Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Handmade noodles



Homemade Noodles
Better Homes and Gardens Heritage Cook Book Copyright 1975

1 beaten egg
2 tablespoons milk
½ teaspoon salt
all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)

Mix egg, milk and salt. Add enough of the flour to make a stiff dough. Roll very thin on floured surface; let rest 20 minutes. Roll up loosely; slice ¼ inch wide. Unroll. Cur into desired lengths. Spread out; dry 2 hours. (Store in covered container until needed.) To cook, drop noodles into boiling liquid; cook, uncovered, 8 to 10 minutes. Makes 3 cups uncooked noodles.
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Even though I made this on the last day of 2006, it was much in keeping with my 2007 Culinary and Blogging Resolutions, particularly making things from scratch and not wasting as much food. After making the Crispy Herbed Chicken a couple of weeks ago, I used the carcass to make stock (although due to time constraints the stock was nearly as rich and flavorful as I would have liked). I had this stock and chicken in the freezer and carrots and celery (which was nearly past it's prime) in the fridge. I even had some fresh parsley.

But I wasn't excited about making soup. I haven't been excited about soup in a long time. You could blame the mild winter we're having but I haven't been in the mood for soup in a few years. Sure, I make a batch, order a bowl or even pop open a can of soup every now and then but not with any real enthusiasm. The thought of homemade noodles in soup actually got me excited about soup again.

Making noodles was super easy, it just took a bit of waiting time. Not really a problem since homemade soup usually cooks for at least a couple of hours. I'll definitely be making my own noodles again.

I just love this cookbook. I've owned it for years but I have so many cookbooks, even my favorites sometimes get pushed in the background but eventually I rediscover them. I had this one in my hands most of last weekend. The recipes are mostly traditional, yet they're not all 'everyday' recipes.

I don't know if they still do this, but way-back-when we sometimes had to bring dishes to school for a history or language class. This book would have been a great help, especially since we didn't have the internet back then. I still think this book would be great for a homeschooler or teacher to use since it combines history and cooking and there are recipes from many different ethnicities. This is a great book for people who like to 'read' cookbooks (like a novel).

It can still be found on ebay and used book sites. Better Homes and Gardens also has a 'Heritage of America' cookbook that came out in the 90s so don't get confused.

And the moment you've all been waiting for..............

Hilary (from Nosh With Me) is the winner of the Food and Wine Quick From Scratch Chicken Cookbook from the December Cookbook Giveaway. Stay tuned for another giveaway announcement soon.

Blast From The Past: My Mother’s Tuesday Night Meatball Soup from February 2006, one of the few soups I've made since starting this blog.

Question of the Day: What is your favorite soup?

8 comments:

Heather said...

I really like potato soup and chicken tortilla soup. While they both can be hit or miss depending on where you get them, they both sound really good right now.

DancesInGarden said...

It depends on the time of year. My all time favourite is beef or turkey barley, but good beef barley is hard to make or get (I don't like it tomato paste-y).

In spring/early summer? Beet borscht. I have to make a HUGE pot. Bean soup in the fall with a nice ham bone.

We ate soup a lot as kids. There was always a pot simmering on the stove, in every house we went LOL.

Anonymous said...

I love tortilla soup and matzah ball soup. I'm curious, where do you store all your cookbooks? Can you take a picture for us?

Anonymous said...

Woohoo! Thanks!

My favorite soup is my mom's matzo ball soup. Mmmm.

Anonymous said...

I like vegetable soups but gumbo and chicken tortilla are good, too.

Anonymous said...

I'm weird, I love the cabbage soup from the imfamous Cabbage Soup Diet...my Mom tried the diet when I was a teen and I still make the soup to this day! (http://www.cabbage-soup-diet.com/recipe.html)

So I would say a good tomato based vegetable soup is my favourite!

Wanda said...

I love smokey cheese soup like I used to eat at Denny's. I don't know if they even have it any more. Potato soup is good too...
When the kids were little, we had soup a lot...a good way to use up leftover veggies. I used Soup Starter or Stew Starter. I forget the brand that makes it...anyway, I'd add hamburger and more veggies and whatever. It turned out to be beef-veggie-noodle soup. We all liked it.

The Cookbook Junkie said...

You guys really have me in the mood for soup now! I'm craving every one you mentioned, even the cabbage soup (not crazy to me - I'm Polish!)

Randi,
I have all my cookbooks in one place, in my spare room now. I bought a big bookcase that is already overflowing (and suffering from the weight of all those cookbooks). I'll have to take a pic and post it.