labor day weekend!!

this Labor Day weekend has been pretty awesome. it sort of looked like:

Friday after work: M and I worked out and agreed to our September budget (he did most of the prelim stuff, and I contributed), we called in an order to Niko Niko's for tasty Greek dinner, and then watched the movie The Savages.

Saturday: volunteering at The Beacon on the early shift with friends. a really great experience, and one we're hoping to continue regularly. it was very cool to be a part of such an organized ministry to help the homeless in this city. then most of us went to La Mexicana on Montrose for tacos and conversation. yum. M and I organized a grocery list and spent most of the afternoon stocking up our pantry and household while the dog went and got a much-needed haircut. I spent some time with my nose in Reaching Out, a book by Henri Nouwen. it's been the focus of our discussion in our class on Sunday mornings for the last few weeks, and I filled in as discussion facilitator this weekend. really intriguing, layered book, totally recommended. as is our habit when I'm in town, we hit the Saturday night meeting where I was reminded about the power of perspective and attitude...

Sunday: church! I love going to church, and sitting by M while worshipping is one of the times that I feel most centered and blessed and safe. the class I facilitated even went well! we had lunch with some dear friends and a couple new to the church, and as I napped later in the day M called my grandma to snag her recipe for homemade chicken and noodles... or dumplings. but they look more like noodles, and that's what I call them. he even chronicled his efforts, so we'll post our recipe here. I also made some unbaked cookies, adding peanut butter and using special dark cocoa (because I love dark chocolate)... they looked like little mounds of poo, but oh are they flipping good! we feasted on chicken and noodles and unbaked cookies while watching Gone Baby Gone, and afterwards M had to leave the room when I got hooked watching Diary of a Mad Black Woman (although even I had to abandon it when the lead lady loses her mind with her awful paralyzed almost ex-husband in that bathroom scene).

Today: yesterday, my husband decreed that I would be boss of today. woo-hoo! so far, I've worked out (okay, technically I only did half of The Firm Body Sculpt, but I was beat and it was hard and Jen is tough and... it's better than nothing, right??), had a goodly amount of coffee, eaten a lovely sweet potato, and gotten through three sections of an online defensive driving course. don't drive drunk, people! check your mirrors! watch that allergy medication, it could slow your reflexes! I'm hoping to make a pizza later, baking my own whole wheat crust and featuring sauteed spinach w/ garlic, and the hubby has encouraged me to take a gift card and go look for a pair of workout pants.. I want something really specific, and have had a hard time finding them. we also discovered that men's ties are excellent kitty toys. anyway, it's just been lovely. lovely lovely lovely. like this:









and now, without further ado, THE MAKING OF GRANDMA'S CHICKEN AND NOODLES (M will have to contribute here... because I was sleeping during a lot of this)

M:  Howdy ya'll, M here.  L asked me to provide a little detail to her tale of the noodles, which is uncharacteristically lazy very generous of her.  I began with a 3 lb whole chicken that we got at the grocery store for about $4.  I used a cleaver and a long-toothed knife to quarter it and cut back most of the skin, which took about 5 minutes.  Doing this myself accomplished two things: it cut the cost of the meal in half (as whole chickens are significantly less expensive) and it raised the "icky gross" factor high enough to guarantee that this will become something that "I" cook.  The chicken went in a stock pot with about 2.5 quarts of water, bay, salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste.  Boil for an hour.

M:  Something I've come to learn about myself is that I am a servant.  I just love doing things for other people, and their happiness is a reward that we both get to enjoy.  A great deal of this gets directed toward my wife, but lately it extends to the pets as well.  The other night I baked treats for the cat, and on this night we found out someone in our house luuuuuvs boiled chicken guts.  We even didn't buy a roast at the store the other day because it didn't have any good bones in it for the dog.  I think this may be the male equivalent to the "ticking clock."  I'll own up to that.

M:  2 cups of flour (sifted), 2 eggs (not beaten), 2 tsp salt (um...salty) and 2 Tbs chicken stock in a large mixing bowl.  Make a flour volcano using a bit of the flour and put the eggs and stock in the crater.  Turn on the kitchen faucet and leave it running.  Use your fingers to work the egg/stock lava into the flour, slowly destroying the volcano and adding the rest of the flour as you go.  If your wife isn't asleep you can make Godzilla noises.  Using a motion generally reserved for bathroom hand dryers, try to keep as much of the dough in the bowl and off your fingers and work it all into a ball.  Use the running faucet to wash away any childhood trauma you may have regarding sticky, encrusted hands.  

M:  In the bowl, knead the dough ball and add flour so that nothing is sticky.  Yes, sticky things are the Devil's province, but in this case they also make for bad noodles.  If the recipe calls for 2 cups of flour, get ready to use 3 cuz we're going for dusty, dusty food.  Tear off a few feet of wax paper and flour it evenly.  Then roll your dough into the shape of the imaginary country you are President of, about 1/8" thick.

M:  I said to flour the wax paper evenly.  If you only flour, say, half of your wax paper properly, then when you cut your thin noodle strips only half of them will resemble noodles.  The other half will stick and tear and mock you, which can be truly annoying to an imaginary President.  Let those little rebellious bastards dry for about half an hour.

M:  The chicken should have cooked down like this.  At this point I removed the chicken and tore it into pieces.  My grandmother used to skip this step.  It really comes down to personal preference, like if you personally prefer a bunch of bones in your food.  L is not a fan of dark meat, so I tore the breasts into much larger chunks than the rest; this makes it super easy to serve your more discriminating guests whom you may or may not have recently sworn eternal oaths to.  

M:  Chicken back in the pot, bring back to a boil.  You can add more water if you want, and now's your chance to add any onion or peas & carrots, that sort of thing.  Once boiling, add the noodles one at a time.  This is no time to make WWII bomber plane noises, as it will undoubtedly cause you to make a splashy mess on the stove.  

M:  L's Grandma said to boil for about 20 minutes, which is what I did.  The noodles were pretty good, especially after some salt and pepper adjustments.  I kept thinking I still had too much liquid, so I boiled them some more while we watched a movie.  About the time the first cop starts lying about what he knew about the dead informant, go check on the noodles.  They'll be perfect.

M:  Like I said, perfect.