My First Julia Recipe

“This is a book for the servantless American cook who can unconcerned on occasion with budgets, waistlines, time schedules, children’s meals, the parent-chauffeur-den mother syndrome, or anything else which might interfere with the enjoyment of producing something wonderful to eat.”

~From the Foreword of Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Since Julie & Julia came out on dvd, I’ve been itching to get my fingers on my own copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I thankfully got a copy for my wedding, and now that school is winding down a bit, I’m ready to dig in.

I kicked off the beginning of my adventure by reading Julie & Julia. For your info, I did not enjoy the book. It was not as charming as I expected. The movie was 100x better, but the book did excite me about making a few recipes from the cookbook. 

After I finished reading Julie & Julia, I was ready to pull out the Book. I curled up on my bed and started reading. I was surprised that the first 75 pages had nothing to do with recipes. It is about equipment (which I’m missing most of), definitions (Matt was cracking up at my pronunciation of the French words. It was so much fun.), ingredients, measuring, temperature, cutting, wines, and two introduction. Just from reading those pages, I have realized that I learned a lot and have even more to learn from Julia.

Random Sidetrack Story (Feel free to skip)

Why It is bad for me to Read a Cookbook

By Michele Nielsen

It was our second week of being married. We had just returned from our honeymoon, and Matt was already back at work. School was not starting for another week, so I had a bit of time before school started. I did not know what to do. Our home was clean, everything unpacked, so I thought, “Huh, lets try out all my new kitchen stuff!”

I opened up my brand new copy of James Beard’s American Cookery and flipped through the book. I saw the bread section, and for some crazy reason I decided to make bread. At this point, I had only successfully made one batch of bread, but I must have thought with my new married status, I received homemaking super powers.

I flipped open to the bread section of the book and read…

"In 1857 Mrs. Sara Hale wrote in her huge cookbook, Receipts for the Millions: “To make good bread or to understand the process of making it is the duty of every woman; indeed an art that should never be neglected in the education of a lady. The lady derives her title from ‘dividing and distribution bread’; the more perfect the bread the more perfect the lady.”"

I read on to the recipe and then began to make it. I carefully measured everything and followed the recipe to a T. I even had a friend come over and supervise to make sure I did not do anything stupid. After I finished kneading it, my friend left -- fairly certain that I had avoided all disaster.

I set my timer and went to read a book. When I came back an hour later, the bread had not risen…at all. I was horrified!! (Normally I wouldn't even blink at messing up a recipe, but for some reason this was extra devastating.) I called Matt up almost in hysterics, “Honey, I’m the least perfect women ever!! Why did you marry me? I am such a failure. I’m so sorry.” (It was pretty pathetic.)

Matt was completely confused. We had only been married for two weeks, what could I possibly done that would make me so distressed? He calmed me down, and I explained to him what the book said and what had happened. He paused for a second before saying, “Did you let the water sit for a minute before adding it?”

“Uh...no. That wasn’t part of the directions.”

“That’s your problem. Provo has a lot of chlorine in the water. You gotta let it sit a while so it can flash off.”

And that is why I married a chemist. He fixes everything, even water.

When he came home, he told me that I should stop reading sexist cookbooks, so I do not feel bad when something goes wrong.

The End.

Back to me reading Julia Child’s book, I remembered that reading things other than the recipes in the cookbook was not necessarily the best idea. I read it anyway and came up on the quote I put at the beginning. I laughed.

Unlike failing as a perfect woman, I had already disqualified myself for who can cook French Cooking. While I rocked at not having a servant and we do not have kids, I do have a waistline I would like to keep, along with time schedule and a strict budget. I pointed this out to Matt, and he reminded me not to read cookbooks again. I figured even without meeting Julia’s requirements, I was going to give this a try.

Today I made the first recipe! Potage Parmentier (aka. Leek and Potato Soup).

It was easy, cheap, and yummy. I'm happy with it. 

Booyah for the first recipe checked off...500 and something to go? (I not sure, if I'm going to make all the gross stuff)   

Bucket List of Dates

I don't know if most people have this problem, but since we got married our creativity for dates has diminished. So Matt and I have passively been making a list of things that we want to do together. This is our list of dates we will do some point this year.

Random Dates I’m going to do with Matt (or in a few cases have done)

1. Go to the temple in the morning and have a breakfast cereal picnic on the grounds.
2. Set up an obstacle course (in empty parking garage is really fun) for remote control cars and race.

3. Read our favorite children books to each other, using weird voices of course.

4. Put subtitles and mute your favorite romantic scene, and act them out. (My personal favorite is Veggie Tales “Barbara Manatee” So dramatic.)

5.  Volunteer together for Habitat for Humanity

6. Watch random infant massage videos on youtube and practice them on each other.

7. Scrub the floor Pippi Longstocking style, tie scrubs to your feet, put on loud music, and dance.

8. Go to the phone book and pick a random restaurant in another city. Figure out a round about way to get there and order for each other.

9. Go on a walking journey and every fifteen feet draw a chalk arrow in the direction you’re going. At the end of the trip, leave a big pile of chalk. (That’s from XKCD)

10. Go go-carting.

11. Dress up in childish clothes and go to an amusement park.

12. Build a blanket fort and tell random stories from your childhood while eating pizza. (Like No Reservations)

13. Leave sticky notes with random messages during your date.

14. People watch and write random stories about them. Go to a random café and read them to each other. (Even better if you have a beret…and a striped shirt. I’ve done this on trax before, it is sooooooooooooooooooooooo much fun.)

15. With camera and pair of boots, make photolog of a day in the life of the invisible man. (XKCD)

16. Karaoke Night

17. Go to a used book store, and read random lines to each other. (I love Sam Weller’s for here in Utah…)

18. Make cars out board boxes and have a “Drive in movie.”

19. Play poker with junk food

20. Go to a planetarium show.

21. Go to a zoo or taxidermy museum and “adopt” a new pet. (I want a dik-dik named Susie.)

22. Build a stool.

23. Passionately kiss in a hot air balloon. (This in on my bucketlist. I’m going to do it.)

24. Have an appetizer in one restaurant, a main course at another, and dessert somewhere else, while having a theme for all the food. 

25. Grab takeout and eat in an odd or random place like a train station, playground, or the pitcher’s mound of a baseball field.

26. Go blues dancing together.

27. Take a cooking class together. (Michael’s, Hobby Lobby, William Somona, Thanksgiving Point)

28. Go on a kissing date. Find scenes from movies that “The Kiss” happens, and find places in the area similar. (Like the baseball mound from Never Been Kissed)


Anything other ideas that need to go on this list?

2 Random Notes

Once upon a time, I had a blog before I got married. Now I'm moving it all on here, and just scattering it through my previous blog post. It's about seeing life as a Princess, by walking in princess shoes. I loved writing it, and I want to continue it on here.

Also, I know I'm the one "writing" on here, but Matt helps too. He edits every blog, and usually sticks in his own snarky comments. So you see something that looks like I'm making fun of him...he's doing it to himself. :) 

The Awesomeness of Tea Parties and Friends

The first week I walked into to our church when we just got married, I was terrified. I hid behind my husband most of the day as I studied all beautiful, confident girls happily talked to each other. They all seemed so happy and nice, but did I talk to them? No.

A few months into marriage though, I realized for the first time in my life I was really craving female companionship. I thought I was going crazy, but this craziness gave me enough courage to say a quick “Hi.”

Turned out saying “Hi” was one of the best decisions of my life. Other than getting to be with my sweet husband forever, one of my favorite parts of being married is meeting other newlywed women. The friends I have made since I got married are some of my favorite people in the world. We giggle, laugh, swap recipes, and talk whenever we are around each.

For example, last Sunday, we couldn’t stop cracking up because we all wanted to hold the Hymn book. So what did we do, all 3 of us held it, while trying to giggle and sing at the same time.  I felt like we were a group of 5^th graders that couldn’t stop being ridiculous, just because we were so happy that we knew each other.  

On Thursday, one of my friends went to Hunger Games with me, because Matt had too much homework. We had an awesome time, eating popcorn, and talking through the credits. Afterwards she even inwardly gloated with me, as we saw all the people sitting in line for the midnight showing. We got a 7:00 showing for the night before, because of another awesome, married friend.

The line of poor people waiting. (Courtesy of Kaitlan)

Aren't we spiffily fancy?

Food!

Table that Matt helped me set up (He also took the picture. His pictures> mine)

Then this week, I hosted my first tea party. I invited three girls (because I only have four chairs) that I knew would love getting dressed up with me for a tea party! They came all dressed up in their fancy clothes and they were as excited as me (It was really cute. Natashya’s husband even got dressed up to escort her to my door! Talk about snazzy.) We talked for basically two hours straight eating chocolate, listening to the random stories about how we met our husbands. The only word I think that properly describe our party is “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”  (Especially since we had the Mary Poppin’s hats.)

PS The girls at the tea party got married the same weekend as me. :) 

Getting Engaged (One Year Ago)

Matt bought my engagement ring the day after Valentine’s Day. I knew he was up to something that morning, because he borrowed his roommate’s car and he was really excited. Matt can’t keep a secret, but somehow he managed to not tell me that he bought a ring that morning. I just figured that he just looked at rings or something. I did not think he was crazy enough to buy one.

We had been officially dating for 2 ½ months, and while we were talking about getting married, I didn’t think he was going to buy one yet!

The rest of that month and most of the next I pushed that more to the back of my mind. I was busy with school and had different things I was going through. Matt on the other hand was acting kind of funny. He kept randomly saying, “You should let me propose to you” and other such statements that I dismissed airily. The most memorable of these was when we went snowboarding at Sundance in February. As we broke through the cloud layer into the sun at the top of the ski lift, he said, “This would be such a romantic place to get proposed to. “ “No.” I responded; “Not yet.” Later on, I was feeling cold, so Matt lent me one of his jackets with the caution not to open one of the pockets. I didn’t think much of that either.

In March, we were walking to Macey’s when Matt made one of his usual comments. “Do you even have a ring yet?” Matt smirked and shifted uncomfortably. “You do?” I exclaimed, “Where? At your apartment?” Matt shook his head, “A little closer than that… near my kidney actually.” At that point, I realized he was wearing the same jacket as when we were skiing; in fact, he had worn it a lot recently. This brain-damaged man of mine (his words not mine) had bought an engagement ring a month earlier and was carrying it in his pocket just in case the occasion presented itself.

Even so, I still made him wait another week. Then one morning I called him up.

“Hi!”

“Hi”

“Do you love me?”

“Yes.”

“Do you still want to marry me?”

“Yes?”

“Do you want to propose me now?”

“…uuuh are you serious? I’ll come right now!”

5 min later I got a phone call…

“Oh wait! I have physics.”

So I waited an hour and did my homework.

Matt showed up, asked somewhat incredulously if I was serious, read me a picture book, got on one knee, turned bright red, got the wrong hand, got the wrong finger and asked, “Will you marry me?” I said “Yes”!

We informed our families and within 17 min my mom was knocked on our door. Wedding plans started just then. It was a great day, and by the end of the night, we were full from Macaroni Grill and happiness.

One hour after I said yes!

My ring

That was one year ago today. How amazing that one word could change my life. 

Date & Plates

Matt is awesome.

First, he didn't mind when I told him I spent half of our remaining budget on crafts and picture frames (I not only picked up our pictures, but they are now framed too. Huzzah!)

And then he didn't even blink, when I told him for our date last week we were going to paint our dishes. I was so excited for this craft. I had been wanting to do it since Christmas, but we 1) didn't haven't the money, 2)  didn't have the time to walk up to Michael's,  or 3) we forgot (It was usually that one).

Last Thursday though, I had just finished taking a test, and figured I needed some lusting therapy. I went to the mall and TJmaxx, all happy, but then on my way back home, I saw the big SALE sign on Michaels. I conveniently had my wedding photos with me (I was planning on going by the thrift store to look for frames) and figured I might as well just look right? They had an awesome sale. The frames were only $3-$4 each, and I had coupons in my pocket which made them even cheaper. I figured since I was on a lusting trip I might as well look at the porcelain pen I had been wanting. They were on sale too! Michael's was clearing them out, so they were down to about a dollar each! 

As Matt would say "Hot Dog!"

So here are the results of our hot date!

Most of our creations!

I made four like this, so that I would still have something to match the rest of our plates.

My life of PI plate.
"The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity -- it's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous passionate love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing of tow of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud."

Matt did this one. It's an Ender's Shadow plate
"The real problem is that we only have one strong point worth defending -- Earth. And the enemy is not limited to a primary direction of approach. He could come from anywhere.Anywhere all at once.So we run into the classic problem of defense, cubed. The farther out you deploy your forces, the more of them you have, you soon have more fortifications than you can man. What good are bases on the moons of Saturn, when the enemy doesn't even have to come in the plane of ecliptic? He only has to get one squadron through to cause terrible devastation on Earth. So the only strategy that makes sense is an all-out attack. To send our home fleet against their home world and destroy it. "

Aren't they fun? It was really easy to do, and so far they have survived our dishwasher. After we painted them, we just had to let them dry for 24 hours and bake them in the oven. I have made a few mugs since then. I love having quotes from books and poems all over our dishes. 

Other benefits; these will hopefully inspire our children to read more, and if they happen to break a plate we can just make more! (And more kids, cuz Michele will wring their necks!) Who needs designer plates? (And since you don't need them. Drop 'em off here! -- Michele)

Poppy Seed Chicken

Living with Matt is never boring. Last year, Matt and his friend Tyson did an experiment to figure out if someone could fail a drug test after eating a poppy seed muffin. They ended up using several batches of poppy seeds, and when we got married, there was still a container of poppy seeds left. Over the last few months, every time I went through our spice cabinets, I kept thinking "Huh, I should use those up." I found this awesome recipe! (Honestly, it surprised me how good it was) Not only did it use up all the poppy seeds, but it was so quick and easy. I might actually buy more poppy seeds to make this again, instead of buying them to check for the morphine content. And don't worry, Matt and Tyson figured out that you will not fail a drug test from eating this dish.

Poppy Seed Chicken
(adapted from Shugart & Spice)

$2.84  2 chicken breasts

   1.12   1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

   1.56   1 8 ounce container of sour cream

  3.00   2 teaspoons poppy seeds

    .50   ¼ c of bread crumbs or crackers

    .10   ¼ of an onion

    .75   3 cups of cooked rice

$9.87

Serves: 6 ($1.65 per serving)

How to make it

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a skillet, cook the onions and chicken, so that the chicken is white and the onions are soft.

3. In a large mixing bowl, add chicken soup, sour cream, poppy seeds & season with salt & pepper.

4. Shred chicken and put it in a 8x7 inch dish (or something similar) and then spread the sour cream/soup mixture.

5. Sprinkle the top with bread crumbs top with cracker topping then & bake for 30 minutes.

6. Take it out of the oven and serve it with rice.

(You shouldn't judge books by the cover, and therefore shouldn't judge the recipe by the picture)

Pumas

Last month, both of us suffered from catastrophic shoe failure. Matt’s shoes wore though the sole and mine ripped on the side.

It was clear we both had to get new shoes.

The death of my poor nikes

Matt’s unfortunately wore through his on a very wet night in Salt Lake. We had missed the bus, and we needed to get him new shoes. Unfortunately, we had to get him crappy Target shoes.

The next week, we dropped by Nordstrom Rack to buy me new shoes. I went up and down the rows feeling invigorated as only pretty shoes (and gorgeous bedding) can make me feel. I wanted to get Nikes (as Matt puts it I’m a shoe snob, but come on, Nikes really are the best), but there were not any.

So instead I got Pumas.

Pumas!

I know to most people this might seem really weird and mundane thing to post about, but I love having matching shoes with Matt. I adore the mornings that we both slip on our Pumas, grab our backpacks, and walk to school holding hands. It makes me feel...married. Even though it might not be super noticable, it's fun to notice the different ways that we rub off on each other. Because before marriage, I would have never bought Pumas....ever, since I'm a Nike girl at heart. 

Pets!

A week ago, our apartment complex had a parade of homes. I walked through feeling amazed at how people transformed the same space we had into little glamorous areas. I came home feeling like I should make my home cuter. This week that all changed, because of this picture.

Water between our windowpanes

Water had collected between our windowpanes over the last few weeks! Lucky for us, it isn’t leaking, but Matt and I laughed so hard when we saw this. How in the world did that happen?

I told my friend Natashya about our window, and she wrote an awesome and amusing blog post about it. You can read it here.

And in it, she drew this picture (but really you should just read her post, the whole thing is great)

Her idea what our window should look like

Then we noticed our fish had arrived!

Bertie and Martha!!!

Which lead to our living room window to now look like this…(the fish are just too cool)

Federico and Jorge 

I love it. It makes me laugh every time I see it, and I think how lucky I am that my husband and my friend thinks it‘s funny too.

So the reason I am grateful I do not have a Parade of Homes apartment is if I had a really gorgeous and elegant apartment, my fish tank window would be completely out of place...but in my home, it fits in great. We now are proud owners of 4 new paper fish, Bertie and Martha and Federico and Jorge.

I love my life.

The Not-So-Perfect Meringue

Have you ever had one of those moments when you are completely inspired to be a 50’s housewife or a millennial man?

Your fingers itch to clean the whole house top to bottom. That stupid, plastic tub that you have failed to bleach clean would finally succumb to your scrubbing power. The closet after this day will never be a safety hazard again, because not only would it meticulously organized but decluttered.

Well if you haven’t, then you must not have looked on pinterest or read Little White Horse, because that is what inspired me to really tackle my home. Matt and I clean our home at least once a week, but I wanted to get every nook dusted and cleaned. Last week, I put bookplates in all of our books, and I realized just how dusty some places in our apartment was getting.

So we did it. By the end of Saturday afternoon, our home looked great. I was feeling pretty smug. Clean, organized house, AND dinner was done. Who rocked? We did.

God must have felt like I needed to be humbled. I figured since I basically just got an A+ on being a housewife, I would try to make a chocolate meringue pie. I had drooled at the picture a few weeks ago, and I had never made a meringue before.

Recipe here

Doesn’t it look beautiful? I was so excited as I watched my egg whites and sugar whip up beautifully. When I dumped the chocolate in my fingers couldn’t help but to nick a taste. I was completely daydreaming about my awesome meringue that I would be eating in not too long. I cut the wax paper and put the batter onto the baking pan where I carefully swirled it into a circle. I quickly double checked the recipe before popping into the oven and setting the timer. After that I called my sister while my meringue baked.

30 min later, Matt was yelling at me to get off the phone. Apparently, something was burning in our oven. (Turns out it was the Western Family wax paper.) I jumped onto the couch to hit the smoke alarm off every few seconds (still talking to my sister) while Matt heroically tried to fix what was burning. Matt swore that the meringues were done, but me having a perfect 50’s housewife moment would not listen to him. I knew without a doubt that the recipe said it had to be in there for an hour and 20 min.

Because the front door and every window was open, I caved and took out my meringues after 40 min. They were not beautiful at all…Matt said that we could go outside and play frisbee with them if I wanted to. It was a complete and total fail. I was so upset and furious. Why didn’t my recipe work and why did the wax paper catch fire??   I read the directions and all the comments and no one had complained about the cook time.

My dismal finished product....and this picture doesn't even show the completely black burned bottom

I felt a bit better after watch an hour of “Vogue” on hulu, but still I felt like I was wearing the “cone of shame” from Up.

So to prove to my mother and myself that I’m not a totally failure at a part-time housewife here are some projects that didn’t turn out so bad. (Notice they are not food)

Reusable Ziplock bags (Matt made the small one!)

Awesome Apron

Grocery bag that doesn't rip when walking home

RS thingy -- It's a "Forget-me-not" reminder of Pre. Uchtdorf

Menu on cabinet

Matt says I'm over doing it, but really ego shattered.

Morals of my day

1. Recipes lie sometimes

2. God will humble you if you think you are perfect

3. You can't be perfect.

4. There is always something else to clean.

PS. Does anyone really know how to make a meringue??? I would really really really love tips. As you can tell I need them.

The Icebreaker

Has anyone heard of toastmasters?

Yes, no, maybe so?

According to Wikipedia it is... 

a nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking, and leadership skills.

Basically, it's a club to help public speaking skills. You have different workbooks you go through and when you finish different goals, they send your workplace a certificate saying what you have accomplished. (Apparently you can get raises and stuff for doing this, pretty cool right?) They also help you work on being interesting, using visual aids, proper use of notes, body language, etc. while you speak. It's actually really cool. They hold speech competitions on area, regional, national, and international levels, and on top of that, they are really nice and encouraging. 

So anyway, I joined a few weeks ago, and on Tuesday I gave my first speech. I was so nervous, even though all I had to do was give a 4-6 min speech on myself. The lady that evaluated my speech was very nice and helpful. I'm so glad that one is over. :)

My speech was on being a princess, and afterwards I got this ribbon!

It is an awesome book mark

Surviving School

I wanted to update our blog with some cool story about saving a kid or even going out to dinner, but the last week and half, we haven’t done anything except homework.

So here is a list of things have kept us mostly sane.

1. Nutella and graham crackers – Okay so we try to eat healthy but…after sitting through lectures and doing homework, neither of us have enough patience to wait two minutes for the leftovers to heat up in the microwave. Our hands just seem to wander up to the top shelf and grab thenutella and graham crackers. It has happened more times than I want to admit…but you know nutella and graham crackers do make a good breakfast...

2. Bubble baths/hot showers – Whenever we get too cold in the house, instead of the logical solution of turning on the heater, we take hot baths and showers.

My absolute favorite bubble bath stuff ever

3. Books – We have both been reading our non-text books whenever we have a few minutes. Matt and I are reading Return to Pooh Corner together. Matt is reading Sherlock Holmes, and I’m reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (though I’m really hating it).

4. Sleep – We love our sleep. No matter how much homework we have, usually we both get 8 hours of sleep. Thank goodness. Sleep is very good for our marriage.

5. Movies – Last weekend we took some time off to cuddle and watch two movies. We watched Hugo on Friday night as part of our date. I didn’t like it much. The toy maker was mean at the beginning and ruined the whole movie for me. Matt, I think liked it. He said it was very french. Then on Saturday, we watched Sherlock Holmes II. It stressed me out, kind of like Inception, but I thought it was still pretty good. Matt had mixed feelings about it, because while the movie was pretty good, he likes the book better.

6. Dishwasher – Our hero of the week, without it, we would have few, if any, clean dishes.

7. Odd news articles and comics.

This tag made the news. 

This is from a funny PhD blog. 

Thai Green Curry Soup

Matt and I absolutely love this recipe. We made it three times last week alone. It’s not very spicy (that’s one of the perks of making Thai food at home, you can control the spicy level), but it has so much flavor. On top of that it is healthy. Now it isn’t quite as cheap as Red Lentil soup, but it is so worth every penny.

(Macey’s does carry everything you need for this recipe, but you’ll end up paying a lot more. We usually go to Chao’s (the Asian Market on University Ave.) to pick everything up. It saves us about $3 per batch.)

Thai Green Curry Chicken soup 

(Adapted from  http://www.fortysomething.ca )

$1.42  1 chicken thigh
    .15  Vegetable or olive oil
    .39  1 onion, sliced in moons
    .14  1 thing of ginger the size of the top part of your thumb, finely minced
    .05  2 clove garlic, minced
  2.19  1 c sliced mushrooms
    .79  1 red bell pepper, cut into 2 to 3-inch thin slices
    .34  3 Tbsp. green curry paste
           6 cups water
    .33  3 bouillon cubes
    .74  1/2 can coconut milk
    .63  Handful of uncooked Pad Thai Rice Noodles aka rice noodles (I use half a bag)
    .50  Lime Juice
$7.67

Serves: 6 ($1.27 per serving)

Calories per serving: 248

(Again, I’m assuming you have bouillon cubes, and I’m also assuming you have half a can of coconut milk, a full can is $1.47 at Maceys. Curry Paste is $3 at Chao’s for a cup of the stuff, and the noodle package is $1.26.)

Optional
1 Tbsp Thai chili sauce or Sriracha sauce
2-3 Tbsp. fish sauce
Cilanto or green onions garnish


How to do it

1. Saute onion in a pot until a bit soft. Cut everything else while it is cooking.

2. Add garlic, ginger and curry paste. Stir everything in curry paste before adding mushrooms and bell peppers, then stir everything up again.

3. After about 2 min of sauteing the veggies in the pot, add water, bullion cubes, and chicken. Then bring to a boil.

4. Boil for 6 min and then start shredding chicken.(You can shred it in the pot or out of the pot or just cut it up in little pieces. It doesn't really matter.)

5. After chicken is cooked, add coconut milk and rice noodles, then reduce heat to a simmer. (I usually put the lid on.)

6. In the bowls, add fish sauce, lime juice, and anything else that you want in that you haven't already added. Taste test soup before pouring in bowls.

7. Eat and get more.

Yum!