HOME MADE CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

When we were children, my mother would feed us a variety of proteins, fried chicken was one of them.  However she always saved the necks and backs to boil up to go into chicken noodle soup.   The noodles were another story.  She would pour flour onto the bread board, make a hole and throw in a couple of eggs, this got mixed together and then rolled out flat, rolled up and sliced into noodles. The noodles were invariably dried on newspaper on the beds for at least a full day.   For years we thought that was where noodles came from.

Next step throw frozen chicken parts into a pot, boil until bones come out, remove bones, return chicken to pot, bring to boil, throw in dried noodles.  Add salt liberally. We thought this was wonderful especially the day after it would get all thick and yummy.

My version, comes from left over baked chicken,which makes a fairly clear broth and does not thicken quite so well. My noodles as illustrated above are mixed in a bowl, rolled out on a floured board,sliced and dried briefly,then tossed into the boiling pot of chicken, cook 6 minutes, throw in half package of frozen peas, turn off heat. Serve in soup bowl, sprinkle with Parmesan.  Utilize spoon.  So good on a cold winter day.  Enjoy!

Tater

It seems appropriate to cook potatoes two ways in memory of Uncle Tater. He passed away a couple days ago, he was 90, suffering from dementia and pneumonia and during one of his lucid moments, angry that Fern had died before him.  (told second hand from Aunt Ollie).

Tater's name was actually Clayton but my mother, the baby of the family, could not pronounce Clayton,it came out "Tayton" and evolved into Tater.  Tater it was for 90 years.  

I remember visiting with Grandma Horn years ago and she had kept the telegraph's from the War Department informing the family that he had been wounded and I read them. He spent his recovery in England and did not grow to appreciate English food.   Part of his service involving going into one of the death camps.  I cannot imagine a more horrible thing to have witnessed.

I also remember seeing a Cowboy calendar that featured both Tater and his brother Ralph, the genuine article all dressed up in working cowboy gear and saddled horses. I hope someone in the Horn family still has that calendar. 

I have already told the Porcupine Liver story several times and you can search my blog to read it again if you wish.  

Tater had a sly sense of humor, I was visiting in Emmett one time and the Horn's were visiting. Tater greeted me and said, "Looks like you wintered up pretty good". 
....sigh....what are you gonna do?

Tater and Fern are together now, looking for a country dance and it will be a contest between Mom and Dad who are already waiting and have cleared the dance floor with a quick boogie.  

God Bless everyone.     

  

Cauliflower and Broccoli two ways

 

 

Hmmm, too many cooking shows.

We went shopping at Freddy's and amongst other items picked up a pristine white head of cauliflower and four lovely crispy stalks of broccoli. 

This morning I decided to make B&C salad with raisins, frozen peas, chopped onion, sunflower seeds and dressing consisting of mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar and four packets of the yellow packaged sugar.

I took the stems and stalks of both cauliflower and broccoli, sliced them up and brought them to a boil until just barely cooked.   Drained water, poured into casserole and topped left over bottled 4 cheese Alfredo sauce, fresh grated nutmeg topped with sprinky dink of shredded parm and some more sunflower seeds, bake 30 minutes at 350 to get the cheese a lovely brown in bits bake.  Husbands says delish but allows as how the salad would be better for him. The baked dish won't last long.

Other viewing news:

Project Runway Season 11 has begun.  Started with sixteen designers and the main deal this season is that ALL challenges will be team challenges.  Oy!  These are on the whole a bunch of lone wolves and are not well known for playing well together.   Through various interviews you get a flavor for who might have the right skills. One team worked very well together and won.  The other team lost their youngest team member, a very nice young woman who sent a model down the runway in a glued together skirt, jacket and top that tied together in back. Time got away from her.  Too bad.

Preppers:  Regardless of their reasons for prepping it is nice to see people preparing for disaster. I much prefer the community approach.   I thought the episode with the two long distance truck driver couple was interesting.  Gotta buy 14,000 dollars worth of camo just to cover the truck. Ouch.   We quit.  We buy. We out.

 

Sad Passing of a Favorite Auntie

RE POSTED FROM EARLY BLOG WITH A FEW ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

A couple years back I took a picture of the Cow Camp. Time has not been kind to the actual building but I and most of my siblings have fun memories of the Cow Camp. In the summer my uncle and family moved to the Cow Camp so he could manage a large cattle ranch. It was a treat to go for ride with him in the jeep when he set out salt blocks.

There was no electricity. Light was from kerosene lanterns, warmth and food was from a wood burning stove. There was a hand pump and a sink. My aunt Fern ironed clothes using sad irons. These were solid metal irons that heated on the wood stove,very heavy things. I would have settled for wrinkles. One of my favorite dishes was cinnamon pull apart that my aunt made. Mom tried that recipe once but it was very labor intensive and didn't last much past a brief cool down period. There were beds upstairs that all the kids slept in there were a bunch of us and there were thunder mugs under each bed.  I have a singular memory of being shown the contents of one of those mugs and thinking that the it looked like canned tamales that came wrapped in paper, never quite got over that.

Us kids loved to go hunt for dynamite wire. Bits and pieces of the blue, yellow and red stuff could be found at a nearby blast site. We would scramble around and gather the stuff up and weave rings and bracelets. If there were any snakes amongst the rocks we probably scared them to death.

One of my favorite memories from Cow Camp involved a porcupine liver. One summer that we visited somehow a deer came to a slightly out of season's end on the property. Dad and my Uncle put the carcase in the barn. To keep us cousin's big ears and big mouths occupied, my uncle showed us a piece of lodge pole pine studded with porcupine quills. Very impressive. Even better was the large bowl containing the heart and liver. This is the Gods' honest truth, for years after that, my best story at school was "Do you know how big a porcupine's liver is? It's almost as big as the porcupine!". I was almost of legal age when Mom and Dad told me the other side of the story.

Aunt Fern had recently been hospitalized with pneumonia. Judy Horn Trent face booked that she had died.  Uncle Clayton has been ill himself.  And prayers are flying every where.  Aunt Fern had just the best sense of humor, she worked hard, loved her family and as near as I can remember, I don't think she ever wore anything but a dress for every day wear.  God Bless you and keep you, Aunt Fern.

weekly update

I did make French Toast this morning but this picture is an old one.  It was still delish!

My new manager started work on the 7th.  Our HR person took her all over town looking for housing rentals and they found one, they peeked inside a little gray house on 8th, determined that it was empty and then started sleuthing to find the owner, who had just put it on Craig's list.   KLL is our new manager and is most welcome. This means I may actually get a vacation this year.

Husband and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary on the 10th, we went out for dinner at Benneti's in Coos Bay. He had Gorgonzola Steak and I had Surf and Turf (A skewer of shrimp and a balsamic pepper corn sauce steak.)  Sigh....wonderful.

I read an interesting article about raw onions and other cold remedies.   I have a sore throat this morning,I am headed out shortly for some Zicam and onions.  The onions are supposed to be cut open in a bowl which is to be located next to your bed to absorb and bad germs.  ....oy.... gah...

Yet another very colorful dream...

I woke up completely bemused this morning from a fairly amusing and colorful dream.

It was one of those "I don't know where we are but it looks familiar dreams".  We, by we, the whole family all the brothers and sisters and some friends were at a Casino.  The Casino was huge,  we all scattered out.   I was stopped by a group asking directions to the Family Room.   Uh, okay, lets take a look.  Finally found them a nice hotel lobby looking place and left them there.   I wondered around some more.  I headed for the registration desk to try hook up with anyone.   No one there, then I looked further along where it turned into cashiers desks and saw the back of Mom's head.  As I approached her she turned about and her arms were full of two great big casino chip boxes.  Wow, she had won big time.  Then we walked to some jackpot machines, by then one of the brothers had caught up with me.  We watched her play a bit and she kept hitting jackpots.  One was for 138,000 dollars.  Time to go.

So I consulted the dream interpretation web site:

To dream that you are in a casino signifies the risk-taker within you. If you are a reserved or passive person, then the dream suggests that you should take a chance. If you are not, then it implies that you need to make a more informed decision instead of relying on fate.

To see your mother in your dream represents the nurturing aspect of your own character. Mothers offer shelter, comfort, life, guidance and protection.

Hmph, how vague.  Should have looked up "cash".

Idle Googling on my day off...

We have books, not quite as many is above, however, the living room has become a quasi-library, there are books in the upstairs hallway, there books in the dining room,and there are several book shelves of my "keeper" books in the bedroom.

 

 

We have cats, not quite as charming as above, Jubilee is elderly and lives in the basement close to the running dryer. The other three would love the following.

 



 

Naturally there should be cat shelving, they could dust the books as they tread daintily amongst the literature.  Not sure how to avoid the tendency to scratch on wood, perhaps some discretely positioned carpeting, eh?