January Walk

Our yellow lab, Moose, loves to go on walks with us.  For the first quarter mile he runs circles around us at top speed.  

When we returned from a chilly walk the other evening, I threw the sheet pan meal pictured above together and it was so good.   Here, to the best of my recollection, is how I did it: 

Savory Sheet Pan Meal

One 1.5 lb bag little potatoes, such as Little Charmers

2 medium yellow onions, peeled and chopped

5-6 carrots, peeled and sliced into 3" pieces

3 garlic cloves, minced 

6-8 whole peeled garlic cloves

A package of lower fat fully cooked Polish or kielbasa sausage, sliced.  

Enough olive oil to coat vegetables,  2 to 4 Tbsp. 

Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients except sausage, tossing together to cover with olive oil.  Bake on a half sheet pan (18" x 13") in a 400 degree oven until potatoes are nearly done, about 15 minutes; stir halfway through cooking time. Add the sausage and cook 5 minutes or so more, until the sausage is sizzling and hot through.  

Snowy Day

Large photo upper left: I was so grateful to feel good today--you should've seen me on my hands and knees rolling up the base for our snowman!  Clockwise from upper right:  Logan, 5, wanted to build a snow fort--and so we did!  The sunset photo of the snowman is bittersweet--he knows his days are numbered.  That fat quail at lower right brought a dozen friends to our bird feeder today along with the cardinal at left.  Lower center, Daniel, age 9.  

Church services in our little community were canceled this morning.  Both churches in our town have a high population of older people, so it was prudent to avoid having them (us) negotiate slippery streets and sidewalks. 

Our two oldest grandsons appeared at my door after a sledding excursion with their dad, and I quickly negotiated an afternoon at Grammy's for them.  They peeled off layers of sodden clothing and pulled rockers up next to the little propane wall heater in our guest bedroom.  Once they had warmed up, we had homemade chicken soup with rice, made a batch of gingerbread (and ate most of it), then headed back outdoors to make a snowman. 

When we are young, we believe such perfect days as today are ours for the taking, and that there will be many such days.  This grammy has lived long enough to know that part of the reason days like today are so special is that they are rare.  I've stored away a special, heart-warming memory of this day spent with my boys. 

Sipping Once, Sipping Twice...

I made a pot of chicken soup with rice this morning, and since it is January, and there is indeed ice on the sidewalks and streets, I remembered the poem above.  I taught this verse to my first grade classes each January, and would heat Campbell's chicken soup with rice in a crockpot and dole it out with crackers for an afternoon snack.  Funny how even canned soup can become a much-anticipated and much-enjoyed treat when it is cold outside (and when you are seven years old and experience the novelty of being given crackers and soup as a mid-afternoon treat at school).

These days I have the luxury of time to make my chicken soup from scratch.  This morning I had generous handfuls of fresh sage and rosemary to add to the stock, and the scent of that simmering soup was heavenly on this cold day.  I usually don't care much for chicken soup but with the wind howling and sleet falling outside my window, I ate my bowl of soup with good appetite just like my first grade students of yore!

******

Chicken Soup With Rice

In a large stockpot:

1 chicken
Handful of fresh sage
Some fresh rosemary
2 bay leaves
About 6 cloves of garlic
3-4 stalks of celery, chopped
2 medium yellow onions, one chopped, one quartered and stuffed into the cavity of the chicken
4-6 medium carrots, chopped, if desired (when I use wild rice I don't put in carrots--not sure why it's just how I do it!)
Salt & pepper to taste

2.5 cups dry rice

Put all ingredients but rice into a large stockpot, cover with about 3 quarts of water, and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cover, cook for an hour or so until the chicken is very tender.  Remove the chicken (there's a trick to this; I use a meat lifter beneath the bird and a heavy duty spoon in the cavity for leverage), let it cool just a bit, and remove meat from bones.  Pour the stock through a colander and skim away most of the fat--I use a gravy separator.  Return the stock to the cooking pot, add 2.5 cups of dry rice to yield about 7 cups or so of cooked rice (follow package directions--I used a wild rice blend that only had to cook for 15 minutes). When rice is nearly done, cut about half the meat (or as much as desired) into bite sized pieces  and add it to the soup.  Adjust salt and pepper to taste, add more boxed (or your own homemade, frozen) broth if needed for the desired consistency.

Number of servings:  About 8.  Or so.  Okay, I have no idea.  I took out two servings for my husband and myself and sent the rest to my daughter's family of five.