Sesame Ramen Noodle Salad

While I am a big fan of noodles and pasta in soups and sauce dishes, I have never much cottoned to pasta salads. Macaroni salad, to me, has always just ... felt sad. Still, there has always been one pasta salad that I liked. Not just liked, but really liked: Sesame Noodles.
There are a wide variety of recipes for sesame noodles. Many use peanut butter or a similar nut or vegetable base. This recipe does not.

Ingredients
2  3-ounce packages of Ramen Noodles (optional flavor choice)
2  Tablespoons of toasted Sesame Oil
¼ Cup Soy Sauce
2  Tablespoons Brown Sugar (optional light, dark, or even
    granulated sugar)
2  Cups Water (Organic, non-GMO, gluten-free water is best.)

Optional Ingredients
Rice Vinegar
Vegetable Oil
Toasted Sesame Seeds

Preparation
A. In a saucepan add 1 Ramen Flavor Packet to 2 Cups of water.
B. Bring water to boil.
C. (Optional) Break up noodle blocks. (Best done before you open the wrapper.)
D. Add 2 packages of Ramen Noodles to boiling water. Be sure all noodles are in direct contact with water (the reason you might want to break up the noodle blocks). Boil for 3 Minutes.
E. In a bowl, mix Brown Sugar, Soy Sauce, and Sesame Oil together.
F. Add cooked Noodles to Sugar-Soy mixture, stir together.
G. (Optional) Sprinkle with toasted Sesame Seeds.

Enjoy warm.

Wikimedia Commons

For a cold salad, prepare as above, adding 2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil and 1 Tablespoon Rice Vinegar to the Soy-Sugar Mix. Chill prepared noodles, covered, in refrigerator.

Serves one. Or four.

;^)

Gazpacho, Cold or Hot

This recipe is so easy, I'm mad at myself for not thinking of it years ago.

Ingredients

- Chunky Salsa. I use Safeway Select Southwest Salsa, Hot. The more vegetables in the salsa, the better. As an example, the Safeway salsa has tomatoes, Jalapeno Peppers, Green Chili Peppers, Red Bell Peppers, Green Bell Peppers, Black Beans, Corn, Onions, and Garlic, besides the usual herbs and spices like Cilantro, Basil and Oregano.

- Vegetable Juice Cocktail, like V8© , though there are usually store or generic brands that I find very comparable

Preparation

- Combine the Salsa and the Vegetable Juice in a 1:5 ratio (adjust the ratio to taste).

- To serve cold, the soup should be thoroughly chilled in the refrigerator. To serve hot ... do I really need to explain this?

- Can be garnished with sour cream, avocado slices, cucumber slices, tortilla chips, crackers, shredded cheese, boiled egg slices or your favorite whatever—or no garnish at all.

;^)

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Easy Homemade Chicken Soup or Chicken n' Dumplings

Photo**

This chicken soup is so easy, I’m going to list all of the measurments in metric, just so you feel like you’ve done something special.

Ingredients

- 1 Whole Deli-roasted Chicken from the grocery store (day-old is good, if the price is marked down) NOTE 1: Roasted chicken, not fried. NOTE 2: Turns out, counting chickens is the same whether in imperial or metric systems. Go figure.

- 2 Liters Water

- Noodles, pasta or dumplings of your choice, amount by personal preference (I like a lot.) Try angel hair pasta broken into 2 cm pieces.

- (Optional) Mirepoix (chopped onion, celery and carrots)  As much or as little as you want, for both color and flavor. NOTE: Mirepoix (MEER-pwah) is the fancy-schmancy French cuisine name for this basic flavor combo, traditionally, two parts onions, one part carrots, and one part celery.

Preparation

- Drop the chicken in a large pot. (Add mirepoix)

- Cover with water (use more water as necessary).

- Bring to a boil and then simmer one hour, covered.

Kroger's roast chicken.

- Remove chicken and taste the broth, add salt, pepper or spices to taste. NOTE: Usually these deli-roasted birds are so heavily salted and spiced that no further seasoning is needed. If you think it needs more spice, try adding some poultry seasoning.

- Bring the broth to a boil and add your pasta, noodles or dumplings, cook according to their directions.

- While the noodles are cooking, carefully (it’ll be HOT) break apart the chicken and pull the meat into bite-sized chunks. Use two forks if the chicken’s too hot to touch.

- Add the meat back to the broth.

- Serve

Variations

Chicken and dumplings**

Chicken Vegetable Soup
- Add some mixed frozen or canned veggies to the broth with the noodles.
Chicken and Dumplings
- Including mirepoix and/or other vegetables, especially carrots and onions, is common.
- Stir in a little roux (you can always add more) to thicken the finished broth. (Presto! Broth becomes stew.)
- Cut refrigerator biscuits into bite-sized pieces, drop on top of simmering stew.
- Cover and simmer about 20-25 minutes.
- Pull the chicken into chunks, add back to finished stew.

;^)