Chicken soup

Today I was very industrious. First, I started some chicken soup. This was Lynda's recipe, so I'll let her post it if she wants. I started it before noon, throwing all the ingredients, including 10 pounds of chicken legs into my giant stockpot. Thank goodness for 16,000 BTU burners. By the time it was done, 6 hours or so later, it was velvety and smooth tasting. I haven't done the work of picking all the meat off the bones, and measuring out the stock, but I did feed it to my boys. I put some of the chicken back in, and boiled some pasta in it. I worried that that might have been a bad idea, because of the starches it would release, but it worked out. The boys declared it "pretty good" and indicated they would eat it again. They also asked if I were "open to suggestions." We will be experimenting with spices and flavorings. I put croutons in mine and it was perfect.

I also made "fudgenellies." Alex named them, but they are based on a recipe from a lady I know. here is my version:

Fudgenellies

2 ½ sticks unsalted butter, separated

8 unbroken graham crackers

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 tsp salt

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1 ½ C (9 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

1. Line a baking pan (size?) with foil. Preheat oven to 350’F.

2. Melt ½ stick butter in microwave; pour over foil and spread to coat. Arrange crackers over foil; break to fill in empty spaces.

3. Melt two sticks of butter in microwave. Pour into saucepan and stir in sugar and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in milk. Pour mixture over crackers.

4. Bake for 10 minutes, until bubbly and slightly darkened. Remove from oven; let cool for 1 minute.

5. Sprinkle top with chips. Let stand 5 minutes; spread chocolate to cover top.

6. Cool 30 minutes. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Let sit outside of fridge for 30 minutes. Peel foil off and cut into pieces.

Update: Definitely make sure you use dark brown sugar. I substituted light and the graham cracker crust floated up! It was really odd. Second, rather than melt the two sticks of butter in the microwave (step 3) then adding sugar, melt the butter and sugar together--slowly!--in the saucepan. This will help prevent separation.

And here are a couple of pictures:

These are very yummy, but not low calorie. The recipe makes 24, and each is 236 calories.

Between doing all that, I finished up my earring hanger. First, I added the picture wire:


Then, I added the hooks:

I did not get to hang it up, though, because I wanted to use brads and we didn't have any. If I were to do it over again, I'd have all the hooks be the same, and I'd have the hooks and picture wire be of the same color metal. But no one will see it (except of course, everyone who reads this, lol), so it's OK.