Fall Fettuccini

I was sick of cooked eggs and toast for lunch. Eggs and toast have been the lunch menu for the last week. Today was the first snow in the valley. I celebrated by using the zucchini on my counter. Hope you enjoy!

In a pot cook according to directions:

speghetti (make a circle by touching your thumb to your pointer finger. enough to fit in this circle)

In second pot heat on medium melt:

1 stick butter (real butter!)

Now add to the hot butter:
1 medium zucchini (you know, the one that's been on your counter for weeks)

Cook the zucchini for 2 minutes and then add:

1 package cream cheese
1/2 cup milk

Be patient while you stir this around. You will think the cream cheese will never melt down. It will look lumpy for a while. Just keep gently stirring.

Now add:

3/4 cup parmesan cheese

Stir in your drained speghetti noodles. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pancakes

These are wonderful for this time of year! Here's a tip for making these. They need a bit longer to cook than a normal pancake. Set your heat a tad lower than you normally do and cook them a minute or two longer on each side. I have tried these with Apple Cider Syrup and didn't think they were that great. Maybe I need to do some tweaking. But these were great served with homemade buttermilk syrup! Click here!

Mix:

1, 1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup pumpkin from the can
2 eggs
2 T oil
2 T vinegar (yes really)

Now add and mix quickly:

2 cups flour (I use 1, 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup wheat, 1/4 cup oat flour)
3 T brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt

Ruby's Chicken Noodle Soup

Remember the chicken I talked about here? And the noodles I talked about here? Combine them into a real savory soup!

In a large pot throw in:

2 T butter
1/2 cup onion (1/2 onion)
1, 1/4 cup carrots (2-3 carrots)
1/2 cup celery (3 stalks)

Let this cook on medium heat for 5 minutes.

Then add:

8 cups chicken broth
3 bay leaves
1 tsp Basil
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Let this simmer for 20 minutes.

Now add:

3 cups chicken, cooked and cut up

Let this simmer for 5 minutes

Now add noodles from one recipe. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Homemade Noodles

I grew up eating Mom's homemade noodles. Is chicken noodle soup real if it isn't made with homemade noodles? Nope. Not in my book.

The problem is when I ask Mom how to make noodles she says, "you can make them with eggs, but you don't have to."  or  "You can roll them thin but you don't have to." So I'll ask, "How do you make them?" And Mom will say, "Oh, it just depends on how much time I have and when I'm serving dinner." ....not too helpful. right?

Here is a recipe that turned out just like Mom's. I began making these at 2 in the afternoon. I let them sit on the counter until 5:00 pm. You could make them first thing in the morning and let them sit on the counter all day. You could also make them up an hour before dinner... great, now I'm sounding just like Mom!

In your mixer mix:

3 eggs
1 T milk
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of pepper

Now add and mix:

1 cup flour

Now dump the sticky mixture on a well floured counter (about 1 more cup of flour). Knead until no longer sticky.

Roll the dough out until it is 1/8" thick. Take a sharp knife and cut noodle strips. The strips should be 4 inches long and less than 1/2" wide.

Let the noodles sit on counter for a few hours or all day. Then boil for 3 minutes.

I'll post my chicken noodle soup recipe soon!

Roasted Lemon Pepper Chicken

Roasted chicken is something I love but have never been able to do very well. I always guess if the chicken is done and always under cook or over cook. I finally shelled out the $4 it cost for a meat thermometer and I don't think I can ever go back to cooking regular chicken breast without being disappointed. Hmmm, another challenge.  I placed the chicken on the top rack and the baked buttered carrots on the bottom rack.

Here is the chicken I bought. It was about 6 lbs. I rinsed it in the sink and then dried it with a paper towel. No guts or gizzards. Pretty clean. Then I slathered the chicken with cool butter -about 6 Tbl. Don't use oil. Why? Have you ever seen Julie and Julia?? Butter is better! I used my hands and got up under the skin.

Then I drenched the chicken in McCormicks Lemon Pepper.

Then, using regular string from my sewing kit, I wrapped the birds legs. Fold the wings under the bird. Really put some muscle into it and you can get them to fold.

Place in roasting pan breast side up!

Place pan in the oven at 375 for about 90 minutes. Baste the bird about 3 times throughout the 90 minutes. The first basting the bird didn't have any juices so I used chicken broth. I actually basted this one every 20 minutes. Then I ended up having to cook it for 2 hours because I kept letting the heat out.

The bird is done when the internal temp reaches 165 to 175.

Let the bird sit for 20 minutes while you make the gravy. I didn't end up with enough drippings for gravy. The problem is my roasting pan was way to large for my small bird. The drippings just evaporated.