Egg Flower Soup

So what can you make when you have a ton of eggs and a few stalks of celery that you really need to use up? Egg drop soup! Or, egg flower soup, whatever. XP

 

Akkk. Slight egg problem...

Egg Flower Soup

BOIL 4 cups of chicken broth

ADD salt to taste/help boil

REMOVE from heat

POUR in 2 beaten eggs from high up

STIR in one direction for a minute

 

Egg flower soup!

The recipe we found called for green onion. While I could see how that would taste yummy, we didn't have any. What we did have, however, was a LOT of celery. So, while it was boiling, we added two chopped stalks of celery.

 

Kitchen Wench #2 doin' the choppin'

What we also didn't have was chicken broth. We had 3 cubes of stock and a bunch of beef.....so we used 3 cubes of chicken and on of beef and boiled until dissolved. Perhaps because we used the cubes, I should not have added more salt. Or, perhaps I just used too much salt. The celery helped use some of it up, but it would have definitely tasted better without all that salt. XP

 

Kitchen Wench #1 taste-testing

All in all, it turned out pretty yummy, though! We also made some ants-on-a-log to use up more of the celery and give us a break from the salty soup.

Ants-On-A-Log

CUT celery into 2-3 inch pieces

FILL the valley with peanut butter (this is the "log")

PLACE raisins on top in the peanut butter (the "ants")

EAT yummy ridiculous healthy snack that uses celery!

  

Yummy ants-on-a-log!

Apple Tarts

My boss aquired a bunch of apples recently and gave some to me to make tarts out of. (While, of course, recieving a small tax of tarts herself)

I made the crust the same as the Alaskan Mixed Berry Tarts because I liked it so much! ^_^ Rice vinegar and all. Still don't know if that affects the recipe or not. *shrug*

Filling
PEEL & DE-CORE four apples 
(de-core as in remove the core, not design and decorating)

CUT them into bits 
SQUEEZE 1/2 a lemon over them
MIX 1/2 cup of brown sugar
MIX 2 tablespoons of cinnamon
SIT until juicy

I used my (CLEAN) hands to make this and they tasted so yummy!! Covered in sugar and sour and apple-yness. 

I never quite worked out how to cook these. I tried the flash-and bake method, like the berry tarts. But then they were quite dry on top. I also tried to just cook them at 350 degrees for 13 minutes, but then they were too juicy to get out of the muffin tins! 
Everyone who ate them seemed to love them, though, and said they didn't see the difference. Maybe I'm just too picky then? Who knows. XP

Apple tarts!

 I did notice that if any apple bits stuck up over the top of the crust-level too much, it got burnt in the cooking, but I managed to avoid that most of the time.

Garlic Bread

We just had some regular Hamburger Helper (that didn't turn out that well), but felt like we should spruce up the french bread. Who knows why we had garlic in the pantry, but here's what we used it for!

Garlic french bread

This was all Kitchen Wench #2's doing, and I don't know what she was doing so......
I know she finely chopped up two cloves of garlic and a bunch of parsley. There was also unsalted butter involved and then sticking it in the oven for a while.

It tasted wonderful, though next time using garlic salt or merely salted butter would up the yumminess.

Pad Thai

Pad Thai on my plate ^_^

Don't remember the recipe or when we made it, but it was yummy. I'll look it up soon. Just making sure to get this up here. ^_^

I did much of the chopping while Kitchen Wench #2 cooked the noodles and chicken.

Woo food!

 

 Everyone putting the toppings on...

If I remember correctly, the noodles were a little dry. That may have been because the heat was up a bit too high. That was the only thing wrong, though.

Swedish Meatballs

Swedish Meatballs

So I don't remember the recipe, but I'll find that out. It was one of our first dishes, and it was pretty good. The recipe told us to put it over noodles, but I had some leftovers with mashed potatoes and that was much better.

Yummy in my tummy?

Kitchen Wench #2 and Bystander #1 enjoying the meal

We tried to have mochi for dessert....but it got a little melted on the way home and.....well, ended up looking a lot like our dinner had.

Oops...

Alaskan Mixed Bery Pie

So my wonderful housemates finally got me some berries the other day. Today, I sent about using them. ^_^ I called up my trusty recipe-finder (Codename: MOM) and she found a mixed berry recipe that actually listed two of the types of berries I had: golden raspberries (which are the same as salmon berries...??) and blueberries! I'm unsure whether the crust recipe was hers or the one from the book...

CRUST
MIX 3 c. of flour and 1 ts. of salt.
CUT IN 1 1/4 c. shortening.
MIX (in a separate bowl) 1 egg (beaten), 1 tbsp vinegar, and 5 tbsp water.
MIX wet ingredients into dry ingredients.
ROLL out dough and put in the pie tin.

PIE
MIX 1 1/2 c. of each type of berry together (total of 3 c.)
POUR berries into pie shell
MIX 1 c. of sugar, 4 of tbsp flour, and 1/4 tsp of salt together in a bowl.
POUR mixture over berries
BAKE, in preheated oven at 450 degrees F, for 10 minutes.
REDUCE heat to 350 degrees F and cook for 30 more minutes.

So, I learned what "cutting" shortening into flour is. You literally take a knife and cut it. Forever. But it was kinda fun for a while. Apparently that's what makes it flakey.

I didn't have any vinegar, so I ended up using rice vinegar. It doesn't seem to have messed much with the taste of the dough, though. Least....I can't taste it.

Well, I mixed in the sugar mixture instead of leaving it just on top, which appears to be a good thing. With the leftover dough, I made tarts with my last little 1 1/2 c. of blackberries. I just ate one (YUM!). It seems like the sugar mixture does a good job of soaking up juices and creating a yummy mush/jell, but it didn't really get to the bottom. So, that was all liquidy. Perhaps if there was a little on the bottom, then mix the rest in with the fruit??

VERY sugary, but the tart I had, at least, was a yummy treat.

(The tarts I made with the same stuff-like little mini pies, except in a muffin tin. They cooked for 8 minutes at the 450 temperature and 5 at the 350 temp. I also, at the request of the berry-providing housemates, tried to make some with pears. We'll see how that goes....)