Frozen Soup and Other Homemade Holiday Meal Gifts

One year, while my mother was still alive, I decided that frozen meals would be ideal as Christmas gifts. It started because she was legally blind and lived alone. Making a meal was a chore, but she managed. Whenever I cooked soup, I would make extra. Buying something for someone that has everything they need is difficult, so in addition to another gift, which I will explain later in the article, I made individual containers of frozen soup. You can use these recipes or try your own. Mother wasn't the only one who received them, and I can't tell you how many comments I got on how appreciated they were after a full day of work.

Chile

I'm a sweet chili person, but you can add your own twist to this.

Fry up 2 lbs of hamburger with two chopped large Vidalia onions. (Personal preference here.) Season to taste with seasoning salt, salt, and pepper. Add 4 stalks of celery chopped, three cans of Bush's Baked Beans (regular size cans), a can of kidney beans, and four cans of stewed tomatoes. If you want a thinner chili add more stewed tomatoes.

Pack this in the inexpensive individual sized plastic containers with lids. Seal and freeze. Give one or two containers per family member.

Chicken Soup

Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Add a whole chicken, 8 stalks of celery (You can use the leaves and tops for this and save the celery for a snack.), and two onions that have been sliced. Cook until the chicken falls apart when you try to lift it out with a fork. I usually boil this covered for about 20 minutes and then uncovered on simmer for an hour.

For those of you that have thrown together a pot of chicken soup without blinking an eye, the next thing sounds ridiculous, but my first attempts at cooking proved that no information is useless. Before you put the chicken in the pot, check inside the cavities at both ends and remove the neck and the wrapped liver, heart, and gizzards. The first time I cooked a chicken, I had cooked the bag with the liver and etc inside. I don't care for the taste of these in my soup, especially the liver, so I set them aside and bread them to fry. The neck can be thrown into the pot.

Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the broth. If the broth doesn't have enough of a chickeny taste add some chicken bullion, either cubes or granules, until it tastes right to you. Remove the meat from the bone. Save half for chicken salad later or freeze it for another meal and add half to the soup. Throw away the skin and add noodles, rice, or vegetables.

Adjust this recipe by using beef instead of chicken. To make vegetable soup, cut up your favorite vegetables and add. Here's a big hint. I had left over garden beets that I added to soup once. They taste like garbage in vegetable soup, don't do it. (As an aside, don't add blue food coloring to mashed potatoes, no one will eat them.)

Homemade Noodles

These can be added to the soup or even dried and bagged as a gift.

Beat 6 egg yolks (use the whites for the Hickory Smoked Pecans) and 2 whole eggs together until the mixture is a light color. Continue to beat as you add in 6 Tbsp of cold water and 1tsp of salt. (It is easier if you mix the salt with the water first to jump-start the mixing process.) Add 4 cups of white flour a little at a time. By the time you add the last of it, you will need to work it in with your hands.

Break up the dough into 6 parts and roll each part thin on a floured surface. I use floured wax paper, but a thin kitchen towel floured will work (not terry cloth). Turn the wax paper onto a towel and cover it with another towel to dry the noodles little. They should be a little leathery. Roll the partially dried dough up, like a pinwheel, and cut strips that should be no wider than ½ inch if you want wide noodles, less for more narrow ones. Shake them straight and allow them to dry. Once they are dry you can package them for gifts or use them in the soup. (You can use them right away, without the thorough drying, in soup if you choose.)

The Other Christmas Gift:

If you have older relatives that you want to give a gift to be remembered, spend a day helping them at their house. At the end of the day, take them out to supper or order in a pizza. The best gift I ever gave my mother was a day of washing windows, putting up a ceiling fan, and doing odds and ends.

I spent every Saturday with her, but my life partner seldom went with me. For the Christmas gift day we took his truck that was a traveling shop and had a list of things to accomplish. Leaky faucets, ceiling fans, and odds and ends were completed. She was so grateful that it became a new tradition. Two weeks before Christmas was gift time, and the extra time spent in the evening was a bonus for both of us. This gift can be given to an elderly neighbor, a shut in, or a parent and it is truly the meaning of Christmas. The end of the day left all of us with the spirit of Christmas in our heart.