Category: Audience Participation

Chicken Noodle Soup

Winter has its perks, among which are soups. The warm feeling of delight as it travels your inward parts is deliciously heartwarming—literally. If there is one meal to enjoy during the cold it is Chili’s and Soups.

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We’ll need:

• 1 (3 1/2-pound) whole chicken
• 3 quart(s) low-sodium chicken broth
• 6 carrots, peeled
• 4 stalk(s) celery, ends trimmed
• 3 medium onions, peeled
• 5 black peppercorns
• 1 clove(s) garlic, crushed
• 10 sprig(s) parsley
• 2 sprig(s) thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoon(s) unsalted butter
• 4 leeks, tops and root ends removed
• 1 teaspoon(s) salt
• 1 teaspoon(s) fresh-ground pepper
• 3 cup(s) (5 ounces) medium egg noodles

 

Make the stock: Place the chicken and chicken broth in a large stockpot and set it over medium heat. Roughly chop 2 carrots, 2 celery ribs, and 1 onion and add to the broth. Add the peppercorns, garlic, 2 sprigs of parsley, thyme, bay leaf, and enough water to just cover the chicken. Bring the broth to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook until the chicken is very tender — about 1 1/4 hours — skimming the surface periodically. Remove the chicken and place in a large bowl. Strain the broth through a very fine sieve into a large, clean bowl or stockpot. Discard the vegetables.

 

Make the soup: Skim any fat off the top of the strained broth and discard. Slice the remaining carrots, celery, onions, and leeks into 1/4-inch-thick pieces and set aside. Remove and discard the skin and bones from the chicken, cut meat into 1/2-inch pieces, and set aside. Chop the remaining parsley leaves and set aside. Melt the butter in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the vegetables and cook until the onions are translucent — about 7 minutes. Add the chicken, the reserved broth, salt, and pepper. Simmer the soup until the vegetables are tender — about 1 hour. Stir in the egg noodles and parsley and cook until the noodles are tender — about 10 more minutes. Serve hot.

 

Add toasted bread or tortilla for an added treat :).

Skillet Salmon & Parmesan Potatoes

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I LOVE potatoes: French Fries, Baked Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes, all kinds of potatoes. So, today’s recipe is a nice easy dish that takes just a little bit of time to prepare. You can make this meal in less than 15 minutes and it is delicious. For tonight’s quick fix, we will need:

1 (6-ounce) salmon fillet (about 1-inch thick)
Cooking spray
2 medium potatoes
4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups mixed salad greens
1 cup chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons balsamic vinaigrette
1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat a nonstick skillet or grill pan over medium-high heat. Coat fish with cooking spray. Add fish to pan, and cook until it’s well done ( 6 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork).

 
2. While fish cooks, pierce potatoes with a fork; arrange in a circle on paper towels in a microwave oven. Microwave on HIGH 8 to 10 minutes, rearranging potatoes after 5 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes.

 
3. Cut cooked potatoes in half, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and cheese.

 
4. Combine greens, tomatoes, and vinaigrette in a bowl; toss gently.

 
5. Cut lemon in half, and squeeze lemon juice over fish. Serve with potatoes and salad.

Tomato and Beef Casserole With Polenta Crust

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Photo: Beth Dreiling Hontzas; Styling: Caroline Murphey

Today’s special recipe is a feature from Kathy Gizzi, of Rotonda West, Florida. It looks so tasty I cannot wait to try it myself. This time, we’re all going to do it together, yall with me? Tonight’s dinner is: Tomato and Beef Casserole with Polenta Crust. We’ll need:

1 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain yellow cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon Montreal steak seasoning
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 pound ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
1 chopped bell pepper < or zucchini. I don’t care too much for it so I substituted with bell pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 (14 1/2-oz.) cans diced tomatoes, drained
1 (6-oz.) can tomato paste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Bring 3 cups water and 1 tsp. salt to a boil in a 2-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat. Whisk in cornmeal; reduce heat to low, and simmer, whisking constantly, 3 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat, and stir in steak seasoning and 1/4 cup Cheddar cheese. Spread cornmeal mixture into a lightly greased 11- x 7-inch baking dish.

 
2. Brown ground beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat until meat is well done; drain and transfer to a bowl.

 
3. Sauté onion and bell peppers in hot oil in skillet over medium heat until crisp-tender. Stir in beef, tomatoes, and tomato paste; simmer, stirring often, 10 minutes. Pour beef mixture over cornmeal crust. Sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup cheese.

 
4. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until bubbly. Sprinkle casserole with parsley just before serving.

Enjoy!

Do you have a tasty recipe you would like me to try? Send it in! I love recipes and will try it seriously, no joke. :). Just be sure to send a picture along with it so I can feature it on Recipe Sunday. 

Social Media

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Social media has completely taken over the internet. Today there is pretty much nothing you can do that does not involve some kind of media outlet, or does not at least benefit in some way from its usage. Social media can be defined as any computer-mediated tool that allows people to create, share or exchange information, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities. If social media was a real live place, where would you want to live and why?

 

All Natural Shea Butter Shampoo

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Yes, with a little effort you can make your very own version of Shea Butter Shampoo. Shea Butter is a natural conditioner for hair. Produced from the Shea-Karite nut tree in West and East Africa; it is a triglyceride derived mainly from stearic acid and oleic acid. It is widely used in cosmetics as a moisturizer, salve or lotion . It helps to soothe dry, itchy scalp, dandruff, locks moisture in, and protects against heat.

 

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I actually included Black Soap in my version of this ingredient but I decided to leave it out of this one for a number of reasons. Firstly, I did not like the result of how the soap felt in my hair when I got down to actually using the shampoo. Black Soap is a concentrated soap that must be diluted with oils and butter (like Shea Butter) in order to achieve the desired effect. For some it works, but for others it leaves the hair tangled, greasy, and dry. It can also make the scalp tingle because of its concentrated properties. It is, Black Soap, a very good product for hair and skin. It is good for rashes or any skin problem but personally I would like to become better informed on how to use it as a shampoo before giving information about it. For this reason, though I used it in my version, I will leave it out of this one. But, if you would like to add African Black Soap to this version there are plenty of YouTube videos available online on how to use it as a shampoo.

For this Sunday’s Recipe you will need:

Shea Butter
Aloe Vera Gel
Coconut Oil
Rosemary
Small Jar
A dark tinted bottle with a lid
Empty Shampoo Bottle
Knife

1. Melt your Shea butter: Place a couple pieces of aluminum foil on a skillet you don’t expect to really cook in again. Set stove to low heat. Place Shea Butter on foil and let it melt. (This is preferred over using the microwave). Watch it carefully; it only takes a few minutes to melt. You can also melt the coconut oil the same way if it is hardened

(Coconut oil becomes a solid above 76 F. But you can let it melt naturally just by leaving it out a day before you begin production since it’ll melt once it’s below that threshold).
3. Pour liquid Shea Butter and Coconut Oil in a bowl.

Rosemary:

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I chose to incorporate Rosemary a). because there’s a ton of it growing on the side of my house, and b). because it has been in use as an effective solution to hair loss for centuries now. It also helps in reducing hair thinning and balding. It will help in improving the circulation of the scalp and this will in turn help in hair growth. Rosemary works effectively on the hair when combined with olive oil (I also used mint).

4. So next, you want to extract the oils from your herbs which means you want to start this process a couple days before you plan to make the shampoo. Of course you can just buy the essential oils you want to add but why take the fun out of it? :

a). Cut up the Rosemary leaf. Then fill a small jar about half-way with the herb depending on how much of it you want to use in your shampoo.

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b). Cover the cut herb with olive oil. Make sure that all of the herbs are covered. How much oil this will require depends on the size and shape of your jar.
c). Put the lid on the jar and shake it gently to mix the herbs and oils. Place the jar in a sunny spot and leave it for at least 48 hours. Swirl the ingredients around gently every few hours.

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d). Pour the essential oil into a dark-tinted bottle with a good stopper. Label the jar with the ingredients and the date because essential oils lose their potency after six months.

5. Now, add this oil to your mix, not all of it, just enough to use for this batch.  Also add the Aloe Vera Gel to your mixture. Aloe Vera’s natural enzymes destroy the excessive dead skin cells and fungus that leads to dandruff. While also leaving the scalps ph levels balanced and moisturized.
Mix everything together with an electric mixer, or blend it in a blender you use specifically for this purpose (obviously not the same one you make your smoothies with 🙂 ).

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Pour into your old shampoo bottle and enjoy. (Note: This is an old Shampoo bottle with my Shea Butter Shampoo in it).

Whopper Pie

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Today’s Sunday Recipe is a nice sweet treat for all of our sugar addicts out there and is super-duper easy to make. There is also so much more you can do with this. You can make a cake or fill your pie with whatever ingredients you like. For this basic recipe you’ll need:

1 Pt. Softened Vanilla Ice Cream
8 oz Cool Whip
8 oz Whoppers Crushed (or Malted Milk Balls)
1 Graham Cracker Crust

 
Mix all of these delicious ingredients together. Make sure the Whoppers are crushed and be sure to leave some for the final touch.

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Pour mixture into the Graham cracker crust and top with crushed or whole whoppers.
Freeze for 4 hours and top with whipped cream, more whoppers and anything else that tickles your taste buds.

Enjoy!