Noodles!!!

not my noodles....image from Bing search

Recently I made noodles for the first time.  The recipe I used had been in my possession for probably ten years.  A dear lady who I worked with back in the 1990s had given it to me after sharing a batch at a pot-luck luncheon.  I adored them, and begged her for the recipe.  I had every intention of making them much sooner than now…but for whatever reason hadn’t bothered to do it.  When I came across the recipe in my little metal box last week, I was sadly reminded that the lady who gave it to me so long ago, had passed away a couple years back.  I decided it was high time I gave her noodle recipe a try.

The recipe is pretty straight-forward and was easy to whip up.  For some reason though, I made the process more complicated than it needed to be by rolling the dough out on wax paper.  I guess I thought that the paper would help the noodle dough not to stick.  It did help with that (a bit), but when I cut the noodles – I also cut the paper (into noodle sized strips of course).  Pulling the noodles off of the wax paper strips was not fun.  Also, it turned what had been pretty uniform noodles into big messy pile of misshapen lumps. 

I had very little faith that the blobby dough before me would ever pass for noodles.  A less optimistic (and/or less frugal) gal might have tossed them out and given up, but not me.  I laid them out as best I could and let them dry.

Earlier in the day I had cooked up a fryer chicken, de-boned it and put it in the crock pot with broth, carrots, onions and celery.  By now the house smelled a little like heaven.  I wasn’t sure how the noodles would do when added to the soup, so instead of dumping them in the crock-pot, I put them in some boiling water on the stove top.

And then, a miracle happened.  The mangled strips of dough began to look like… noodles!  Hurrah!  I did a little happy dance as they started to bob and float in the boiling water.  Once I was sure that they were not going to dissolve or turn to mush, I drained and moved them into the crock-pot.  About forty-five minutes later, I dished up plates of yummy mashed potatoes topped with homemade chicken and noodles. 

Yes, the carb count on such a meal is crazy high… I.DO.NOT.CARE.  Never has there been a better comfort food than this. 

The noodles still looked odd – only some having a regular noodle shape - but they tasted wonderful!  Worth every moment of effort put into making them, I think they were maybe the tastiest chicken and noodles I’ve ever eaten!  Maybe they really were the best ever, or maybe I only thought that because I was enjoying the “fruits of my own labor”…. I’m not sure.

What I am sure of, is that I’ll be trying that recipe again.  I didn’t remember to take pictures, but pictures wouldn’t have done them justice anyway (trust me on this).  I am including the recipe below.  It’s super easy and I think it’s fairly standard as noodle recipes go….but here it is:

Luetta’s Homemade Noodles

4 eggs

3 T cold water

1 tsp salt

3 T soft butter

2 c. Flour

Beat eggs.  Beat in water and salt.  Stir in flour and butter.  Roll out then as desired and cut with sharp knife.  Let dry at least 30 minutes before cooking.