Noodle Day

Yesterday was Noodle Day at our church. A transformation of sorts, resulting in 20 tables of fresh, kitchen-made noodles drying in preparation for the church Fall Festival later this month. I had never helped with this production, when I was working I usually missed the Fall Festival and all of its preparations.

 I was amazed at the scope of this, with 10 women and over approximately 650 years of cooking experience (I was the youngest one!), these noodles are bound to be good. 30 dozen eggs and many, many bags of flour went into the mixture. It begin with the president of the Morning Circle cracking 6 eggs into a container (actually a cottage cheese container  - recycling at its best),

then I got to add 6 tablespoons of cream (canned evaporated milk), a few drops of yellow food coloring, 3 teaspoons baking powder, and 1 ½ teaspoons salt and whip the mixture together.

The mixer ladies picked it up next and added flour to the egg mixture in a large KitchenAid mixer. I asked one of them what the measurement of flour was, she just laughed, and said “honey, after 70 years of cooking who measures?” (The second shift of mixers said about 3 cups).

The dough then went to the kneaders and rollers (not to be confused with the needy and high/low rollers). These 5 ladies kneaded and rolled out the dough and generally covered themselves and the counter and floor with flour. When the dough was about ½ inch thick they rolled it over their rolling pin and took it into Fellowship Hall to lay it on a flour-dusted table and roll it some more.

After lunch, the many rows of dough circles were cut into noodle strips and scattered out to dry more. This morning a few members will sack and freeze the noodles to await the Fall Festival. Next week is Chicken Day, when the chickens – and beef (thanks to an active Cattleman of the church) will be cooked and readied to combine with the noodles.

If you don’t have centuries of cooking experience, here’s the recipe from the United Methodist Church’s cookbook.

UMW’s Homemade Chicken and Noodles

6 eggs

6 Tablespoons cream (canned)

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons salt

4-5 drops yellow food coloring

3-4 cups flour

1 chicken, cooked and deboned

2 (16-oz) cans chicken broth

2 tablespoons chicken base

Use large mixer. Add first 5 ingredients; mix with flour. The dough should be a little stiff. Put on floured surface while kneading, Add ¼ - ½ cup flour. Roll the dough ¼” thick; cut into strips. Dry by flipping often until good and dry. In large pan cook chicken and save broth. Debone chicken and cut into chunks. Add saved chicken broth, plus the 2 cans of broth and the 2 tablespoons of chicken base. Add noodles to broth plus the chicken then cook until tender. Add salt and pepper to taste.