Soup 1: Chicken Stew

This is the recipe that came with my Dutch oven, so it seemed like the perfect place to start. They wouldn't use anything too complicated for an introductory recipe, right?

Here's everything that goes into this soup

Stew ingredients. The owl (Hedwig) holds salt

Actually, the recipe only calls for 1.5 pounds of chicken meat, which is supposed to be two bone-in breasts. But they don't make chickens that small anymore, so I ended up with nearly 2 pounds of chicken.

First you sauté the veggies for a bit.

Carrots and onions. And it didn't even take me forever to chop them

I was surprised by how little basil I ended up needing. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup, which is less than half of what I bought. I even added a little extra, because why not? I'll need to find a way to use the rest of the basil before it goes bad.

1/2 cup of basil...if you smush it down

When the veggies are tender, stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, broth, basil, and bay leaf.

It's starting to look like stew

Then add the chicken and try to submerge it. Bring it to a boil. Then reduce the heat to a simmer for about 25 minutes (until the chicken is cooked through). Since the chicken breasts are too big to actually be submerged, you need to turn them occasionally. One of my breasts was big enough that it needed more than the recommended 25 minutes. So I covered the stew and cooked it for five more minutes.

I got the smallest breasts at the store and they were still too big

Once the chicken is cooked, take it out. Fish out the bay leaf and throw it away. Add the kidney beans and let the stew simmer and thicken while you cut up the chicken.

It's all coming together

Discard the skin and bones from the chicken and chop it up into bite-sized pieces

I didn't get quite all of the bones out, but it all worked out

Toss the chicken back in the pot. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until you're ready to serve.

Stew: Officially a success

This smells so good, and it was a perfect accompaniment to the football game.

Where Does The Time Go?

Every year it happens. I flip the calendar to December and then I turn around and it's Christmas. It's the busiest month of the year and it leaves me with no time to blog.

So what did I do in December? I traveled a lot. I put up the Christmas tree and bought and wrapped presents. I attended a bunch of holiday parties. I didn't go to the gym at all.

I drove down to LeJeune to see my brother before he shipped out to Afghanistan. I'm really glad I was able to see him before he left, and I can't wait until he gets home. I also sent him some cookies which I'm hoping he receives before they all crumble or go stale.

I went up to Pittsburgh to visit friends and go bridesmaid dress shopping. We played Cards Against Humanity which is related to Apples to Apples but as a black sheep. Two of my friends decided to get it for each other for Christmas but I don't think they ended up doing that. Which is a shame as that would have been funny.

I went to Boston for my company's holiday party and to visit Boyfriend's family and some friends from college. The weekend was busy but lots of fun.

Then we went back to Colorado to spend Christmas with my family and celebrate my mom's birthday before finishing out the year in Pittsburgh.

Now we're home and things are settling down. We don't have any plans this weekend which hasn't happened since October. I'm hoping to have time to go the gym again and keep up with this blog. Here's to a relaxing January.