robot•jumping•rope

firstly, I’m so glad that some of you delurkified your sweet selves yesterday. That was the point of my post, and I hope my tone wasn’t scolding or whining. Okay, I was whining just a little, but I swear it was the all that chocolate in my bloodstream.

{still don’t know how the heck some of you are surfing oodles of sites a day (and you know who you are).}

moving on, my oldest boy is turning into a young man before our very eyes:

full-length graphic novels, people! We found him still reading in his bed last night at nearly 11 p.m., which is about 2.5 hours past his allotted reading-in-bed time. Stern rebukes followed, but secretly i’m pleased with the voracious reader he’s become. i used to stuff towels under my upstairs-bedroom door so my parents wouldn’t see my lights on far into the night. I’m sure he’ll come up with his own tricks. Those addicted to books usually do.

oh, and have I mentioned his appetite? Can’t imagine what he’ll be like when he’s actually an adolescent, because the boy is eating me into the poorhouse right now. And he’s decided he likes “fancy cheese”, which I was hoping would be just for the Artiste and me just a little longer. Now my manchego and pecorino are being invaded. sigh.

Now, since we’re talking about food, it has been quite some time since I last posted a recipe on so-called Recipe Thursday. Today I share with you my gold standard for comfort food: chicken and noodles. It’s cheating, really, because it’s too easy. But it’s my favorite thing to eat. ever. it’s all about the starch for me, basically.

Now it’s not chicken soup, which I am especially good at making (or so says the husband, who has a fabulous cook for a mother) with garlic and homemade stock and keeping things simple. I don’t even like chicken soup, just making it. Nope, this is just split breasts (usually 2-3, and they must have the bone - the marrow flavors the stock!), barely simmered in a big pot of water until tender, remove the bones, dice the meat and return to the pot after the noodles have cooked. Really, there’s nothing to it, except the noodles - the noodles! Make some of these and after they have dried, toss them in the broth and cook until tender, then season to taste. I like to thicken with a little slurry of flour or cornstarch and water, and in my opinion a lot of freshly cracked pepper is an excellent addition.

Fern’s Noodles
(Fern being a neighbor of ours on the Farm, and a darn good maker of noodles.)

combine:

• 1 c flour
• 1/4 t baking powder
• 1/4 + 1/8 t salt

add:

• 1 egg
• 2 T buttermilk or cream or milk
• 1 t butter

stir and knead to make a stiff dough (might need a bit more liquid if too dry), then separate into 3 balls. Roll each out very thin on a well-floured surface and using a dull table knife cut into strips or squares or whatever shape you like. allow to air dry for several hours. these freeze very well for at least a month to be used as needed.

I made some up yesterday to take to a new mother ( took her a cranberry-apple crisp also, and golly, how I wanted to keep it here).

it’s really hard to take a picture with one hand.

have a great thursday ~ what’s left of it, anyway.

:)

p.s. for those of you wondering about my blog title, there’s a sort-of explanation on my (new!) about page.