Chicken Noodle Soup & Coq Au Vin

Mmm, this is what my counter looked like yesterday afternoon. Getting ready to make Chicken Noodle Soup. I love it when ingredients are all measured out in little bowls. Mise en place Martha would call it, I believe. I used to do that as I kid whenever I baked a cake. Pretend I was on a cooking show and use almost every bowl in the house. Drove my mom nuts.

But even better than all this pre-measured goodness is the fact that my man was doing the cooking. I have no idea what's with his expression. Looks like he's saying, in a nasal British accent, "And that, my love, is how you chop parsley." (He did it one-handed, i.e. didn't mash the parsley into a tight little ball with his other hand like I do. But him and sharp blades don't have a good history, so his unorthodoxy is probably for the better.)

And even better than my man cooking me some soup, he was cleaning up as he went! See that stack of clean dishes drip-drying in the foreground?

It. Was. Delicious! So so good! Way to go, honey!

And even better than delicious home-made soup made by husband who cleaned up as he went: enough for leftovers!

And did anyone notice the wine bottle(s) on the counter? That was for today's meal, Modern (a.k.a. Doesn't Take All Day To Cook) Coq Au Vin. And once again, made by The Man. I was going to help him -- he bought enough to make a double recipe, which means we ended up with dinner tonight and 5 two-person servings in the freezer! but it's a lot of work -- but I've been feeling queasy all day, so it was all up to him.

Didn't take a picture of dinner tonight but it looked a little something like this (photo from CooksIllustrated.com which is also where the recipe came from), except that his bacon was actually mixed into the sauce (as stated in the recipe) not sprinkled on top (to make a prettier picture?) and we ate it over white rice. Two winner dinners in a row. But I think poor Cinder-daddy (what he's been calling himself the last two days -- he did laundry too!) is pooped!

Any good dishes being made for Christmas coming up? We'll be with my parents -- i think my mom is making duck!