This soup is brought to you by technology, love, and the letter D.

 Made with love. And edamame. 

If that doesn't cure you, what will?

As happens from time to time, I was struck by an illnes last week, and no amount of anything seemed to be getting it to move. No, this is was not any simple summer cold. Those are awful but go away. This wasn't even my standard "oh, fine, I'll work out more" seasonal cough - that involves no actual working out, save for the fact that a few days into it my lungs usually are sore and it hurts my entire torso to cough. This was something else entirely.

This was a cough that was as bad as the one described, but somehow even worse. This was a fever - a really soaring high fever, at that, up and down and off and on. Chills, of the variety that made me look psychotic in a sweater in Chicago in July, and being dizzy and oh, the endless coughing and oh, the frightening fever. It made me take my first sick day since I started this job over a year a go. And I've been sick, people. I went went blind once (it's a long story) and opened that store on time and stayed there all day. I was on time this time too, but I had been arranging someone to come take my shift before I even made it in.

And as I was working a double, with interns, this was pretty much a huge favor. So I missed a day of work, then I missed two days of work, then I had two days off planned anyway but I spent them dying in my apartment. With my cat and my netflix and, sometimes, my roommate. Who made me this soup.

He was starting to get sick, also. And Kelly was texting me that she wished she were here to make me soup when Matt (also via text, from work) asked me if I wanted soup. She relayed to him a soup recipe and he made some additions or changes and lo! A Ginger Chicken Udon soup was served to me. We watched something on Netflix. I tried not to die.

This soup is delicious. I'm not sure how he did it. I'll have to ask. But it's delicious. It features heavily on the ginger root, all diced and steamed and cooked up with some steamed chicken and veg (including cress!) and a delicious broth. Spicy! Awesome. With lazy fat udon noodles from a packet I'd almost forgotten about in the fridge, comforting and invigorating and soothing.

A rough list of ingredients:

- chicken broth
- chicken, steamed
- edamame
- udon noodles
- bell pepper
- diced ginger root
- garlic
- carrot

It didn't herald the end of my sickness, but it certainly brought an evening of comfort and my fever even dropped down to Not Making Me Contemplate the ER levels, which was really the second major thing I wanted. I even coughed less!

That could be due to many factors. Namely, my super awesome Love You Lots So Don't Die Soup.

YEARS AGO, MORE THAN TWO

but god do i love this picture

Thanks, guys. You've always got my back.

Enchiladas of deliciousness: made in Jan, posted in March.

 A few years ago, we went to a gay prom hosted by Stoli downtown.

This happiness? This is sort of what it feels like to eat these enchiladas.

Or maybe what it feels like to be a boy band at the height of their fame. 

Tomato, tomahto.

You know what makes you feel good? 

Making enchilidas - another Kelly Recipe - and nailing it on the first try, according to the ravenous boys who are the reason there is no photo of said enchiladas. 

Which means, I suppose, I will have to make more. Many, many more at the same time. So we can eat and have leftovers, which didn't reeeeeally work out so well this time. 

Talk about simple! Check this out.

The ants go marching one by one: 

- two chicken breasts
- basil
- pepper (or, even better, lemon-pepper!) 
- any other seasoning you like, I used a garlicky one from The Spice House
- one package of fluffy flour tortillas  (mine were a twelve count, I used eleven)
- two jar of green salsa (optional: you may use green enchilada sauce. my store was out.) 
- one package of Mexican cheese blend, shredded (or just go get all the delicious cheeses you want! this was budget night. and easy, I-just-worked-a-shift-from-hell night)
- sliced black olives. one can. 
- avocado, sour cream, whatever you like.



Rub the spices on the chicken breasts, then toss those babies in a steamer. Woosh! Steam until cooked through. Use two forks and shred the chicken, then dump in most of a jar of salsa. Make sure all the chicken is coated. 


Now, what you need to do is get a pan, feel free to pour a little salsa on the bottom. Take a tortilla and put some of the salsa-fied chicken with a sprinkle of cheese in it. Roll up tightly, like a cigar, and then place it in the pan. Continue until you have gone through them all or, you know, you're sick of it. You should tightly pack them in together and pour more salsa on top, then coat with cheese.


This isn't what I'd call "healthy". 


Sprinkle the olives on top and then tent some foil over it. Cook in the oven for about twenty minutes, then remove foil and cook for maybe ten more. The cheese will be all melty and browned. Your kitchen will smell amazing. It will probably smell amazing during the steaming-chicken-phase, but that's to be expected.


Dodge those who are about to shove you out the window by the stove in order to get to this. 

Then, enjoy your share. I hope you got it first.

A Gorgeous Day Calls for...

Potato Salad!

At least, it doesn't hurt to have potato salad involved in nice days and Saturday was, in fact, a cook-out-style nice day. That said, we here in the halfway house of ill-repute did not have a cookout. We stayed in and ate pasta and potato salad and maybe they don't match up, but they were still delicious. And we were still happy.

This potato salad has been requested numerous times by people and these people? Are very specific in their memory of it. I learned it from one of my very close friends and while I do it a little different (I think. sometimes, anyway.), it's still a huge hit. I've watched this stuff be inhaled at a pig roast, vanish in a backyard soiree, and not linger on in an apartment. Oddly, I don't make it very much until the warm weather starts to hit and people remember this potato salad.

I'd like to learn other picnic/cook-out side dishes and stuff, but until I do - this is a stand-by that I, myself, happily eat myself to fat on.

Now, I have trouble giving exact amounts here or even real guidelines. This is all done to taste. I learned by being told "chop that up and throw that in" and that was that - we were both cooks, we could sort of get away with this. Well, guess what? You can get away with this too.

Ingredients
- red potatoes (or baking potatoes or yellow potatoes, I've used all of them.) This last time, I used five red potatoes of varying sizes. But none were quite small.
- apple cider vinegar
- fresh dill, chopped
- celery, about four or five stalks chopped up fine
- red onion - medium sized, diced
- mustard (dijon, though I used regular on Saturday as I completely forgot and, honestly, I think you can play with this)
- mayo
- a lemon, juiced. (I squeeze mine directly in. Watch for seeds!)
*I recall using a lime once. It was delicious! I like limes, though, so I am partial.
- salt, pepper.



- cut your potatoes into the sized chunks that you want to be eating. I like smallish ones largely, with a few outliers. boil these in some water until tender and, you know, you can eat them.
- drain the potatoes and let them cool. add in the onion and the celery.
- once they are cool, mix in the mayo and mustard. I like to do a few spoons of mayo first with a small spiral of mustard. You can decide from there how much mayo you want and mustard taste and all. Add the lemon, though check after half of the juice to see if you want more. Add a small amount of apple cider vinegar - a tablespoon or two. Mix mix mix, stir stir stir. Add the dill and salt and pepper, all to taste.

Honestly, you can add other things or take things out as you prefer, but this is what I do and people love it. It's got a light zing from the lemon juice and the whole taste sensation is fantastic. Very comforting and fresh - really nice for those days on a picnic. Or sitting around with your friends. Or even as lunch in a break room, wishing you were off work.

And a big Kitchenry thank you goes to Kelly, who taught me this over shots of tequila that summer we rocked it at the Bakery. Also, I think this is relatively cheap - the dill might be the only pricey thing, depending on what you do or do not have in your kitchen already.