Cooking for 17

Once a week for the last 3 weeks I've gone to Leslie's house to cook.  She's the one with TWELVE children.  Three weeks ago someone gave her about 50 pounds of bone-in chicken.

The first week we cooked it in slow cookers (5 of them, one being the hugest I've ever seen.) Four of the older girls helped to make chicken salad and chicken enchiladas.  Then we made broth with the bones.  

The second week we made chicken pot pie (without canned cream soup!) and a mexican lasagna.  Granted we made enough to freeze.  In all, we made about 16 pans of food (9x13).

This was the third week.  She taught me to make bread.  I brought ingredients for tomato soup to make while the bread was rising.

Mr. Intensity LOVES going to their house.  He begs to go there, daily.  Who can blame him?  It's a house full of creative children who come up with such fun games like, sliding down the stairs on a baby mattress.  

Leslie's comment?  "If my husband was here, he'd make them stop."  I think she was just glad they weren't in the kitchen.  :)

Here she is in action with her Bosch.  She also has a Nutrimill Grain Mill (hard white wheat, milled today) - both appliances are recommended by Kelly the Kitchen Kop and Lindsay at Passionate Homemaking.  I want both.  Fresh ground wheat is nothing like the store bought stuff.

Yum-a-lumma.  Melt in your mouth goodness in less than 90 minutes.
Here's the tomato soup with a hearty dose of chicken broth, frozen 2 weeks ago.  After the picture, I blended it with an immersion blender and added the good stuff: heavy cream.
It was a bit too quiet so we went looking for sweet MaryGrace, who's 2.5.  She found a fun sensory game in the garage and decided to open the box.
I went home with 2 quarts of soup and four loaves of bread.  In the picture you'll see my butter bell, the bread knife I got for Christmas as well as the bread slicing guide I found on Craig's List.
Going to Leslie's is win-win for everyone.  Leslie likes dinner being made and we all enjoy the socializing.  I don't have to entertain Mr. Intensity there.

My plan was to make grilled cheese sandwiches at home to enjoy with the soup.  However, once home, Hubby tackled us. The bread smelled soooo good.  We just stood in the kitchen and ate bread and butter.  Hours later we had a small cup of soup.