Spiced Cranberry Chutney

                                       (Photo from Em and Am's cooking blog)

I grew up in a household where every Thanksgiving meal included that weird, gelatinous blob of cranberry from a can. You know the one. It sat on a plate, still molded to the exact shape of the can it came from, often sliced into discs that you carefully slid onto your plate to eat with the turkey. Have I mentioned that I can't eat turkey without an accompanying spoonful of the cranberry for every bite of the meat? Canned or not, you were going to find cranberry on my plate.

Sometime after I moved out my mom converted from canned cranberry to the homemade variety. I suspect the big transformation might have come sometime during that long season when she and my dad were spending fall and winters with the West Virginia Becketts. I doubt my cooking cousins let canned cranberries grace their Thanksgiving tables!

Whatever the provenance of mom's conversion, she became a true zealot for homemade cranberry sauce. I distinctly remember being in the store with her one year when she was going on about how absolutely ridiculous it would be to buy canned cranberry sauce when the home made variety was such a cinch to make. And, in her case, it really couldn't have been much easier as she mostly just boiled the berries down with sugar to create a pleasingly tangy, sweet accompaniment to boring turkey.

Emily's recipe for chutney ups Mom's version a bit; adding the tang of orange to bring a more complex flavor profile. A great bonus is that the recipe can be made days in advance so it's one less thing you have to be frantically putting together on those often crazy holiday cooking days.


Spiced Cranberry Chutney
Recipe courtesy of em and am
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Complete Entertaining Cookbook via Serious Eats

The main change I made was cutting the sugar in half.  I tried the dish both ways – with the recommended 3 cups and with 1 1/2 cups and found the second version still plenty sweet.  In addition to being less healthy, 3 full cups of sugar masked the other components of the dish too much for me. (This is Emily's note from her cooking blog but I followed her advice in halving the sugar. The dish was plenty sweet enough.)

Ingredients:
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 whole, thin-skinned oranges with peel
1 2-inch piece ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
4 cups fresh cranberries
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (or freshly ground, if possible)
1 cup raisins

Directions:
Finely chop oranges in a blender. (I don't have a blender so I used the food processor.)

Combine water and sugar in a medium pot and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Add oranges and ginger and reduce the heat.  Let simmer for 20 minutes, uncovered.

Add cranberries, cinnamon and cloves.  Simmer 15 minutes.  Sauce should thicken during this time.  Add raisins and cook for an additional 7 minutes, until sauce starts to bubble.  Let cool before serving.  Serve as is, or as a topper on a savory dish.

Sauce can be made up to a week in advance and refrigerated in an airtight container.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Red Onion

Thanksgiving tends to be about time honored family favorites that show up on the table year after year. I mean, let's face it - no one wants to travel over the river and through the woods so they can be served up an experimental tofu dish!  Not that you can't spice things up with a new addition to the Thanksgiving menu! We often sneak in new dishes for holidays but we just make sure to kind of hide them between the mashed potatoes and the sweet potatoes and the green beans and the rolls and the stuffing and the cranberry....

This year Emily made a veggie dish she first introduced to us two years ago at Thanksgiving. And when I say "us" I mean mostly me because you'd sure not find Martin trying something so exotic looking and tasting as butternut squash mixed with red onion. And don't even mention the tahini glaze!

I love this dish anytime of the year but it does make a spectacularly beautiful addition to the autumn colors of a Thanksgiving table. The recipe says the tahini glaze is optional but it seems like an option you don't want to miss out on, as the glaze seems to bring out the flavors of the vegetables. There is a bit of work involved in the prep of the vegetables but nothing too extensive.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Red Onion
Recipe Courtesy of NYTimes

Ingredients:

About 1/2 cup olive oil, plus extra for pans
4 large red onions
 Coarse salt and black pepper
4 pounds butternut squash cut into 1/2-inch wedges, peeled or unpeeled
⅓ cup pine nuts or shelled green pistachio nuts (optional)
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley, mint, cilantro or a combination, for garnish

For Tahini Sauce: (OPTIONAL)
¼ cup tahini paste
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 small clove garlic, crushed

PREPARATION
Heat oven to 475 degrees. Lightly coat two large baking sheets with olive oil.
Peel onions, leaving root ends intact. Cut each onion in half from stem to root. Cut each half into 4 wedges, leaving the root intact so that each wedge holds together. Spread on a baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with oil.
Put the squash in a large mixing bowl. Add 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt and about 1/4 teaspoon pepper; toss to coat. Spread on a baking sheet, peel side down (if intact).
Place both pans in oven and roast for 30 to 40 minutes, until the vegetables have taken on some color and are cooked through. Keep an eye on the onions, as they may cook faster than the squash and need to be removed earlier.
If using nuts, pour 1 tablespoon oil into a small frying pan and place over medium-low heat. Add nuts and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook for 2 minutes, stirring often, until the nuts are golden brown and smell toasty. Immediately remove from the heat and dump onto a cutting board to stop the cooking. If using pistachios, chop coarsely when cool enough to handle.
To make tahini sauce, place tahini in a bowl. Add lemon juice, 1/4 cup water, garlic and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Whisk until sauce is the consistency of honey, adding more water or a tablespoon of olive oil if necessary.
When the vegetables are cooked, set aside until ready to serve. (The vegetables should be served the same day they are made. They can be served at warm room temperature, or reheated just before serving.)
To serve, combine vegetables on a large serving platter. If using tahini sauce, drizzle on top. Sprinkle herbs and, if using, nuts on top and serve.
From "Jerusalem: A Cookbook," by Yotam Ottolenghi

Spaghetti Sauce

When we first listed our house for sale, I was afraid to do much in the kitchen. Apparently, I harbored this secret vision that hordes of strangers were going to come traipsing through my home at any given moment, with little to no advance notice. These interlopers would expect a place as pristinely lovely and clean as the photoshopped perfect images seen on real estate sites, meaning I'd need to go find a corner somewhere where I could sit and try not to mess up anything in my show home.

We're now a week or more into being on the market and I've got the hang of how this gig really works. First off, I get a text notice from realtors that almost always gives me enough advance notice of a viewing to clean up (or hide) any mess, grab the dog, and head out so perfect strangers can wander through my home. (Can we say conflicted feelings about this whole move?) I can also, hypothetically, deny any group access to the house though Martin and I swore we wouldn't do this after we went through the frustration of having just a few days in the midwest to look at homes and, yet, being refused entry into possible future residences by folks claiming they were having friends in for lunch, or they weren't going to get back from shopping in time to open the house. Really, people? Your home has been on the market six months, you have serious buyers in from another state, and you don't want the inconvenience???? Did I want to get out of my house in the middle of making yeast rolls the day before Thanksgiving? Definitely not, but it's what you have to do so off I went, wondering all the while about people who need/want to shop for a house on the eve of a major holiday.

How does all this relate to spaghetti sauce? While this might be a time when I'd have the inclination to go simple with a prepared sauce from the store, yesterday seemed like a good day to mess my kitchen up big-time while preparing Ree Drummond's sauce from the Pioneer Woman Cooks site. Confession: I don't love everything Drummond cooks up as she sometimes reminds me of a Paula Deen clone, with heavy sauces that overwhelm what could be a simple, tasty dish. Just my opinion!

This spaghetti sauce is, however, awesome. I wanted to keep eating mounds of spaghetti topped with all that flavor. I can't wait for lunch to eat it again as a leftover. I can't wait until next week when I'm taking out the portion I froze and serving it up again for dinner.  This stuff is so good I could probably eat it every night for dinner from now until next week's date, but I doubt Martin would sign on for that plan. He likes variety in his non-variety.

Pioneer Woman Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients:
5 pounds Ground Beef (I Used Ground Round)
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 whole Large Yellow Onions, Diced
2 whole Green Bell Pepper, Seeded And Diced (I left this out because I knew Martin wouldn't be able to handle the sight of something GREEN in his spaghetti sauce.)
6 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 cup White Wine (or Low Sodium Beef Broth If You Prefer)
2 cans 28 Ounce Crushed Tomatoes
1 can (14 Oz. Size) Crushed Tomatoes
1 can (small, 4-ounce) Tomato Paste
1 jar Good Storebought Marinara Sauce (can Use Another Jar If You Like The Sauce To Be More Saucy Than Meaty)
1 teaspoon Ground Oregano
1 teaspoon Ground Thyme
4 whole Bay Leaves
2 Tablespoons Sugar
2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
1/2 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper (optional) (Do I even need to state the obvious? Yes, I left this out.)
1/4 cup Finely Minced Fresh Parsley (or 3 Tablespoons Parsley Flakes), More To Taste
1 whole Rind From One Wedge Parmesan (optional)
1/2 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese (optional)
2 pounds Spaghetti, Cooked Al Dente And Tossed With Olive Oil
Extra Minced Parsley, For Serving
Extra Parmesan Cheese, For Serving

Preparation Instructions:
IMPORTANT: This recipe can easily be halved! I just like to make a ton so I can freeze it.
In a large pot over medium-high heat, brown the ground beef until totally browned. Remove meat from pot with a slotted spoon and put into a bowl. Set aside.
Discard any grease in pot, but do not clean the pot. Drizzle in olive oil. When it is heated, throw in the diced onion and diced bell pepper. Stir it around for 1 1/2 minutes, then add the garlic. Stir and cook for an additional minute.
Pour in the wine and allow it to bubble up and reduce for about 1 1/2 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, and marinara sauce. Stir to combine, then add oregano, thyme, sugar, salt, bay leaves, and crushed red pepper (if using). Stir, then add cooked ground beef and stir to combine. Place the lid on the pot and allow to simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Add a little water or some low-sodium broth if it needs more liquid
After an hour, add the minced parsley and the rind from a wedge of Parmesan (or grated Parmesan if you prefer--or both!) Stir to combine, then put the lid back on and allow it to simmer for another 30 minutes or so. Discard bay leaves before serving.
Serve a big bowl of oiled noodles and spaghetti sauce so guests can serve themselves. Top each serving with minced parsley and grated Parmesan (or Parmesan shavings) and serve with a big piece of garlic-cheese bread.
Stop yourself from eating every bit of the sauce because it's that yummy.

(Photo courtesy of Pioneer Woman)

Pumpkin Pie Ebelskivers

 Out with the peaches and in with the pumpkin, autumn's on the way! Today I experimented with the first of what will probably be a long line of pumpkin recipes and I'm thinking these ebelskivers were a great start to the next few months of fall baking.

According to the website instructions, this recipe shouldn't be attempted by amateurs. So, does it count that I've made ebelskivers one other time in my life? Does that make me an expert? Maybe so because I managed to make these puppies and have them turn over and out! (The turning over part is particularly important with ebleskivers.)

The difficult thing about this particular recipe is that the batter is wetter than most ebelskivers. I understood that when pumpkin guts began spilling out as I turned the first batch. And speaking of turning the pancake balls, here's what works for me, contrary to popular directions that say use blunt wooden skewers. I find that a long tea spoon is the easiest implement to use. I take mine, swiftly slip it under the ebelskiver ball and flip. With a less wet dough the process makes perfect pancake balls but some of my pumpkin variety did lose a bit of the wet top as they flipped.  Fortunately, even the ebelskivers that lost part of their dough turned out great once they cooked on both sides.

When I tasted the first of my ebelskivers, I got worried, as they were soft inside. Had I not cooked them long enough? Luckily, I went back to the internet write-up and found my answer when the baking blogger wrote that the ebelskivers would turn out more the consistency of a tiny pumpkin pie than pumpkin bread. And that's exactly what I thought of when I sampled my ebelskiver pancakes - a miniaturized form of my very favorite pie.


Pumpkin Pie Ebelskivers
http://www.teeniecakes.com/pumpkin-pie-ebelskivers/

1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, separated
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk, room temperature
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree

Confectioners sugar for sprinkling
cream cheese icing (optional)

In a large bowl, whisk together the graham cracker crumbs, flour, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks with a whisk or fork. Add the condensed milk and 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Add the yolk mixture to the flour mixture and, using a wooden spoon, stir until well blended. Expect that the batter will be slightly lumpy.

In a clean bowl, beat egg whites with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites into batter, alternating with the pumpkin puree in 2 additions, just until well blended and there are no white streaks

Brush the wells of an ebelskiver pan with the remaining butter and place over:
medium-low heat for electric stove tops or low heat for gas stoves. You will need to test this and cooking time will vary as to your heat source intensity.

Cook until the bottoms of the ebelskivers/pancakes are lightly browned and crisp, about ten minutes (set your kitchen timer!). Use two wooden skewers (blunt side) to turn the ebelskivers and cook until lightly browned on the other side.

Cream Cheese Icing

3 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Sift confectioner’s sugar into a medium bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter. Add cream cheese and beat until combined. Add confectioner’s sugar and vanilla, scrapping sides with a rubber spatula, until smooth.

Banana Crepe Cake with Toffee Icing

yea, yea, yea - it's not quite ready for a photo op

It's official - let the word go out. I am never going to be able to make the perfect crepes I always see in my mind's eye. Lord knows I had high hopes today when I started this new bucket baking list recipe. Noticing that my Saturday crepe guy has a way better turner than mine, I found a metal version like his online and promptly ordered one. Surely my batter would now ooze out into perfect circles just like the ones I watch being made each weekend. Except it didn't. Even with the fancy-schmanzy new turner, the batter stuck, tore, and, in the end, wound up just as misshapen and irregular as the last time I made crepes. And the time before...

The whole time I was turning out one goofy looking crepe after another, I had this running dialog going on in my head. Clearly, I wasn't going to be able to come up with a symmetrically perfect cake but maybe I could pass my efforts off as intentional. Who needs a cake just like the one in the book? I wanted my cake rustic! Yea, that's the story. Rustic is charming and that's what I was going for with each unmatched crepe piled on top of the last one. 

Here's the thing about my way less than perfect crepe cake - it tasted unbelievably good. I absolutely loved the taste of the crepes, with those hints of nutmeg, cinnamon, and banana coming out in each bite. The yogurt creme filling had just the right amount of tang to complement the sweetness of the crepe. Best of all was that toffee icing. I considered not adding the walnuts because I wasn't sure I'd like the toasted taste but I have a feeling the icing wouldn't have been nearly as good without those nuts. 

Here's a slight change I'd try if I were to make this cake again: I'd use the filling a little more sparingly between layers. Even though it tasted yummy my liberal spreading contributed to the messy look of the finished cake. And how's this for a radical idea? Maybe I would also even out my crepes by cutting them to uniform circles! It could be done. So, let's picture it - a smaller cake with perfect round layers, less filling in the middle so it didn't ooze over the sides and, lastly, one more change. MORE of that toffee topping. As Deb states, you need to use your fingers to spread the thick topping to the edges of the cake and you have to do it quickly before the toffee gets too hard. If there's going to be a crepe cake with something oozing out the sides, I'd just as soon have the excess be that rich, creamy icing. 

Banana Crepe Cake with Toffee Icing

from smittenkitchen.com

Banana crepes

4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus extra for greasing pan

1 large (will weigh 6 ounces/170 grams be about 6 inches long when unpeeled) speckly ripe banana (should yield a scant 1/2 cup peeled, pureed)

1 cup (235 ml) milk

3/4 cup (95 grams) all-purpose flour

4 large eggs

2 tablespoons (25 grams) light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Pinch of ground cloves

Cream cheese yogurt filling

8 ounces (225 grams) cream cheese, well-softened

1 1/2 cups (345 grams) plain Greek-style yogurt

1/3 cup (65 grams) granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Walnut butterscotch topping

1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup (50 grams) packed dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon (15 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup (about 50 grams) chopped walnuts, toasted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt, or to taste

Make the crepe batter: Blend banana in a food processor until totally smooth. Add melted butter, blend again. Add remaining ingredients and blend until they are combined. Transfer batter, which will look pretty thin, to a bowl (even easier later if it has a spout), cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour, preferably overnight, and up to two days. When you remove the batter, it will seem surprisingly thick. Stir it to redistribute the ingredients before using it.

Cook the crepes: Heat a medium skillet or crepe pan over medium-high heat. Once heated, brush pan thinly with melted butter. Pour 1/4 cup batter into skillet, swirling it until it evenly coats the bottom and cook, undisturbed, until the bottom is golden and the top is set, about 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the crepe and cook it for 30 seconds on the other side, before transferring it to a plate to cool. Repeat with remaining batter. You can stack your crepes and they should not stick together. Let crepes cool completely.

Make filling: Whip cream cheese until fluffy, then beat in yogurt, 1/2 cup at a time. When fully combined, add sugar and vanilla then beat until rich and fluffy, just another minute.

Assemble crepe cake: Lay first crepe on a cake plate or serving platter. Spread with 1/4 cup of the yogurt-cream cheese filling. Repeat with all but the last remaining crepe, which should be stacked but have no filling on top, as it is the lid.

Make walnut butterscotch sauce: Combine the cream, brown sugar and butter in the bottom of a medium, heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally in the beginning and more frequently as it reduces and thickens. You’ll know it’s done when it becomes thick and smells toasty. Stir in the vanilla and salt, then walnuts. Immediately pour over stack of filled crepes, nudging the butterscotch to the edges with your spoon — if it goes over the edge, so be it.

Serve immediately, or keep in fridge until ready to serve. Crepe cake keeps for up to 3 days, possibly longer, but good luck with that.

There's something very arresting about the inside of a whole nutmeg

Soft Ginger Cookies

A few years ago, my church hosted a cookie exchange with different category prizes for treats the women brought to share. We did ask that any submission for the contest be home baked so when a particular ginger cookie won by being pretty much the best tasting giant soft cookie EVER, we had no choice but to accept the statement that it wasn't from a bakery. A bakery we needed to immediately locate and start frequenting. Which is not to say we didn't harbor some pretty deep suspicions regarding the veracity of that humble home baked claim, especially after Candice and I both went to our respective homes and promptly tried our winner's recipe the very next day, achieving vastly different results. Neither of us are novices to cookie baking but our batches turned out not at all soft and not at all of the texture or taste that we'd experienced the night before. (By the way, while it sounds like Candice and I deliberately set out to disprove the ginger cookie baker's claims of homemade, we were actually just wanting to replicate that fabulous taste at home. Candice because Elisha loves ginger cookies and me because they're my favorite. Neither of us was aware of the other one baking up a batch of the cookies until days later.)

Yea, so we have our suspicions about those Cookie Exchange Ginger Cookies. Either the recipe was deliberately sabotaged to make sure no one could duplicate the perfection of what we'd tasted, or they were professionally prepared.  Sometimes I'll be at bakeries and delis in the area and purposefully order a ginger cookie, just to see if it matches what showed up for our good-natured competition. That's how much the yummy memory of that cookie has stayed in my mind.

Recently I came across a recipe purporting to hold the secret for soft and chewy ginger cookies. How could I turn down the chance to see if I could come up with anything even close to what our church "baker" brought?  I had every ingredient needed so why not give it a go?

My batter, when completed, was so wet I could barely get it to shape into the walnut size balls. Maybe I should have tried a little harder but I decided to add a pinch more flour instead and that seemed to do the trick. I still had some sticky gooeyness to contend with but at least the now slightly firmer dough would hold to a ball shape.

I gotta say these cookies turned out pretty amazing. Lots of strong ginger taste and, just as promised, a soft and chewy texture. The Cookie Exchange cookies were huge, perhaps double the size of my walnut balls, but, other than that, I'm going to claim a bullseye on the deliciously soft cookie of my memories.

Soft and Chewy Ginger Cookies
from Six Sisters Stuff

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup margarine, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp water
1/4 c molasses
2 Tbsp sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together margarine and 1 cup white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Then add flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Blend together well.  Shape dough into walnut-sized balls, roll in sugar. Place 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly.

Bake 8-10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to wire rack.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Growing up, my brothers and I ate a lot of Campbells soups for lunch, probably because that can of chicken noodle or tomato soup, paired with a half sandwich, offered a quick and easy way to fill five hungry tummies.

You know what I wonder, as I think back to all those grill cheese sandwich and soup lunches? How many cans of soup was my mom using to feed all five of her brood? Because, let's face it, a can of Campbells turns out hardly more than one serving of food. Maybe as children we had much smaller appetites, and maybe my mom put more than a can of water in the pot but, even so, it's amazing how little soup comes out of one of those cans. 

If I can still like Campbells chicken noodle soup even as an adult, imagine how much I love Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen version! I admit the process of making this soup is a little more complicated than opening a can and adding some water but, oh my!, what a lovely result. 

This soup made a very satisfying dinner, paired with a green salad and...what else? A grilled cheese sandwich.  Best of all,  there's plenty left for another day. 

Chicken Noodle Soup

from smittenkitchen.com

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil 

1 large onion, chopped

3-pound chicken, in parts or 3 pounds chicken pieces of your choice

8 cups water

1 bay leaf

2 teaspoons table salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 large carrot, diced (1/3-inch)

1 medium parsnip, diced (1/3-inch) (optional) (A parsnip in Martin's soup? I think not!)

1 large celery stalk, diced (1/3-inch)

3 ounces dried egg noodles, I prefer wide ones

1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill or flat-leaf parsley

Directions:

Prepare broth: In a large (5-quart) heavy pot over medium-high heat, heat the vegetable oil. Add the onion and saute it for 3 to 4 minutes, until beginning to take on color at edges. Add the chicken pieces (if too crowded, can do this in two batches), making little wells in the onions so that the parts can touch the bottom of the pan directly. Cook chicken parts until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

Add water, bay leaf, table salt and some freshly ground black pepper and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and skim any (sorry for lack of better term) scum that appears at the surface of the pot. Simmer pot gently, partially covered, for 20 minutes.

Transfer chicken parts to a plate to cool a bit before handling. Set a fine-mesh strainer over a bowl (ideally, with a spout) and pour soup through it.

If your pot looks grimy and you’re fanatical about having a clear soup, you can give it a quick wash before returning the broth to the pot. You can remove a bit of fat at this point, if it looks necessary. Bring the broth back to a simmer.

You may be tempted at this point to taste it and add more salt. I know this because I do it every single time, adding another teaspoon, and every. single. time. I regret this as it is too salty in the end. So, proceed with any re-seasoning with caution.

To finish and serve: Add diced vegetables and simmer them until they’re firm-tender, about 5 minutes. Add dried noodles and cook them according to package directions, usually 6 to 9 minutes. While these simmer, remove the skin and chop the flesh from a couple pieces of chicken, only what you’re going to use. You won’t need all of it in the soup. I usually use the breasts first because they’re my least favorite and benefit the most from the extra moisture of the soup. The remaining parts can be slipped into an airtight bag in the fridge (I recommend leaving the skin on for retained moisture until needed) and used for chicken salad or the like over the next few days.

Once noodles have cooked, add chicken pieces just until they have rewarmed through (30 seconds) and ladle into serving bowls. Garnish with dill or parsley, dig in and let it fix everything that went wrong with your day.

Do ahead: If planning ahead, the point where you strain your chicken broth is a great place to pause. Refrigerate the chicken broth until the next day. Before heating it and finishing the recipe, you can easily remove any solidified fat from the surface for a virtually fat-free soup. Then, you can cook the vegetables and noodles to order, adding the chicken only so that it can rewarm (and not overcook!). If making the broth more than a day in advance, you might as well freeze it. I recommend freezer bags with as much air as possible pressed out. Freezing the bags flat will make it easier to stack and store with other frozen soups, and the bag will only require a short soak in warm water to defrost.