Sunday dinner

These photos aren't actually from today. They are from a Sunday dinner though, because Greg and I like to have roasted chicken on Sundays. And on this particular Sunday we also had apple crisp, with cream and also caramel ice cream. It was pretty spectacular.

I hope you don't get the impression that the dessert was more important than the dinner (based on the 4:1 ratio of photos). The problem was that the dinner was just so delicious that I forgot to take any photos until it was nearly all gone (hence the photo of the chicken carcass).

Tortilla Soup

This is my latest culinary success!

Tortilla soup has been one of my favorite recipes for awhile. It is delicious and memory filled. I learned the recipe from Laura, who learned it from her friend Jenny. I think Laura and I even watched the movie while eating the soup once.

_____________________

Jenny's Famous Tortilla Soup

ingredients
3 chicken breasts
celery
carrots
1 onion
4 bullion cubes (or 6 cups of chicken broth in a box)
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp lemon pepper
2 tsp ground cumin
1 lime
2 cans tomatoes with green chilies
monterey jack cheese, grated
tortilla chips
1 avocado


cut raw chicken into bite-size pieces and cook on the stove.  set
aside chicken aside, leaving grease in pan.  chop celery, onions, and
carrots and saute in left-over chicken grease (mmm) and olive oil.
boil 6 cups water (or boil the chicken broth and skip the cubes). add
4 bullion cubes, chili powder, garlic powder, lemon pepper, cumin,
lime juice, and tomatoes w/ green chilies. add chicken and veggies.

simmer all 20 minutes.  crush tortilla chips in bottom of bowl.  add
soup, avocado slices, and cheese.

_____________________

I learned awhile ago that I am just not good at cooking chicken breasts in a way that makes them delicious. I always get paranoid about chicken and end up overcooking it. My solution is to use the leftover chicken from a roasted chicken. 

But this time, I went one step further. I made my very own chicken stock. And it was awesome. On Sunday I roasted two small chickens (so that we'd have plenty of leftovers of course), and I boiled the two carcasses with an onion, carrot, and celery. The chicken roasting technique uses so much salt, that I didn't even add salt to my stock.

Needless to say, the soup was awesome.

Greg's favorite meal

I had known Greg for a long time before his mother enlightened me on his favorite meal. Now that I have that information, I can get major bonus points by cooking a chicken. The best part is that he takes care of the chicken carving for me, since I really don't want anything to do with that process.

On this day, I once again made kale salad, as well as rice and gravy to have with the chicken, and green beans using the Not Your Mother's Green Beans recipe from the Moosewood Restaurant cookbook. And of course, we had to have a glass of milk with this meal.

Also, I had never made a chicken before, but it is not at all difficult. I always follow this recipe for roasted chicken, except that the herb I stuff in it changes. We have never used thyme, because anything flavored with thyme makes me think of thanksgiving stuffing. We usually use rosemary, but since the rosemary plant is not doing as well as the basil plant, we used the latter instead.