My household has been all under the weather..some crazy virus that I caught first and kindly seemed to of passed on to the rest of the crew (isn't that precious of me). Well with hubby home sick, kids sniffling, snorting and coughing away, me just getting over it and pregnant, trying to fit in school, taking the baby to the doctor, along with cleaning this bomb of a mess in my house. Tada my life is not perfect but I love my chao's because I know some day when all are married and living in their homes I will miss my wonderful craziness, and wish it back. So to help us fight this nasty virus today we had green smoothies (except my husband..he wouldn't touch them with a ten foot poll) and I made Chicken lemon rice soup with homemade french bread. Hit the spot along with the broth and lemon help in combating the virus and build immune system back up. After saying prayers, reading our devotions, and tucking each cutiepie into bed. My night ends with my sweet child saying "Mommy thank you for taking good care of us and daddy, sometimes I don't like bedtime because I wish you were with me all the time." That's makes all my wonderful chaos worth it. Enjoy the recipe friends
Greek chicken lemon rice soup
1 lb. chicken breast, chopped
1 med. onion, chopped
3/4 c. chopped celery
1 carrot, chopped
3 qts. water
1/2 c. uncooked rice
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. seasoning salt or seasoned salt substitute
1. Cook chicken in water with onion, celery and carrot until tender. Add rice. Cook for 30 minutes.2. Beat egg yolks in a bowl; add lemon juice and salt. Add some of the hot stock, beating constantly to keep from curdling.
3. Stir egg mixture into soup and heat. DO NOT BOIL
French Bread Recipe
4 cups bread flour
2 teaspoon active quick rising dry yeast
2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups warm water
1. Put 1/4 cup of bread flour on your clean counter top and reserve. Place remaining 3 3/4 cups bread flour in your mixer bowl. Spoon the yeast on one side of the bowl, and the salt on the other side. Pour in the warm water and with your regular mixer paddle, mix on low speed until the dough comes together in a mass. Switch to the dough hook. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Dough should clear the sides but stick to the bottom. If it is too sticky, add 1 tablespoon of flour at a time. If too dry, add 1 tablespoon of water to dough to adjust.
Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
The dough should look like this during the rest:
2. Turn the mixer on again and mix for 3 minutes. Take the dough out and place on the counter. Remember that 1/4 cup of flour that you reserved? You’ll use it now. As you knead the dough by hand, incorporate more flour as you need.
Knead by hand until the dough is very satiny, smooth, tight and formed into a nice, compact ball:
Place this dough in a large lightly oiled bowl (I use Pam spray). Turn dough over so that all sides have a thin coating of oil. Cover with plastic wrap and set in warm place for 1 1/2 hours to let rest and rise. Dough should almost double in size. While the dough is rising, about 1 hour into the rising stage, preheat your oven to 450F and place your pizza stone, inverted baking sheet or covered cast iron pot into the oven to heat up.
4. After the dough has risen fully, punch dough down and form back into a ball. Poke your finger on the surface – the dough should give into the pressure and slowly creep back up.
5. Ok, here’s the fun part. Cut the dough into half – you’ll shape one half at a time (keep the other piece under wraps) Pick up the dough – stretch it out until it forms a big rectangle. Dust your work surface with flour and fold over the ends of the dough like this:
Now do a little “karate chop” lengthwise down the middle of the bread and stretch out the long ends again. Fold over in half. The karate chop helps get the middle tucked inside. Pinch all sides shut. This is important – you want to make sure that all ends including the short ends are pinched tightly to create a seal. This allows the bread to rise & expand up and out evenly. If the bread looks a little lopsided, you can try to fix it by letting it rest 5 minutes and gently stretching it out again. Just don’t knead the dough again – you’ll pop all the beautiful gas that took 1.5 hours to create!
Here’s what it should look like:
6. Turn the bread over so that it is seam side down. Cover the loaf with a damp kitchen towel. Repeat with the other dough ball. Leave the loaves to rest on your well-floured cutting board for 30 minutes. After resting, take a sharp paring knife and make 3-4 shallow, diagonal slashes on the surface of the loaf. This allows the steam in the bread to escape so that it expands evenly during the baking process:
7. When you are ready to bake, remove your baking vessel from oven. Carefully slide the gorgeous loaf into or onto your baking vessel. You can probably fit both loaves on it at the same time if you wish. -> Get a 1/2 cup of water ready next to the stove. Open the stove, put your bread in the oven and throw the water on the oven floor. Immediately close the oven door. This creates your steam. -> Bake 20-25 minutes. Check temperature of the bread – internal should be 190-210F. Remove and let cool before cutting into it...butter and the dip into soup..mmmmmmm heaven on a spoon.
Encouragement to chew on:
If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.
Vincent van Gogh
Hold your children dear you, they apart from salvation are one of God's sweetest gifts given to us. In tough parenting moments never overlook their need for direction and desire for love.
