What are You Cooking the Week of December 31, 2017?

[Mike Nolan]

Today I made a big pot of chicken noodle soup, the only salt I added was 1/8 teaspoon in the noodles. The stock was from my freezer, and may have had some salt in it, but not a lot.

I used pepper, thyme, sage, dill, parsley and basil.

I used some chicken breasts from the freezer, I think it would have been more flavorful if it had some dark meat. I'm going to try adding some mushrooms to half of it for tomorrow.

[cwcdesign]

I tried something new with my turkey soup this year. I needed to make it but was not going to be home all day to simmer on the stove I decided to try making it in the crockpot. Obviously I couldn’t put the whole carcass in so I layered in my vegetables and broke up half the carcass. Then I tossed in the leftover gravy and added 2 quarts water. I set it on low for 10 hours. I think it’s my best stock ever. It never boiled and it had a lighter flavor, but definitely turkey. I find that turkey stock can sometimes be too heavy.

On a side note, I did not add any salt, either to the stock or the actual soup with vegetables, herbs, noodles and turkey. I figured there was enough from seasoning the turkey when I roasted it - I was right.

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt;
The two pot roasts were both delicious and I ate them with rice and a green vegetable which allowed their flavor to be undiluted. A friend came by New Year's day to participate in the tasting process. The tea is strong enough to add real flavor, its a rich smoky taste when drunk as a beverage. I found that the onions in the slow cooker were noticeably browner, and the beef itself somewhat more tender. The pot roast in the pressure cooker had a little less flavor and was slightly tougher. The differences were minimal. I think both roasts could have used more flavor and I should have just cut up all the orange peel and half the orange and thrown it in, instead of just grating the zest for a more subtle flavor.
I noticed the recipe called for "white balsamic vinager" which I didn't remember at the grocery store so I put in a herb and lemon vinager instead.
Both versions left the onions soft and soggy and unfit for anything other than sauce. I'd like to try another pot roast with other vegetables to cook down to a puree -- tomatoes, carrots, celery, parsley, garlic and onions would give an Italian tone to a pot roast.
I am finding that cold pot roast can be thinly sliced and gently warmed up. At the moment I'm eating this with left over rice, but it would go well with mashed potatoes.

I would use a pressure cooker for a pot roast again but I wouldn't use it on any vegetable that I didn't plan to reduce to a pulp.

[luvpyrpom]

Didn't cook much - worked over the New Years and have been eating leftovers and stuff from the freezer. I did go to the Asian grocery store yesterday and totally stocked up on the veggies so I can make various stuff the next couple of days. Right now I have some beef shanks in the slow cooker, will braise it with daikon radish chunks for dinner tonight. Last night I bought some soy sprouts and sauteed that with just chicken broth. Had that with a roasted duck and rice. I also bought a chunk of taro root and will cook that with some ground pork. Also bought some lotus root to try to stir fry. I remember my mother cooking lotus root with pork in a clear soup base so this will be something new.

[Mike Nolan]

For lunch today I took some of the chicken noodle soup I made the other day and added some sauteed mushrooms. Definitely perked it up a bit, and I made a note to add mushrooms to the 3 quarts of it that I froze.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by Mike Nolan.

[BakerAunt]

For Saturday's dinner, I made Dilled Salmon and Couscous (recipe on this site), which we will have with a side of peas from the freezer.

[Mike Nolan]

Dinner here was a NY strip steak, with sauteed mushrooms and baked potato, with blackberries for dessert. The margarine and sour cream on the potato were the majority of the sodium in the meal, but it was still fairly low sodium.

[Joan Simpson]

Supper for us was BBQ chicken in the pot with BBQ gravy to go over rice and garden pea salad.

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