Monday, October 29, 2007

My chicken soup is better than your mom's.

Well, it's definately better than my mom's. Don't get me wrong, my mother is a GREAT cook, but the one thing that always tasted not-so-great was her chicken noodle soup. It just didn't have much flavor.. and I don't know why. I'll ask her about it when I go home for Christmas.

My soup rocks!! I'm not sure, but there may be two secret ingredients that do it: Better than Boullion, and poultry seasoning. Better than Bouillion is just one of those relatively new, amazing staples that I must have in the house. It's a paste you can use to make broth, gravies, etc. Anyway, I don't remember exact amounts, as usual, but here is my general recipe:

  • 1 T olive oil
  • 3/4 pound chicken breast
  • 3 quarts chicken broth
  • 2 onions
  • 4-5 carrots
  • 4-5 stalks celery
  • Noodles, I use Barilla Plus Angel Hair because it's yummy and good for you. I'm not going to give you an amount because I always use too much.
  • Ground pepper, fresh herbs (if you have them), poultry seasoning
  1. Take your large soup pot, and bring 3 cups of water to a boil over high heat. While that's happening, cut up your chicken breast into big, bite-sized chunks, like an inch cubed. Once the water comes to a boil, boil your chicken until it is just fully cooked, then remove from heat, drain, and set aside.
  2. Cut up all your veggies. Heat up your oil at the bottom of the soup pot, and when hot, throw in your veggies and saute until the onions and celery are transparent, but not browned. While this is happening, you can make your broth with your Better than Bouillion.
  3. Add the broth to the pot along with your herbs and spices, let it come to a boil. Add your chicken, return to boil. Add your noodles.
  4. Once the noodles are cooked, you are ready to serve!!

    I like to serve with grated romano or parm cheese!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Day Trip: San Juan Capistrano

I simply HAD to get out of LA so on Saturday we drove an hour or so to this small, historic town centered around a mission over 200 years old. The mission is a nice place to visit: it has real adobe structures and is now a museum, chapel and beautiful gardens. I have never seen so many colorful humming birds in my life. I particularly liked the chapel with the smell of incense. It reminded me of going to church back in Boston.

The town is super cute! There were like three weddings going on, this awesome rock/blues band playing in this packed dive bar where people were getting DOWN (at 4:30 pm mind you) and some nice old streets. The houses are so cute, all with gardens and this hippy vibe. So NOT like the rest of Orange county. It would be great to live there. The train station was very central.. you could totally take a train down all the way from L.A.

As for food, we ate at the El Adobe, this great Mexican place. I don't usually talk about service, but the waiter was so nice. The food was awesome.. we both got huge gourmet burritos and the flavors were unique yet traditional enough. My boyfriend got the roasted tomato soup which was kick-ass! We also got the guacamole which was made fresh at the table. I definately got my good fats quota for the day!!

El Adobe de Capistrano
31891 Camino Capistrano
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
949-493-1163