Poultry, in Various Forms

*Asian-style egg drop soup, made with chicken broth; recipe from Quick and Easy Recipes from the New York Times


*garlic chicken, recipe from Easy Weeknight Favorites
*rice, white with a bit of brown mixed in
*green salad of romaine with cucumbers, tomatoes and bottled ceasar dressing
*water
*juice
*canned mandarin oranges for the kids
*1/2 piece of blueberry coffee cake for me
*three Lindt white chocolate truffles for Aogu; I think he was trying to keep the rest of the his Christmas stash for himself. The kids have been moving in on it lately, picking up the bag and shouting, "Papa, hambunko shio!" which means "Papa, let's split one!" and of course he would always agree.

Other observations:
I'm making a lot of recipes from cookbooks titled "Easy". Hmm....

The egg drop soup was definitely worth a repeat. I didn't have any scallions on hand, so I sauteed some mushrooms and threw them in. Of course that wasn't a substitute of a similar flavor by any means, but it did increase our veg intake just a bit. I look forward to trying it with scallions next time, I think that will make it even better. Also, next time I will make the soup with three cups of broth and three eggs rather than the four called for, so we won't have any left over.

Egg Drop Soup
1 qt. chicken stock (I had some homemade on hand and I think that made it better, but I wouldn't worry about making it with canned stock next time)
4 eggs
1 tablespoon soy sauce
salt and pepper
1/2 cup chopped scallion
1 tsp. sesame oil

Bring three cups of the stock to a boil. Meanwhile, beat the remaining stock with the eggs and the soy sauce. When the stock is boiling, adjust the heat so that it bubbles but not furiously. Add the egg mixture in a steady stream and stir for 2-3 minutes. Taste and add salt or soy sauce if necessary, then add pepper, the scallions, the sesame oil, taste again, adjust seasonings and serve.

I'll make garlic chicken again because the kids really liked it, but I want to adjust the recipe so the sauce doesn't taste so acidic. Maybe I have to leave out or at least reduce the amount of lemon juice. Based on yesterday and tonight, perhaps cooking with lemon isn't great for my family? Aogu didn't say anything, but I think that's because he was on the phone while we were eating, not because he didn't have an opinion. Or maybe I need to salt it a bit more; I used unsalted butter because that's all I have on hand, and I never added salt at any point. Perhaps that would have balanced it more.

Garlic Chicken
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (I used seven chicken "tenders")
1/2 cup flour (I used whole wheat)
1/4 cup butter
4 large cloves garlic, minced
1 cup apple juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Dredge chicken in flour. Melt butter in skillet; add and saute garlic just a bit, then add chicken. Cook 4-5 minutes on each side until chicken is done. Remove chicken from skillet. Add the remaining ingredients to the skillet, bring to a boil and boil for four minutes. Return the chicken pieces to the skillet and spoon the sauce over until it thickens and the chicken is hot. Serve chicken with sauce poured over.