Well, the weather outside is not exactly frightful…but it has changed and fall is definitely in the air. At Chez Badass, that means it is that special time of year once again. Oh yeah baby – I’m talking about Soup Weather! I like to make lots of different soups once the weather cools down…and one of my favourites is Lemon Chicken Soup.

I base my soup on this recipe: Yum & Yummer’s Lemon Chicken Soup with Orzo but I use rice instead of orzo and spice it differently because I am lazy like that and I hate bay leaves according to my preferences.

Chop onion, carrot, garlic (I use the already minced stuff) and celery and sauté in olive oil until onion is soft and translucent. (I don’t measure. I just chop till it looks like enough, to me.)Then add the seasoning. I like Italian seasoning for my soups. I put that shit on everything. Again, I don’t measure. I just shake it on till it seems like enough. I can always add more later.

Then I prepare the chicken stock. Since I don’t have a big freezer anymore, I no longer have homemade stock on hand. This is the next best thing, I have found.

Zest BEFORE juicing. I can’t stress this enough. It is so much harder to zest a juiced lemon not that I would know anything about that. This recipe calls for 1/4 cup lemon juice. I managed to get just that amount from my lemon.

Add lemon juice and zest to the soup. Then I add the rice (1/2 cup). I have used brown and basmati, in the past. This time I used arborio, just for a change. You could add whatever starch you like to this recipe. Barley, noodles, potatoes…anything (or nothing) would be good. Go crazy!

Sometimes (like this time) I add 1/4 teaspoon turmeric for colour.

I had previously cooked and chopped up chicken breasts in the freezer, so that got added to the soup.

Let everybody in the soup pot commingle and get to know each other for about 20 minutes or so while things are simmering.

As always: please feel free to let my co-host Donna or myself know what’s on your plate at your house, in the Comments of either Donna’s or my post (or both, if you are so inclined!). Please check out Donna’s post, to read about the delicious dessert she makes for sharing with friends!

Remember: if you decide to blog or Facebook or Instagram about it, to use the tags #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge or #woypbc so we can find you out on ye olde interwebbs!

Rock on,

The WB

In case you weren’t aware, here on the Island (and in Western Canada in general) we have been living under a “heat dome” – a period of extreme heat. Extreme for just about anywhere…and especially deadly for this temperate climate, where almost nobody is prepared to deal with temperatures like these. I was relatively lucky…it only got to 37C (but felt like 42C) where I live, at the peak of the heat event. Still – without air conditioning and only a tower fan – I struggled to find relief. You can read more about it here.

As you can imagine, not much cooking was done…or if I did venture into the kitchen, it was at 6 am (when it was a relatively “cool” 26C) to prepare some food to get me through the day. Salads were featured, and here is one of my favourites – I don’t have a name for it other than “watermelon salad”. There is something about the combination of the peppery, nutty arugula with the sweet watermelon and the salty feta, accented by the acidic glaze…I could eat this salad all day.

I don’t really have a recipe for it either, but here goes:

• Put cubed seedless watermelon in a salad bowl
• Add arugula, as much as you want
• Throw in some crumbled feta cheese (I used goat feta, in this picture)
• Drizzle with balsamic glaze
• Enjoy!

Just before the heat dome arrived I decided I would have a signature cocktail for this season, at Chez Badass. No, I did not drink it during the extreme heat. Imbibing alcohol during extreme heat – likewise mixing alcohol with extreme cold – is a terrible idea. But for the days of the summer when temperatures are more moderate, I would like to offer you this:

Does anyone actually need a recipe for a gin and tonic? In case you do:

• Pour 1 ounce of pink gin over ice into your glass
• Top off with tonic water
• Add pathetic lime slice (highly optional)
• Please sip responsibly, and never in extreme temperature conditions!

The weather has since cooled off, thankfully. And cocktail hour is once again an option at my house. Also, cooking with heat. And the wearing of clothing that hasn’t been drenched in cold water and wrung out, first.

And, as always: please feel free to let my co-host Donna or myself know what’s on your plate at your house, in the Comments of either Donna’s or my post (or both, if you are so inclined!). Donna has done some amazing research on 4 ways to put the same dish on your plate this month! Remember: if you decide to blog or Facebook or Instagram about it, to use the tag #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge so we can find you out on ye olde interwebbs!

Rock on,

The WB

In my part of the world, it’s jacket-weather yet. This means comfort food is still on the table…my table, anyways. It’s hard to think of anything more comforting than chicken pot pie (with a gluten-free biscuit topping). Except maybe that viral feta pasta dish, which I may have made a time or twelve since I posted about it here.

Feel free to make this chicken dish using your own favourite biscuit recipe. Wheat gives me heartburn, hence the gluten-free slant to a lot of my recipes. For those of you who might want to try these GF biscuits, I have to say that they turned out mighty fine!

If you have turkey or chicken leftovers from Easter weekend, this recipe (courtesy of Zen Belly) would make great use of them. I had half a bag of mixed veggies in the freezer to use up, which I used instead of the vegetables the recipe called for. I also forgot to add the optional dairy…I didn’t have any heavy cream lying around but I was thinking of adding some milk or maybe Greek yogurt. Turns out it’s just fine without any of that.

For spices, I was pretty liberal with my homemade chicken seasoning blend, recipe given to me by my dear cousin-in-law, Hetty. Here is her recipe for Kip Kruiden (Dutch for “chicken spices”):

• 2.5 tsp salt
• 1.5 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 0.75 tsp savoury powder
• 0.25 tsp coriander
• 0.75 tsp garlic powder
• 0.5 tsp black pepper
• 0.5 tsp thyme
• 0.5 tsp basil

I usually double the recipe to make a big enough batch to last me a while…I do love my chicken! This spice blend is great on pork or on oven-roasted potatoes, as well. I think I put a good teaspoon of the blend into this dish.

Right after I made the pot pie, I chowed down on it. SO. GOOD. Then put the leftovers in the fridge until the rest of my “bubble” could come over and enjoy it with me. It reheated beautifully a couple of days later (the biscuits were still fluffy and tender!), and was very well received. The dish was scraped clean. My daughter said, “It smells like Thanksgiving in your house!” Thank you, Zen Belly and Kip Kruiden. 🙂

Now it’s your turn! Let me and/or Donna (my lovely co-host, who is posting about a delightful vegetarian dish) know what’s on your plate at your house, in the Comments. And remember if you decide to blog or Facebook or Instagram about it, to use the tag #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge so we can find you out on ye olde interwebbs!

Rock on,

The WB