1 (2 to 3 pound) whole chicken (without extra parts)
4 stalks celery, diced
1 or 2 carrots, chopped
1 onion, halved and quartered
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
plus whatever herbs you feel like adding. Generally sage, rosemary, and thyme for me. Sometimes I throw in basil and oregano for a real party.
2 bags frozen egg noodles
Rinse chicken and place in large stockpot. Toss in everything except for the noodles, fill with enough water to cover chicken and veggies, then let simmer for a few hours. Remove chicken and bay leaves from pot.
Remove fat from pot. The easiest way to remove it is to put the pot into the refrigerator then scrape fat from the top. If there is no time for that, use a metal spoon and skim the top of the pot to remove most of the fat.
Heat pot to boiling and cook noodles according to package instructions. While noodles are cooking debone the chicken Add in however much chicken you want to the pot and save the rest for sandwiches. Serve with mashed potatoes.
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg, well beaten
1/4 to 3/4 cup water
Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Add egg; mix. Add water gradually until batter is stiff but smooth.
Press dough flat on a plate or floured board.
With a sharp knife, scrape small pieces of dough off and drop into boiling salted water. There should be only one layer at a time of spaetzle cooking. Boil gently for 5 to 8 minutes, or until done to your taste.
Remove with perforated spoon and let drain. Saut� the finished spaetzle in butter until golden and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
The number of children we have. Also the number of children Jeremi and Patricia have. Needless to say, there is alot going on at our house right now but not really much to write about. While I’m thinking about it though, here are a few new things.
Allison has always been jealous of my time when I hold new babies. This week she hasn’t been nearly as possessive. I have gotten to hold Trever a few times and she just wants to hold him also. The one instance she has fussed about it (so far) was when she was really tired. Instead of telling me to give the baby to his dad or mom though, she just wanted me to hold them both at the same time.
She has also been really good about sharing her toys. A week or 2 ago, when Greg was watching a couple of other children, Allison would not let the littlest (and closest to her size) play with any of her toys. Anytime the little boy found something he liked, as soon as he was done with it, Allie would run to the toy and stash it away. She has no secret stashes of toys this week.
Zoey and Nathan have been really great with Christopher. They have spent alot of time playing with him, drawing with him, and just hanging out with him. Alex has been out for the count with some nasty virus, so hasn’t gotten to spend much time with everyone.
It brings out the lighter colors in the late-70′s style wood panelled walls, making them tolerable. It looks so clean and unblemished right now. I wonder how long it will last.
To encourage children to read they have a program in our schools called “AR” for Accelerated Reader. Basically, kids read books, earn points, and get rewards when they reach certain point levels. I am all for my children reading, so think this is a great program.
Yesterday Nathan came home with Little Women, he quickly finished his homework and then spent the rest of his free time between after school and basketball practice in his room reading the book. He read before bed, and then as soon as he was dressed and ready for school read it non-stop (including walking to the car while reading the book and on the drive to school). I’m pretty sure he will finish the book this morning in class during his reading time. If Nathan has the full version and not some simplified version, than according to Amazon this book is 464 pages. That’s a pretty hefty read for 1 day.
Nathan’s also in his girls are yucky stage, so I was pretty suprised he picked this book. Suprised until he told me it was 33 AR points. Most books are between 1 and 5 points and 33 points are more than alot of the 3rd graders will get the whole year.
So to sum up, Nathan, who likes to try and find the quick and easy way to do things (who doesn’t) picked Little Women because it was 33 points and ended up reading it in almost 1 day because he liked it so much.
Remember a whole 2 days ago when Allison didn’t really want to play with friend’s little sister? And then when little sister’s friend didn’t really want to play with Allison? We’ll call the little sister KK for fun. The parents show up and are at least 50 feet away. Allie sees her friend and takes off running as she shouts, “KK!!!” over and over. Meanwhile KK starts running to Allie, “ALLIE!!”. When the meet in the middle they give eachother a big hug. It was one of the cutest things I have seen in a really long time.
