Homemade Noodles and Rooster soup

Lets Cook! Now this is the creepiest picture I have taken yet, and I decided it had to be shared.

Place one very relaxed rooster carcass into a pot and allow to simmer for two hours or more. The meat should fall right off the bone. {This is the second rooster that I dressed}

Once the rooster has cooled off enough to handle, peel off the skin and remove any bone you happen to find. Place in a smaller pot and add as much carrots, onions, Pok Choi {or celery, but as we couldn't find celery seed to grow, we grew the Chinese cabbage that is similar} potatoes, peas and whatever vegetable you wish to add to it. Add more chicken stock, garlic, salt and pepper. {If canning use canning salt over the table salt. Table salt contains anti- caking ingredients that will discolor your jars. White residue looking stuff at the bottom of the glass that is a joy to remove} Allow the mixture to slowly "stew" while you make noodles. Make noodles for the first time, realize that it will take longer than the soup, place soup in fridge, and worry about it the next day

How hard is it really to make homemade noodles? If you have the right gear, not hard at all. Of course this is my journal, and I must make things more complicated than necessary.

Make a well with 2 cups of flour, pour 2 goose eggs or four chicken eggs into the center, and add 1 tsp of salt. {Simple} Mix well. If sticky add flour, if too dry add a little oil. That's the recipe I had to follow. It wasn't too sticky, nor was it dry, it just didn't want to stay together using a spoon. I kneaded it a bit, that seemed to work. Yet because of my meddling, it became sticky and I had to add a lot of flour to be able to roll it out. Once you have rolled it out as flat as you are capable f doing without it shrinking back up on you, you need to allow it to dry before cutting. Destiny, my name is Impatience. Half a day later, I was caught slicing up the noodles, the dough still wasn't dry.
Slicing noodles shouldn't be such a chore. But if you do not have one of those there fancy modern noodle slicing thing-a-ma-bobbers, you will spend the next hour or two of your life painstakingly cutting flat dough into string. {I wonder how old school I am going to actually get around here} The dough was still wet. When I was finally finished, I had to allow it to dry some more. BAH HUMBUG! Destiny, my name is incredibly impatient. I have other things to do besides watching dough dry. I sucked it up and started canning preparations. And that when it happened {Please insert that dramatic music here}



This, Ladies and Gentlemen is what happens when a rooster gets his revenge. That would be a puncture wound. I was cleaning out the pot that I had first cooked the rooster in, as it is the only large one I have. Apparently I hadn't got all the small bones out of it, and I merrily began to scrub away, it embedded itself into my middle finger {Think the rooster is saying something there?} I made sailors a couple of States away blush. My loving husband could be heard over the cursing with a very caring "What!?!" as he sat in the other room, unaware of how close to death I was. I managed to do a wonderful tap dancing recital, as I sang in French. Then ran out and handed my husband the camera. "ALL MUST BE DOCUMENTED! My audience demands it." I never said I wasn't a dork. HA!

With death thwarted, I went back to my canning. The pot was cleaned out with no other incidents.

I packed the noodles into the bottom of the jars, poured the soup over them, and processed for 25 minutes in a pressure cooker. Have no idea what it tastes like, but it is canned and ready for the winter.