Bob’s Chicken Soup Summer 2013

A quick southwestern-style chicken soup for a simple summer supper…

Oil

1 green chili (Anaheim-type mild)

4 chicken thighs

¼ of a med sweet onion, sliced

2 cans chicken broth

Shredded cabbage

Sliced celery

3 or 4 green onions

1 can Mexican-style cut tomatoes (or Rotel if you like those; they’re spicier)

1 can Niblets-type corn, drained

1 garlic clove

¼ to ½ cup rice

Garlic powder, salt, pepper, chili powder, other seasonings as desired.

3 or 4 corn tortillas, cut into short strips

Shredded cheese (opt)

Sour cream (opt)

The best thing to do is to char the green chile on the grill in the normal fashion and sweat it, peel it, remove the seeds and chop it (this is the best flavor).  In a pinch, cut it up and de-seed it, place it in a pan with a little hot oil… and fry it with about ½ to ¾ cup shredded cabbage, the green onions and the celery (which you’ve sliced thin).  Add your seasonings to this mixture as you sauté it just long enough that it is about tender.  Set this aside.

Meanwhile, heat a couple of TB of oil in a soup pot, add the 1/4 sliced onion, the whole garlic clove in halves and the chicken thighs.  Brown them on both sides, then add the broth.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 or 40 minutes.  Remove the chicken pieces, set aside to cool.  Add the rice to this at the right time for the rice you are using – I use 20-minute rice so I added it when there was 20 or 30 minutes left on the total cooking time.  Before adding the rice, I fish out the onion and garlic I used while simmering the chicken and toss it out.

 

After removing the chicken, I add the lightly-sautéed vegetables, the corn and the tomatoes.  Pull the chicken, tossing the skin.  Add the pulled chicken to the pot.  Add more seasonings as desired.  I used about 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, 1 tsp or two of chili powder, 1 tsp of garlic powder, some chopped parsley. You could add red pepper or a jalapeno for heat if you want it, and maybe some cilantro if you wish.  Heat the soup through and then leave on very low heat for about 20 or 30 minutes.

 

Just before serving, heat some oil in a heavy skillet, and when it is sizzling hot, add the tortilla strips.  Fry until they are starting to brown a little – then drain on paper towel.  You don’t want to do them too soon, or they’ll get soggy while resting.  Do this JUST before serving.

If using cheese, jack would be good.   Spoon shredded cheese into bottom of each serving bowl. Ladle the hot soup onto the cheese and top with crispy corn tortilla strips.  I think a dollop of sour cream would also be good.

Instead of adding the cheese to the soup, I served this with no cheese but had a grilled cheese sandwich on the side.


[Note: If you have the time to cook your soup longer and slower, then you can also create your own broth by using water instead of canned broth, and adjusting the cooking method for a longer process.  Much healthier, less salt!]

 

Can I interest you in some beef and noodles?

Beef and noodles, sourdough and salad.

Good old American comfort food.  Sometimes you just have to have it.  Tonight, I made beef and noodles, garden pea pods with butter, a fresh green salad with a red-wine vinaigrette, and a hot loaf of sourdough bread.  I have a peach and cherry cobbler in the oven for dessert. 

BEEF AND NOODLES

Make a batch of noodles:  In a medium or large bowl, mix 1 egg with 2 TB milk.  Whisk until well-combined.  Sift together 1 cup flour, ½ tsp baking powder and ½ tsp kosher salt.  Add about a tsp of fresh ground pepper.  Add this to the egg mixture and stir to combine into a stiff dough.  

Turn out onto a floured surface and roll out as thin as possible.  Let rest for 20 minutes.  Flour each surface to prevent sticking and roll the dough loosely, like a jelly roll.  Slice into thin strips with a sharp thin knife (⅛ to ¼ inch thick).  Unroll each noodle carefully and place on a cookie sheet or a half sheet – let them dry at least two hours, longer if you can.

Meanwhile, brown a lb of stew meat in a skillet with a couple TB of oil.  Add a few slices of onion – I use about ⅓ of a med onion.  When browned nicely, place in a large covered pot with 2 cans of low-sodium beef broth.  Heat to a boil and then simmer for two hours.  Add a sliced carrot and maybe some celery to the pot of beef for the last 40 minutes or so, and maybe some garlic.

Slice the rest of the onion and a carton of mushrooms and sauté them for a while in some oil or butter, adding a splash of red or white wine to the pan as they cook. When the mushrooms are browned nicely, set them aside for a little while.  

When the meat is tender, remove it from the broth and add the noodles to the pot.  Bring to a boil and cook for ten minutes or a bit more, until tender.  Add a bit more water (or broth, or red wine) if needed to keep everything from sticking. Meanwhile, smash the beef chunks into shreds and small pieces with the side of a knife blade and add back to the pot with the mushrooms and onion.

Mix 2 TB of cornstarch into about ⅓ cup cold water and after the noodles are cooked tender mix this into the boiling noodles to cook and thicken.  Turn off the heat and let it rest for 10 or 15 minutes, serve.

This would probably be good with a dollop of sour cream on the top.  Variations on the basic theme are almost endless – add some fresh herbs like rosemary, parsley, etc.  Red pepper… you name it.

Mom's Flowers

Mom at Boyce-Thompson - 2005

Mom’s been growing flowers in the backyard since the 1950’s.  She has slowed down a lot in the last two or three years, but she hasn't quit.

I can remember our many trips back to Indiana and Missouri to see my grandmother and my aunts… and during which they spent many hours wandering around their yards and flower beds and gardens looking at this, looking at that, cutting this, cutting that.  Coming home, we always had trunk-loads of paper sacks and other containers with stuff Mom was trying to keep alive long enough to get it home and into the dirt here.  Some of the stuff made it and thrived and some of it didn't, but not for lack of trying.  Arizona’s soil and climate is good for some things, but not for others.

Sweet Pea

We were driving home in June, 1968 and as we were cruising along on a Colorado highway somewhere in the valley over between Poncha Springs and Del Norte along US285, she spied a lilac bush growing and blooming up by a small ranch house.  She pulled off, grabbed her cutting tool and went to knock on the front door. Not receiving an answer, she didn't think those homeowners would mind too much her having just one little piece of their shrub (or maybe two...) and she clipped off some cuttings to see if she could get them to grow around here...  alas, lilacs are one of the things that will NOT grow in the Arizona desert. Up north in the higher country, yes, but here in the Sonoran Desert heat an emphatic no-go despite Mom's attentive ministrations and plaintiff exhortations.

Christmas Stuff?

Heading south again on that highway that day I could almost feel the hot breath of the Colorado State Horticultural Law Enforcement and Plant Theft Patrol (the CSHLEPTP, or just say "schleptip") on the back of our necks as we sped away from the scene of the crime.

So I was looking around the backyard this afternoon in the great late-afternoon-springtime light and I grabbed my camera to take some photos of some of the stuff she’s growing.  I noticed that the rose bush she and I planted on New Year’s didn't leaf out, so I guess that will be yanked out and taken back to the nursery for a refund, if she ever gets around to it.  I think the prettiest ones are the bright red carnations - at least I think that's what they are. (No room for that photo.)

Iris

There are lots of other things growing out there... as you can see. Her favorites were always her Iris's.  The past few years, they haven't bloomed in the abundant quantities of years past -- but there is this one out there today, a royal purple one. We don't know why they are not as prolific as in years past -- perhaps the soil needs something. Or maybe her bulbs are just too old.

Good news for me… along with all of the flowers, she’s also got cabbage out there, Swiss Chard, lettuce, beets, peas… probably green onions…  I can’t say the flowers aren't real pretty, but I’m partial to stuff I can EAT, you know? And I do NOT eat flowers. But vegetables aren’t as photogenic, are they?

Roses

These photos are all of stuff Mom's got going in the back yard right now -- all of it obtained legally I assure you.  It’s just that she cannot outrun the fuzz as well as she used to, so she gave up on that life of interstate landscape crime and sneaking around other people's backyards, clippers in hand…

April 17, 2013

Goin' to the Beach!

Route of the Coast Starlight

Not my beautiful photo of Rockaway Beach

I have vacation again!  Woohoo! Having started a new job at the National Safety Council last March, I didn't have any vacation for the first year.  I should have negotiated that… But as of January 1, 2013, I get 80 hours...  Not much when you're used to taking off anytime you want to, but still... that other way had no security to speak of either.

I will be taking one week off in October, and the other 40 hours I broke into little pieces attached to holiday weekends throughout the year - which will give me more bang for my buck.

The first one is coming up on President's Day weekend... I'll fly to Los Angeles on Thursday night and then take the Coast Starlight on Friday morning. I will eat "gourmet" food in the dining car, keep track of the train's geographical progress and speed with my GPS, maybe even read a John Steinbeck book as I pass through Salinas. I will have breakfast around Klamath Falls somewhere.  Perhaps it will snow again (in Klamath Falls) as it did the last time I rode the Starlight through that place.

At Rockaway Beach, Oregon, I have a reservation at the Surfside Resort (motel).  I will stick pretty close to that place until I leave on Monday afternoon -- although I have Cape Lookout and Depoe Bay programmed into the GPS also just in case I feel like roaming around. Cape Meares State Park is in there as well.

And too soon I'll be home and working again... waiting anxiously for the next outing.  But surely lucky to get to go, huh?  Sometimes I'm glad I am not a farmer...

New Crosswalk Signals - The "Crosswalk Hawk"

The Hawk

There is a new crosswalk signal light set being installed in Phoenix – and I have seen them in some other places as well. The greatest risk for pedestrians crossing roadways is the high number of inattentive, impaired, impatient and distracted drivers.  As a pedestrian, a person can’t ever assume that because some vehicles have stopped for them, and they are visible to other approaching vehicles, that they are safe crossing a roadway.  You have to keep your eyes moving and your brain connected the entire time.  

But traffic engineers have come up with a couple of new ideas to grab the attention of drivers as they approach crosswalks. First we have a new light set that consists of a solar power unit, with a floodlight to illuminate the pedestrian as they wait to cross, and a yellow strobe light set that flashes to grab the motorist’s eye.  I don’t know how many have been installed – but they are apparently very effective in getting motorists to yield to the pedestrians where they have been.

The second is a bit more common, and is called “the Hawk.”  It was invented by a traffic engineer in Tucson, Arizona a few years back. It is a three-light set that uses the standard colors of traffic signals to stop the vehicles approaching crosswalks. The problem is, almost no one knows what to do when they approach one – and given that the lights aren’t in the usual configuration we see at intersections, many drivers cannot seem to figure them out.

All you really need to know is what each of the three light sequences and colors mean in general.

The Hawk has three lights – two red and one yellow.  When a pedestrian presses the crosswalk button, a flashing yellow signal light illuminates for the approaching traffic, which then goes solid yellow after a couple of seconds. After the yellow sequence, which gives approaching motorists the opportunity to bring their vehicles to a safe stop at the crosswalk, an all-red phase begins and the pedestrian can enter the crosswalk.  

All vehicles must remain stopped while the red lights are illuminated steadily. After the pedestrian has had a sufficient amount of time to cross the street, the red lights begin to alternately flash (like at a railroad crossing).  At this point, if your half of the roadway’s crosswalk is clear of pedestrians, you treat these flashing red lights as you would most other flashing red signal lights – you stop, you yield, and then you may proceed if it is safe to do so.  That’s all there is to it.

People get so confused by this signal set that Phoenix’ traffic engineering department is putting signs up that inform drivers what to do.  Of course, no one reads the signs either.  No surprise there.  But if you forget what to do – just look for those signs.

My instructions are only for Arizona – I don’t know if other states are implementing these the same way we are.  My guess is that they are, but I do not know this for a fact.

Keep the shiny side up… and pay attention behind the wheel!

Uncle Bob

Happy New Year! ~Red Clam Chowder Recipe

Hey, the hot sauce is just a suggestion...

Uncle Bob’s Red Clam Chowder

Unlike most people today, I prefer the red Manhattan-style, or Chesapeake clam chowder (not that I don’t like the New England-style, it’s also great). This is a spicy-warm soup, great with a grilled-cheese sandwich on a cold day.  I adapted it from recipes I found online, including the famous Rocky Point Amusement Park’s recipe and I used Emeril Lagasse’s recipe on the Food Network for inspiration – but I altered and adjusted the ingredients and proportions for convenience and in the end, the result is more mine than anyone else's.  For example, I could not find any salt pork today (as called for in the Rocky Point recipe) – so I used some bacon I had on hand.  I've been thinking about this soup for several months -- I had a great red chowder from Chef Kramer at the Manzanita Inn (in Cornville) last summer, and I've been thinking about it ever since.   His was about the best I’ve ever had. I like this soup; we’ll see how I feel after I have a second serving of it for supper tonight…

What goes innit:

2 oz bacon, chopped

¼ lb chopped onion

Celery, 1 stalk, chopped

¼ lb potato, diced small

10 oz Clamato™ juice

15 oz can chicken broth

8 oz clam juice

10 oz clams in juice

1 TB dried parsley

2 tsp dried onion bits

½ tsp pepper

½ tsp sea salt (or reg)

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp celery seed

½ tsp dried red pepper flakes

1 tsp paprika

2 TB cornstarch

Method:

In a Dutch oven on medium heat, (I used a cast iron Dutch oven), fry the chopped bacon with the celery until it renders the fat and starts to crisp.  Add the onion and cook until it is becoming translucent.  Add the potato and the herbs/seasonings; cook a few moments, then add the liquids, except for about ¼ cup (mix this reserved liquid with the corn starch and set aside).  Separate the clams from the clam juice and add that juice to the soup – set the clams aside. 

Heat and simmer the soup for about 12 minutes, maybe 15, until the vegetables are tender.  Add the clams, heat through, then mix in the corn starch mixture and heat the soup to boiling.  Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 10 to 20 minutes.  Serve.

His "original" birthday!

Noah

Noah was born today at 6:48 AM. Thought I'd put his picture up so you could see it... just in case you haven't seen any babies lately.  That's his Great-Grandma Hicks holding him. 

I went out to the hospital to meet him this evening -- he was pretty calm. Take a look at the photo -- doesn't he look like he's just had a cigar? Yeah, I thought so too. 

I'm not sure who he looks like; besides himself, of course. Perhaps it will become more apparent as he gets settled in. He seems to be a pretty normal kid -- I didn't count his fingers and toes, but I'm sure Mandy would have told me if there was a problem.

I should probably go back and see him again tomorrow.