Friday, February 18, 2011

Sweet Sixteen Surprise!

We Got Her! Rachel's birthday isn't for a couple of weeks, and since I knew she would be on the lookout for birthday surprises, we had her party on Wednesday night.
She thought she was just going to a regular youth activity--Iron Chef at the community center on base.


Here she is with some of her cute friends!And here are some of the yummy treats we had!

Chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting.


Chocolate dipped strawberry marshmallows.




Chocolate cake pops. Yum. And homemade oreos.
Here is Rachel's Sweet Shoppe.





Here are the cute water bottle labels I ordered from Chickabug.com
It was a fun time! I am glad Ellie is only nine! :)

Thursday, February 10, 2011

What to do on a snow day

I love comfort food. And hibernating. And cooking with my kids. (Okay, maybe not so much the last one, but it is getting better now that they don't throw the flour all over the kitchen.) So I love it when we have a snow day like we did last week. We made homemade chicken and noodles. Yum. Here is my noodle apprentice Bekah, rolling out those morsels of goodness.

Here are the noodles drying on the counter. Andy actually made half of them. Impressive, huh?



Tender noodles and broth.



The finished product--chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes with peas. Mmmm.


Here is the recipe for your next snow day:






Homemade Chicken and Noodles


Place one whole chicken in a large pot with an onion, some large carrots, and half a bunch of celery. Toss in a generous pinch of kosher salt. Bring to a boil, and then turn heat to medium low. Simmer until chicken is tender. Remove chicken and vegetables from broth. Take all the chicken off the bones and set it aside. Discard veggies. Meanwhile make the noodles.


I make a large batch:


5 eggs

4 cups of flour

4 teaspoons kosher salt

4 Tablespoons milk


Mix well with fork, and then with hands until it forms a ball. Roll out about 1/4th of the dough at a time. Roll as thin as you can get it, frequently dusting with flour. Cut into several widths and stack them on top of each other. Start at one end and slice the noodles as thinly as possible. Repeat with remaining dough. Let dry on the counter while soup is cooking.


When broth is ready, bring to a boil and put all noodles in the pot. Bring to boil again and then turn heat down to medium. Cook for about 15-20 minutes or until noodles are tender. Add chicken and chicken bouillion or chicken base, to taste. Also, salt and pepper if desired.


Make some mashed potatoes and then put the whole thing together. Put your pjs on before eating because you will go into a carbohydrate coma. This is fabulous with petite peas right in the bowl and with homemade rolls.

Question answered

So I was wondering why my purse weighs so darn much...






Here's the answer! Yes I filled half a jar with change. I am going to the bank tomorrow to see how much was in there!