Onion soup

 Use red or white wine, use veg stock for vegetarian, use oil for vegan, use beef stock for more traditional flavor. This makes a lot! Freeze it or cut down the recipe.

Onions (3kg divided. 2 kg for cooking until soft 1 kg to add raw)

Butter or oil

Salt 

Pepper

10 cups Water

Veggie bouillon (or beef)

White wine ½ liter (if you wouldn’t drink it don’t cook with it, not a dry wine, or red)

Cut the onions in half (all of them)

Slice into pieces about .5 cm (all of them, if easier cut the 2 kg for ‘cooking’ first, then cut the 1 kg of ‘raw’)

Place cut onions in a pot with 2 - 4 Tablespoons of butter (enough butter that when it melts it covers the bottom of the pan)

Cook on medium low stirring once in a while and adding an extra tablespoon of butter if they get dry

Cook them until they are clear and slightly browning (very soft, caramelized)

Mash them slightly, or even use a stab mixer

Add Water (alone or with bouillon)

Add raw onions

Add wine

Cook for at least ½ an hour  

Place on low heat and cover can cook for hours and hours with no problems

Serve with Bauernbrot (sliced) with butter (and maybe some cheese, like slices of emmentaler or masdamer, cut the slices from the package in half)

Carrot salad

 This one has no raisins and a lovely honey mustard dressing. Made the day before is how I like it but you do you! I do double the dressing though (recipe is single batch of dressing)

1.5 lb Carrots (shredded)

1/4 cup Mayonnaise

1 Tbsp  Honey

1 Tbsp Mustard (Dijon or Mittlescharf)

1 Tbsp Cider Vinegar

1/4 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Black pepper (fresh ground is best)

1/4 cup Sunflower seeds (or mixed salad seeds) * I double this too

1/4 cup Red onion (finely diced)

Shred the carrots

Make the dressing in a separate bowl

Mix in the seeds and onion with the carrot

Pour dressing over everything and stir well

Refrigerate 

Chicken Salad

 A simple savory and sweet salad that is great as a main dish or as a side. Can be used to use up leftover beaked or rotisserie chicken.

4 cups of diced Chicken

4 Apples (diced) I like a mix of red and green and go for tart apples

1/2 cup chopped Pecans (more or less to taste)

1/2 cup Cranberries (dried and rough chopped)

Dressing:

1 c Mayonnaise

4 tsp Cider vinegar

1/4 cup Sour cream

1 tsp Tarragon (dry)

1/2 Red onion (small, diced)

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the dressing and pour over the chicken, apples, nuts and berries. 

Mix well and refrigerate a few hours or overnight before serving.

Chicken experiment:Meal 4

 So, brought the broth and bones in from the porch this morning and strained it well, Stripped any meat I could and rid myself of the rest. Remember the fat and drippings from the pan that I set aside? That went into the broth as well as some gravy I had in the fridge from a different meal on last Sunday. I added about 2 cups of water because the whole thing was very thick, like 1/2 set jelly. Took the meat from my last leg, chopped it up with an onion and a few carrots and cooked it about an hour before I put the dumplings in. I forgot the celery but i'm not too worried about that. The dumpling recipe is new to me and it seems to be working up well. Time to test it!

Whatever leftovers there are from tonight will make lunch tomorrow. 

Oh, I had plenty left over from my fried rice last night that I had a midnight snack and lunch today!!

Chicken experiment: Meal 3

 And prep for meal 4 and possibly 5! 

Today was about breaking down the carcass. I pulled the wings off and tossed them in a pot. I broke the legs off and set them aside. The carcass already having been stripped of the breasts I tossed it in the pot too and covered it with just enough water to put it on to boil. I stripped one leg putting the meat into a bowl for dinner tonight which will be fried rice. The other leg I stripped and set the meat aside for tomorrow. Tossing the bones in the pot to boil along with the rest.

I have 2 cups of leftover rice and pulled a cup of peas from the freezer. I peeled and small diced 2 carrots. I grated 2 cloves of garlic and a small chunk of ginger. I will soak the chicken meat after I cut it in a a couple tablespoons of broth to add some moisture back to it before beginning to fry everything together. I will start off with 1/2 an onion, add the garlic and ginger then the rice. Once that is heated through I will add the chicken and the vegetables. I will make a space in the center and put 2 eggs beaten once cooked through I will add soy sauce and stir it through, once done, it's finished.

As for the boiling carcass I will let that simmer until near bedtime, I will take it off to cool and stick it on my porch as my fridge is currently occupied with a defrosting turkey. Yes, it is cold enough for it to be safe out there. In the morning I will strain it and begin meal number 4.

Chicken Experiment: Meal 2

 This afternoon I took out the chicken and carved the second breast off of it. I tore it up and put in about 1/4 cup of BBQ sauce and 1 Tbsp of water in a pan and turned it on med to heat it up. I also took 1 1/2 cups dry rice and made rice. I ate about 1/3 of the rice with the chicken and will put away the rest to make fried rice either tonight or tomorrow. 

Chicken experiment: Meal 1

 So, for various reasons I will not get into I spend most of my time living as a single person. This means cooking for one which is very hard for me to find the motivation to do. I have a challenge for myself though. The other day I saw a chicken (whole) for sale in my local grocery store and I decided to challenge myself to make as many meals from my chicken as possible and to document them here. So here goes!

Day one!
I have decided to roast my chicken. I set my oven to 170°c, rubbed my chicken in a mix of half butter half mayonnaise and then sprinkled it with the Ankerkraut Brathähnchen gewürz (A certain company's roast chicken spice). I tented the pan with aluminum foil and set it in the oven for 2 hours, I then removed the foil and cooked it 1/2 an hour more. After resting it about 10 minutes I sliced off the breast and served it with leftover spätzle and peas from last night. I put some drippings in a cup to dip my chicken in. I will save the rest of the chicken for tomorrow.