delicious treats

People, I have got cupcakes on the brain. But instead of eating cupcakes, I've got to go to the eye doctor and to get my taxes done. Boo.

(make your own delicious here, here, here, and here.)

Flu Chaser soup

"If I saw that on your blog, I would not think it was delicious, but it is delicious." Says the B. I think it looks pretty delicious. In response to the continuing winter weather, and the B saying he was feeling under the weather, I made Chicken Flu Chaser Soup, which is the best chicken soup I have ever EVER had! Its full of ginger, fresh lemon juice, roasted garlic, and mint. All in abundant amounts, to chase your cold away! I highly recommend getting yourself up and making some, especially if you're fighting a cold.
Be warned, it makes an ass-ton of soup, so I didn't follow the recipe portions exactly and got a little less than an army's worth. I also threw some swiss chard in there, which made for a great green addition.

Spicy Chicken Rice Flu Chaser Soup

(New England Soup Factory Cookbook)

3-4 heads of garlic, roasted (About 1/2 cup of cloves squeezed out of the heads of garlic.)
1 whole chicken, about 5 pounds
1 large Spanish onion, peeled and diced
6 carrots, peeled and sliced
3 ribs celery, diced
12 cups chicken stock, plus additional if needed (I used 13 cups)
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves, or 2 teaspoons dried mint
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 Tablespoons grated fresh ginger root (Or less if you have good ginger root.)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (Don't worry, it doesn't make the soup hot, just lifts the flavor)
2 bay leaves
1/4 heaping cup of chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup fresh chopped mint
3 cups cooked white or jasmine rice
Kosher salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut about 1/4 or 1/2 off the top of each head of garlic. Put cut sides up in a dish, drizzle with oil and cover with a lid or foil. Bake about 50 minutes, until garlic is soft, brown, and caramelized. Let cool then squeeze the cloves out of the heads until you have about 1/2 cup of garlic. Mash the cloves and set aside. Reserve some whole cloves to garnish the soup if you wish.

In a stock pot place the chicken, onion, carrots, and celery. Pour the chicken stock over the chicken and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add roasted garlic cloves, lemon juice, ginger root, lemon zest, mint, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and bay leaves.

Reduce heat to medium and simmer 2 1/2 hours or until chicken is very tender. (My chicken was tender after about 2 hours.)

Remove chicken carefully and place on a plate to cool.

Remove soup from heat. If it looks too thick, add 1 to 2 cups stock or water. When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove skin and bones and add the meat back to the soup. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Taste, adding more lemon juice or other spices, if you like. Add basil, mint, rice, and salt. Remove bay leaves. Stir and serve. Note: To prevent rice from getting too mushy, I add my rice to each serving bowl and ladle the soup over it.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

* The original recipe calls for 20 peeled whole cloves garlic, combined with 1 1/2 cups olive oil and baked on a dish, covered with foil, at 375 degrees for 50 minutes. Drain off the oil when done and mash cloves with a fork

(recipe via What Did You Eat?)