From a recipie site ("Best Chicken Soup You’ll Ever Eat") - makes a fuck ton of good ass chicken soup, give to your friends and family
- In a pot, slow cook chicken (skip if using rotissery chicken instead):
- 1 lb chicken (breasts, tenderloins, whatever)
- 1 chopped onion
- minced garlic (2 cloves/teaspoons)
- basic seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic, etc)
- a little rosmary and thyme (from a seasoning mix is fine)
- 1 can of citrus soda for liquid (don't look at me like that, it works)
- Cover pot and cook on low for hours (this shit will literally shred itself)
- Transfer chicken and its liquid to a Large pot (if not already)
- Add to large pot and cook until somewhat softened:
- A splash of vegetable oil
- Chopped carrots (aprox 3-4 large carrots)
- Chopped celery (aprox 5 celary stalks, or one bundle)
- Chopped onion and above seasonings (if using rotissery chicken instead or raw)
- While carrots, celery, and onion are cooking, pick chicken meat off of bones and put in pot (if using a rotissery chicken instead of raw, also include skin if you want)
- Add the next important seasonings (and stir of course):
- 1 tablespoon tumeric
- 1 tablespoon ginger
- Add 1 lb of noodles or 1 cup of rice, couscous, barley or other grain and cook until that is done (recipie recommended 1 cup of pearl couscous, egg noodles would also be good)
Add water or broth as needed, I like very thick soup so I add bare minimum. Soup will soak up more liquid in fridge.
Alfredo Sauce
Rich and flavorful - best fresh - leftovers passable by adding jarred alfredo sauce before reheating (prego rosted garlic) - (taken from recipe site)
- Simmer in a large pan for 2 min:
- 1 stick butter
- 1+1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- Add and simmer for 1 min:
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- italian seasoning, salt, pepper
- Stir in 2 cup parmesan cheese, ready when melted
Corncake
Doctored box mix
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Mix in a medium bowl: (by spoon is fine, mixer not needed)
- 1 small can sweat corn
- drain for crustier corncake
- 1 can cream corn
- 1 box (1 lb/16 oz) cornbread mix (krusteaz sweatcorn muffin and cornbread is our current go-to)
- 1 stick of butter
- cold for crustier corncake, break up into small peices
- soften for softer corncake
- 8 oz sour cream
- 1 tbsp sugar
- Pour into lubricated glass 9x13 inch cake pan (glass also encourages nice brown edges)
- Bake at 350 F for 1+ hour
Pumpkin Spice Muffins
Makes 6 large muffins - hard to fuck up - (from a recipe site)
- Preheat oven to 375 F
- Mix in a medium bowl: (by spoon is fine, mixer not needed)
- melted 1 stick butter
- 1 can pumpkin (15 oz)
- Add to bowl and mix:
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup white granulated sugar
- Add to bowl and mix:
- "1 tsp" vanilla (who's really measuring vanilla?)
- 2 eggs
- Add to bowl and mix:
- 2 tsp baking powder
- "1 tbsp" cinnamon (always measure cinnamon with your heart)
- 1 tbsp pumpkin spice (okay you can go overboard with spice mixes, but you can add more if you want, who cares ❤)
- 1+3/4 cup flour
- Pour into (sprayed!) muffin pan
- Bake at 375 F for 30+ mins (More if you like crispy brown edges like me :3)
Butternut Balls
Round crumbly walnut based cookie - very special christmas tradition to me
Makes aprox 100 balls about 1.5 cm or 1/2 to 3/4 inches in diameter
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Finely chop 1 cup walnuts (or pecans) into 2mm (1/16 inch) pieces if not already
- Spread walnuts out onto a cookie sheet and bake for 7 min at 350 F
- Let cool to room temperature (if its winter you can set the sheet outside for quicker cooling)
- While walnuts are baking/cooling:
- In large metal bowl mix butter and sugar on high until fluffy:
- 1 stick + 2 tbsp room temp butter
- 1/2 cup granular sugar
- Mix in on low:
- 1 egg yolk
- "1 tsp" vanilla
- cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- Gradually beat in:
- Spoon mix in:
- cooled chopped walnuts
- 1+ cup of mini semisweet chocolate chips (very small ~3 mm wide)
- mixture should be dry and crumbly
- Pack the dry dough into a small sturdy melon baller, and scoop it out into your hand. Use your palm and fingers to round the ball (warm hands work the best)
- this is time consuming but worth it, and a cherished christmas tradition of mine
- Put all the balls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (they can touch each other since they don't expand)
- Bake at 350 F for 12 min and Cool to room temperature (very important! they can be sat outside to cool if it is cold outside)
- Roll completely cooled balls in powdered sugar mixed with cinnamon (if they are too warm, the powdered sugar will melt and soak into them)
- Put cookies into a container