My Cup Overfloweth . . .

My cup overfloweth . . . or at least my herb garden does!

We even abandoned it for 11 days of 95F+ heat with no rain, no watering and it thrived!

The only thing not completely happy is the mint. It's in front. You can see that we still have plenty for Greek salad and mojitos though so I'm not worried.

School has already started here in the Greater Kansas City area but the heat certainly hasn't dissipated.

So after the kiddos were settled on the buses some girlfriends and I decided to assuage our grief over the separation with cocktails and pool time.

And snacks! Gotta have snacks!

After buying school supplies for three and shipping various electronic devices to my Airman I had no money for anything but emergencies. Now, generally I do find the need for good snacks an emergency but I was trying to control myself and decided to dig around the house and check out what I had on hand. I considered it a challenge.

Two packages of cream cheese! Woohoo! Ding, Ding, Ding! Cream cheese just screams party to me.

I was raised in a household where cream cheese and cream soups were never, ever used for meals.

Between the cream cheese and all those herbs I just knew I could make a spread of some sort. These were my friends! They'd be kind. They'd just avoid it if it wasn't good.

I wanted just one large clove of garlic. It'd give it a garlic undertone but it wouldn't be the star of the dip. Mince it up! I just throw mine into a dry work bowl of a food processor that is running. I'm lazy.

Then I peeled some tarragon leaves off of them stem and threw them in too.

I threw them in and they promptly flew to the sides and stuck. So I had to stop and scrape everything down to the bottom . . .

Now a little salt. It'll help release the oils of the herbs . . .

Now for some thyme! Just drag your fingers down the stem . . .

Some beautiful fresh basil . . .

A little scallion . . .

A tad bit of olive oil just to get things moving and mingling while it whirls around.

Now for the cream cheese!

Now for a little taste! Hmm, the cream cheese is so rich and creamy it can handle a LOT more herbs.

Thyme in all its bright bitterness reminiscent of Thanksgiving! Basil with its grassy, aromatic, Italian flavors!

Tarragon with that lovely anise flavor! It'll remind you of fennel, liquorice, and Italian sausages!

After I got the flavors right I added some smokey ground chipotle pepper. You could just add a shot of Tabasco if you like. It just makes the cheese seem cheesier.

Tarragon ended up being the star of this dip. It was creamy, cold, and herbalicious. It was like pesto met its girlfriends Italian sausage and cheese lasagna for a GNO!

Creamy Herb Dip

1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground chipotle pepper (optional)
1 scallion, chopped finely
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, finely chopped*
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh tarragon leaves, finely chopped*
1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves*

Mix all ingredients together.

*If you don't like really strong herb flavors start out with just small amounts of these herbs. You can always add more. Since they're fresh the flavor of the dip really isn't going to get a lot stronger while it sits. If you want it "greener" add some flat leaf Italian parsley.

A Tale of Two Beef Roasts . . .

A few of the fellas from church go on an annual "retreat" to enjoy some fellowship time. It also kicks off the Men's Bible study season. They fish, canoe, enjoy bathroom humor, and generally relax. Being men the food is very important. Well, it's important that there are large quantities of it at least. I prowl the grocery stores for months trying to get good deals on food for them and I always try to find some steaks that fit a church budget.

I was absolutely delighted to find them a giant strip loin for $4.29 a lb! Delicious I thought! How wonderful! big juicy strip steaks for all the men! We're from the Kansas City area and strip steaks are beloved.

I was going to be popular! I was going to be admired!
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Dear One came home from the trip.

The first question out of my mouth. "How was the food?!"

Dear One "That was NOT strip steak." There was a deep look of consternation on his face. He continued . . .

"It was a brisket . . ."

I ran screaming to the freezer.

After unloading all 13 cubic feet of it. I found two roasts . . .

Dear One tried to comfort me . . . "The label had fallen off, remember? It was sort of funny since you know we had the guy who manages meat packers and of course Bob who BBQ brisket all the time."

This was not funny! This made it worse! They don't even look alike . . . the guys or the roasts!

I know there are a few delicate few of you out there who are saying. Beef is beef? Two great big hulking pieces of meat, right?

No, no, no, sadly, no.

That strip steak is a marvelous meaty wonder. Tender, delicately marbled with fat that melts beautifully at low temperatures. A strip steak is delicious from well done to medium rare.

Not so much a brisket.

Brisket is full of large layers of heavy tough fat. Fat that doesn't melt until it's hit 212 F for an hour or more. Oh and you better reach that 212 F nice and slow or else.

OR ELSE!

You'd rather have jerky for a meal.  Jerky would be easier on your teeth. The brisket is full of long, strong, muscle fibers that while flavorful are tough as nails unless cooked properly.

Cooking brisket is the crown jewel of professional BBQers with years of experience and thousands of dollars of equipment. It's really not possible to cook a whole brisket properly over a campfire with a few hours notice.

Dear One said it was okay--they made do.

I suspect the peanut butter and jelly was put to good use.

Use Your Noodle!

We had a bit of an emergency here last night.

My friend was sick!

My dear friend who coaches soccer, runs our church's mid-week program, is on several boards, has five children, etc. etc., you know the one who's husband is going away for the weekend.

. . . no wonder she's sick!

She was on her way home from a 730 mile trip to drop a kiddo off at college when she came down with a BAD cold.

I couldn't let her come home to laundry, cleaning, and cooking! I couldn't.

So I made her soup. I made her chicken soup. This chicken soup. Soup is healing! Soup would feed her family! But I had no noodles.

What to do? Rice? Rice is good when you're sick. So while I was using my "noodle" to think about what to put in her soup it dawned on me!

I could make noodles!

So I made her my grandma's noodles!

Do you like homemade egg noodles? Texturally they're very different from your average store bought noodle. Homemade noodles are bumpy rather than smooth. Broth and gravies cling to them. They're thicker and chewier too. Substantial is the key word here.

Homemade noodles are substantial. Do German grandmas make anything that isn't substantial?

So let's make some noodles!

Have you seen people make noodles with the pile of flour and the egg in the middle? Sure it's fun and all but as you can see I ended up with a leak! There are good reasons why they make them this way but I'm going to make you Grandma Neigel's noodles. Grandma Neigel used a bowl. Or at least my mother used a bowl when she made her mother's noodles.

So here's how you do it!

Crack a whole egg into the bowl. See, we're already starting off all backwards! Add half a teaspoon of salt.

Half a teaspoon of salt!?

Grandma's noodles don't need to be boiled in heavily salted water! In fact Grandma made her noodles with a whole teaspoon of salt. I'm being gentle with you! I suspect their soups didn't start off with a lot of salt in the broth. Anyway, these puppies have got the flavor in them already. Which is good since we're going to cook 'em fresh.

Now for a tablespoon of water.

Mix it up with a fork. The smoother you can get it the better.

Now for a cup of plain old all purpose flour!

Mix it up! You may notice it looks really, really, dry.

Until your squeeze it. Then you realize its a little sticky.

Go ahead and smoosh it around until you've picked up all the scrappy pieces on the bottom.

Knead it until it forms a ball about the size of a lemon. Now mine wasn't totally smooth or anything but that is what resting is for!

Throw it in some plastic and let it sit. At least 10 minutes. The longer you let it sit the happier it'll be. The easier it'll roll out. My mother would of thrown it in the fridge at this point. Grandma . . . not so much. It does have a raw egg in it so its not "safe" to leave it out technically. But I don't worry because I'm going to throw it in boiling water and cook it throughly.

Now with all doughs and pastries there are some issues that might come up. Because of humidity, temperature, flour storage, and chicken differences a cup of flour and an egg aren't always the same size. So it's possible you might end up with dough that's a little wet or a little dry.

If it's a little wet . . .

Don't worry! As long as you can get it into a ball shape just put it in the bag and let it rest. It'll soak up as much flour as it needs when you're rolling it out.

If it's a little dry . . .

No matter how much I smooshed I was leaving quite a bit in the bowl.

Add a few drops of water to the bottom and knead, knead again! I think I added half a teaspoon of water to this batch.

After your dough has rested, throw a little flour on a nice flat surface.

Oh and if your cat happens to like that sunny, dry surface make sure you wash it first.

Pat it out into a little disk. A little on this side.

Flip and pat it out again. Keep everything nice and dusty. Dusty with flour! I'm good with dusty. It's my natural state.

Treat your dough gently, like you would a baby! Okay, if you've ever changed a baby you know you have to use a little "force" but you don't dig your fingers in!

Put a little flour on your rolling pin so it doesn't stick. You're going to roll out the dough nice and thin. I flip my dough over quite often, like six times or so. I flour everything again each time. You want to keep it movable!

See? I almost have it thin enough. The thinner you get your noodles the tenderer they'll be. I'm getting ready to flip this again. See the flour I sprinkled on it?

That's how thin you want it!

Now if you've ever made pie crust before you're probably getting nervous. Don't be nervous! There's very little fat in this dough. Its not delicate at all!

Let's cut some noodles!

I'm going to try my pizza cutter! I usually use a chef's knife. My mother used scissors quite often. Whatever you're using throw a little flour on it.

Look! It's easy as pie! (Actually easier than pie!)

Your noodles can be any shape you want! Big or little! After eating my soup tonight I decided I wished I had cut them more spoon sized.

Now at this point you have some choices.

If I didn't have him I could just leave the noodles right where they were until I was ready to dump them in the pot of soup!

So I toss a little flour on . . .

I peel them off the table. Well it's more of a flip . . . Use a spatula if you like.

Then I throw them on a paper plate. I throw the whole plate in the freezer. Uncovered. If I was going to wait a week to use them I'd throw them in a big plastic bag (still on the plate) after they froze. I like that it dries them out a little.

My mother said they used to hang the noodles from the back of chairs and over broom sticks until they dried. Then they'd store them in the pantry. Can you imagine me trying to do that in my house? The cat would be snacking. The kids would be flinging. Darling husband would be dusting. Bedlam! Chaos!

To cook them put them in boiling broth or water for 2+ minutes. Here's the deal. After two minutes of boiling they're safe but they're really stiff and super chewy. I like them that way! But if you boil them a little longer they'll start to get tender and a little more child friendly.

Here's the link to my chicken soup.  I added 4 big coins of ginger to my friend's soup because ginger is good for colds! I used two recipes to make the soup nice and noodly. Is that a word?

Get well my friend!

Grandma Neigel's Noodles

1 large egg
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp water
1 cup all purpose flour

Mix egg, salt, and water together in a medium sized bowl. Add flour and stir in. Knead until a ball is formed. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 10 minutes or several hours. Roll out on well floured surface. Cut into desired shape. Cook in boiling liquid for at least two minutes.

**This is a great recipe to try with kids. If your kids are ones to put fingers in their mouths you can go ahead and used pasteurized egg product from the dairy aisle. They get to roll and shape and cut but you don't end up with cookies you end up with supper!

Hard Cider

More and more these days I've been seeing "hard cider" in the stores. Then my husband and a few friends decided to hit the Kansas City Craft Beer Festival.

Almost everything was delicious!

Almost . . .

We won't go naming names here because there's different strokes for different folks and all but my face almost froze like this!

But they did have hard ciders there! I didn't know that hard ciders are apple and other fruit juices that they add alcohol producing yeasts to! So it's sort of like beer or even wine. A natural product!

The ciders were light, bubbly, slightly sweet, fruity and wonderfully refreshing on a HOT day. Perfectly delicious! Supposedly they have them on tap in a lot of pubs in England. I need a passport.

I've tried a few examples since then and they're all pretty good. They tend to cost $7-$8 for a six pack though to try something for the first time. A six pack is practically a commitment after all!

But a 22 oz. bottle is easy. Plus its cheap. Under $4.

I got really excited when I found this one in the specialty beer aisle.

Isn't it pretty? This is an "amber" cider. In my limited experience the "amber" ciders are sweeter than the "crisp" ciders.

It smells like apples! Beautiful fresh apples! The flavor is very similar to fresh unpastuerized apple cider. The kind you used to be able to get at apple orchards during apple festivals in the fall. You know before the USDA, FDA, and other government agencies all decided that unpastuerized cider was going to KILL US ALL!

There's a sweet fruitiness. The hint of acid you have in any good fresh fruit. Then there's that bit of bitterness that apple peel adds to an apple.

But watch out! It doesn't taste like there is any alcohol in it at all. It's absolutely smooth. At 5% this is at the same alcohol level as . . . a Budweiser, Coors, Dos Equis, Michelob. It's stronger than a Boulevard Wheat, Bud light, or Coors light!

So some day if you're in the mood for something sweet and light. Or if you're having a beer tasting and want to make your sweet wine drinking friends feel included whip out a Woodchuck Amber style hard cider.