Nice Crusty Bread

This goes great with the Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe.

Wanna Be French Bread Recipe

1 1/2 Cups Warm Water (110 degrees)
1 Tablespoon active dry yeast
2 Tablespoons white sugar
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Teaspoon salt
4 cups flour (bread flour if you have it)

1. In a large bowl, stir together warm water, yeast, and sugar. Let stand until creamy about 10 minutes.
2. To the yeast mixture, add the oil, salt, and 2 cups of flour. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough has pulled away from the sides of the bowl. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat. Cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
3. Deflate the dough, and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into two pieces, and shape into long french loaves. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth, and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and bake for 18-20 minutes in the preheated oven or until golden brown.

As Homemade as You can Get CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

Tis the seaon for yucky colds and flu bugs! Hopefully you have stocked your freezer, not necessarily your cupboard, with the most soothing home remedy around. We've been having some amazing whole fresh chicken deals around here and my freezer is plenty stocked with them! Here is a fabulous recipe for homemade chicken noodle soup that is soul soothing whether your family is fighting a bug or not. Add some nice crusty bread (recipe to follow) and maybe a salad and you've got a good healthy soul satisfying meal!

INGREDIENTS:

1 Whole Chicken
Enough water to cover the chicken
1 batch of homemade noodles (see below)
1 large brown onion chopped
1 cup of chopped carrots
1 cup of chopped celery
1/2 Tablespoon of Poultry Seasoning
1 Tablespoon Seasoning Salt
Pepper to taste

1. Start early in the day. Take the giblets out of the chicken cavity and rinse the chicken thoroughly inside and out. Put it in a large stockpot and cover it with water a few inches above it. Put the heat on high.
2. Once the pot starts to boil turn it down until it's just simmering. Let simmer for about an hour.
3. Remove the chicken and turn off the heat. Let the chicken cool until it is cool enough to handle.
4. Once the chicken is cool enough to handle remove the meat from the bones and set aside in the refrigerator. Add the chicken bones back to the broth, turn the heat back on and let this simmer until about an hour before dinner time (be sure to have the veggies already chopped and ready to go). This will make an excellent flavorful broth.
5. An hour before dinner time add the chicken, carrots, onion, celery, salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning.
6. Immediately start making the noodles.


Noodles:

1 1/2 cups of flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 T butter
1/2 cup ice water

1. In a large bowl sift flour, baking soda and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in water until mixture forms a ball.
2. On lightly floured surface, roll dough to about 1/8" thick. Cut into 1/2" strips at your desired length.
3. add to soup and cook 2o minutes or until noodles are cooked through.