). So no, you will not have to endure a post every time I scramble myself an egg or make a grilled cheese sandwich.
     I will do my very best to include pictures in most of my posts, but I have had difficulties with uploading pictures to a blog in the past. Hopefully the Internet will be on my side this time around. A lot of food blogs have pictures that show the baking process step-by-step, but I don't think I will be taking it to that extreme.
     If I use a recipe that is from someone else's blog, Pinterest, etc., I will provide a link to that original post so I am able to give credit when credit is due.
     I hope you enjoy!

"We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are."

 -Adelle Davis