Chicken Soup with homemade noodles

Homemade Noodles
We will take this step by step if you find the thought intimidating. It's really not. I promise. We will be making egg noodles today. Let's get started.

2 1/2 cups flour
1/8 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 TBSP soft butter or margarine

Combine all ingredients in medium size bowl. Now for the steps.
Your dough should look like this - a ball. Here it's on the table with flour. You will need a large place for rolling.
Very gently with your rolling pin start rolling the dough flat. I flip mine over and add a little extra flour so it won't stick to the table or the rolling pin. I flip the dough a few times.

Once the dough is approximately 1/8 inch thick get out a trusty knife or in my case a pizza cutter. I have discovered pizza cutters cut more than just pizza. They cut for example - pancakes, french toast, waffles and even noodle dough! It's fast and efficient.
I don't measure as you can see. I just start cutting into desired widths. Cut the length of the dough.
Now move to the width and cut into desired sizes.
I moved my noodles to a floured towel to dry out for a couple hours. I have since learned if there is enough flour on the table - I can just leave them there. I do have to use a metal spatula most of the time to scrape them up though. Just thought I would forewarn you.
When your favorite chicken soup is ready - add the noodles about 30 minutes before it's time to eat. They will puff up like so and be so thick and tasty. If you don't know how to make chicken soup - or you would like to see how I do it...keep reading.

Chicken Soup

For this large family this is what we do...

4 large chicken breasts, frozen

6 quarts water

1 tsp fresh ground pepper

Place chicken in 12 qt stockpot. Fill it about 1/2 full (6 quarts) with water. Add ground pepper. This will be the chicken stock base when the meat is done cooking. I cook my stock on low for about 3 hours. Remove chicken and using a strainer - strain out large fat chunks from stock.

Add...

4 large carrots, sliced

4 celery stalks, sliced

1 lg onion, chopped

1 1/2 TBSP dried parsley

salt and pepper to taste

chicken boullion to taste

Cut the above chicken that was removed and return to pot. It is cool enough to not burn our fingertips now. When the soup has simmered for a couple hours and it's about 30 minutes before time to eat - turn up the heat to about med-high. Just high enough to get the water to start boiling. Add your noodles a handful at a time. If you discover they are kind of sticky - you will need to break/pull them apart before adding to the pot. You don't want a big clump of pasta in there. After each handful of added noodles - stir. After about 30 minutes - it will be time to eat and your pasta will look like the soup picture above.