Greek Egg Lemon Soup w/ Chicken and Spinach

I first encountered this Greek specialty at Nick's. (Shout out to Nick's!) They have it a few times a week, and I'm told that the matriarch of the family makes it. I love that. Avgolemono is the proper name, but I have the damnest time saying it. The Real Simple recipe (see below) employed only egg yolks, but other recipes don't seem to require that.

 

As a general rule, I don't like separating eggs. Not because it's challenging, but because I rarely end up using the remaining part. And I abhor wasting food. So I threw in the entire egg.

I encountered a small texture obstacle. Initially, I thought it was because of using the whites in addition to the yolks, but now I think it's because the soup was too hot. You're supposed to prevent it from boiling when you add the eggs. Despite the strange texture, it tasted phenomenal.

Oh, and I tossed in spinach for a little extra nutritive power. Go, go, iron and calcium!

Serves 4 | Hands-On Time: 15m | Total Time: 30m

Ingredients

• 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/3 cup orzo
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• kosher salt and black pepper

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, bring the broth to a boil. Add the pasta and boil until tender, 8-9 mins.
2. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks. Gradually whisk in 1 cup of hot broth. Add the egg mixture to the saucepan, reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring, until thickened, 5-7 minutes.
3. Add the chicken and lemon juice to the saucepan. Season with ½ tsp. salt and ¼ tsp. pepper.

Crazy Birthday Hats

On the Friday of my birthday (in late September), Jason and I went to the Blue Marlin for dinner. He started with the Thai curried crab soup with lemongrass, which he thought had the perfect balance of rich coconut milk and spicy kick. The rockfish special was buttery and yummy.

Dinner at the Blue Marlin

I started with a salad and had the eponymous blue marlin with roasted red pepper risotto, anchovy croutons, and braised chard. The marlin was a bit too dense and somewhat lacking in flavor, but it was moist. It might be that marlin just isn't my favorite fish. I'd love to go back and try something else.They do need to improve their coffee, though; it was pretty bad.

The waitress was attentive and friendly, but not to the point where she was constantly hovering. And I like the intimate atmosphere with low lighting. It made for a special dinner.

Opening presents! The sexy red dress loses something when paired with an afghan, a shawl, and slippers. :)

On Saturday, a group of us went to Nick's for dinner and then onto the Ivory Room for some piano bar wackiness.

I love JD's eyes in this pic. He looks very surprised.

The next week, Abby, Heath, Brenna, Jim, Mike, and I had pizza and salad, followed by a decadent apricot cake with hazelnut buttercream frosting from La Brioche. That cake was so massive that it was shared multiple times with several different people. We had slivers before the Richard Thompson concert at the Stoughton Opera House, and I took it to work, too.