Friday, March 29, 2013

Negative Nelly Be Gone



That's right, kick that girl to the curb because I'm on Spring Break right now. Well, I've been on Spring Break. It's almost over. 

Before spring break, Karma kicked me in the butt and nailed me with the creeping crud that the girls and Peanut Head had. I was getting too cocky and boy did she show me.

That's okay, I'm passive aggressive and I'll exact my revenge. Never mind that she's a concept and not a person.

In spite of starting spring break still reeling from the creeping crud, I've had a fabulous, relaxing week, and I'm ready to face the last eight weeks of school leading up to summer vacation. I'd like to tell you that I've been super productive this week and cleaned my house from top to bottom, all the while decrapifying as I went. But I did not. In fact, I did zero spring cleaning and I'm okay with it.

I spent some much needed time in my kitchen cooking, and I finally learned how to make real chicken noodle soup, starting with making my own chicken stock.

I should be ashamed to admit that I always throw my turkey carcass away after Thanksgiving dinner, and this last Thanksgiving the Renaissance Woman gave me the hairy eyeball as she inquired "You're not going to throw away those bones are you? That will make a fine soup stock."

I told her that yes, I was going to throw it away but she was welcome to haul the gnarly carcass home herself if she would like. And she did. But not until she gave me a thorough tongue lashing for throwing away all the internal organs previously. My bad.


Check it out. Noodles. I made them. I know, so cool. First time making my own noodles without Peanut Head and the Pasta Maker.

Okay, weird association, but why does that make me think of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat?

Well, maybe because Peanut Head is amazing. He has mad skillz in the kitchen when he applies himself. I would have enlisted his help this time, but alas, he is not on spring break this week. 

I did attempt to learn how to use the Pasta Maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, and I even sat down with my Granny glasses to read the instructions thoroughly. Nevertheless, it was a train wreck. I finally resorted to the old fashioned method of rolling the dough out with a rolling pin and cutting my noodles old school.


Except that I had a brilliant idea and pulled out the pizza cutter to cut my noodles. It worked great, let me tell you. It was super fast. Way better than trying to keep up with the pasta extruder attachment, having to untangle noodles in love as they extruded.

I have nightmares.

I cut all my noodles long, and then when it was time to add them to the soup, I dangled five or six over the pot at a time and snipped off two-inch lengths with my kitchen shears. Best. Idea. Ever.

So now I know how to make real chicken noodle soup, no cream of chicken condensed soup necessary, and it really doesn't take that long. Well, hands on time anyway. There's lots of sitting and reading my book time while the carcass simmers and all that. That was super unpleasant, relaxing with my book. 

Besides cooking, I spent a lot of time with my sister-in-law, Marcia, who is visiting this week, and the girls. Today we dyed our Easter eggs.


This is our first Easter with egg producing chickens, and I couldn't bring myself to buy store bought eggs to dye when we have a me-e-e-ellion pretty tan eggs coming out our ears. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the tan eggs colored beautifully. This was like a double experiment for me because we didn't have our standard Paas egg coloring kit so we just used vinegar, liquid food coloring, and boiling water.


I love that they came out in these earthy jewel tones. The brown is my favorite because it reminds me of chocolate. 

Really, I think they look like Geologist's Easter eggs.


Which is why I couldn't resist posing them among some of Peanut Head's rocks.


This is Marcia. She hates us all now because we got her sick. 

I don't blame her. Peanut Head finally went to the doctor yesterday and his version of the germy gift has morphed into a sinus infection. Lucky guy he is.


Since sugar weakens the immune system, we thought this would be a fitting time to make Easter cookies.


Yay mess.

I mean Yay! Mess.


We'd deliver them to the neighbors except they'd probably throw away cookies made by Lepers.


Ah, the last bit of quality time spent with the offspring today. Mento bomb. Peanut Head and Stinkerbell were just a little too excited to set this baby off.


In the end it was a little anticlimactic because the soda had lost some of its fizz. That Stinkerbell, she lacks self control. Just like her Mama.

4 comments:

  1. Mmmmmm I'd love a bowl of that chicken soup. I think I might have to have a go at that myself :)

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  2. Sorry you started off your spring break with the creeping crud. Mine started today. *sigh* Sooooooo, glad! Almost cried when I left the parking lot yesterday afternoon! A few things planned (stupid Dr. appts - what dummy decided that it's best to schedule them over break? *Ahem*)for the week. Girl's Day Out is one of them - can't wait. The rest will be hopefully spent decluttering & getting ready for Spring. Yeah, like I'm expecting that to come any time before August. This is Western NY after all.

    Glad you're feeling better. The chicken soup looks wonderful. You are a braver woman than I to make your own noodles. Raising my morning coffee to you & the last 8 weeks of school!!

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  3. You're not supposed to use condensed cream of chicken soup to make chicken noodle soup? I am just so impressed that you even consider making your own noodles, clearly I am extremely lazy :) The eggs look fab!

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  4. I just realized that I haven't seen your last several posts. Even though I've got you on my Reader, I seem to be missing a lot of people's posts lately. Off to catch up a bit. :)

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