Rainy Day Equals Comfort Food

Storms came through today

One after another

Rain and thunder and then the sun would shine

And the next wave would darken the skies

And thunder and rain once again

All day!

Rainy Days

Fall, rainy days

Makes one hungry for comfort food

And we started with breakfast

Fresh from the oven biscuits

slathered with butter and then topped with apple butter

Alas, not mine, but a jar my niece gifted me with

It was superb!

Oh, and we didn't just have biscuits --

we had a full breakfast --

bacon and eggs and orange juice!

As I was fixing breakfast

I mixed up some bread dough

In the mixer

and left it to rise

While I went about my morning chores

Two rises --

And then 45 minutes of baking

And this wonderful crusty loaf was the result.

I didn't realize (I should amend that to read I didn't plan)

that the bread would come out of the oven at lunch time

But it did!

And once I realized that it would be warm at lunchtime,

I made a pot of potato leek soup.

Easy and quick

I even went out between raindrops to cut some chives for the soup!

Rain continued all afternoon

Getting rather dark at times

And with some freshly made chicken stock

and a little chicken from those same bones,

I made chicken and noodles.

No frozen noodles for me!

No, those are homemade too!

I haven't made them for a while

My German grandmother

would not be happy at how thick they are!

She was a noodle expert

And hers were thin -- really thin!

But they tasted superb.

A few carrots sliced, a few peas, the chicken and noodles

And a sprinkle of parsley

(not having to dodge raindrops to cut the parsley, however, the rain seems to have moved on!)

It certainly was a comfort food sort of day at Linderhof.

The recipes really aren't --

They're just the way Mom and Grandmother cooked.

The biscuits are self-rising flour and cream and a pinch of salt.

About 2 cups of the flour, 1 1/4 cups of cream, the salt and mix.

Knead a few times, cut with a biscuit cutter

And bake in a 450 oven until they're browned.

The potato leek soup is an onion, chopped; a few leeks cut into 1/2 inch pieces, browned in olive oil, then stock (chicken or vegetable) added along with some sliced and peeled potatoes.     Cook until the potatoes are tender -- then add "cream" and heat again.    Salt and pepper, of course, and garnish with chives if you have them!

The chicken and noodles are simple -- the stock made last night and the picked off chicken added to it.    I added water to the stock and put a few small Farmers Market carrots sliced in and cooked them until they were tender, then I added some frozen peas.    Before I did all that, I made the noodles -- 1 1/4 cups of flour, 1 egg, a pinch of salt and 1/4 c. milk.    Mix well.   Cover with a cloth and let sit for about 10 minutes.     The carrots and the peas were done and I had the broth at a good boil.    I rolled out the noodles on a floured covered board and then cut them into strips.    I put them into the boiling broth and cooked until the noodles were done.    Usually, the flour from the noodles is enough to thicken the broth, but if it isn't, I mix a little flour with a little water and add that.    Salt and pepper, of course.

Three meals of food and not one cookbook opened up!

But those were the meals of my childhood --

I'm not sure those were ever really written down!

You just "knew" how to make this dishes!

It's Friday and I'm sharing my day of Comfort Food with Michael at Rattlebridge Farm for Foodie Friday!