31. Wow, I can’t believe it. I thought 30 was huge… and it was. But now that 30 has already flown by, I’m into this new territory of slowly inching further up the scale. 31 leads me to 35. 35 to 40.  And so on and so on. All of us deal with age differently. Some care, some don’t, some wish to be young again, others would never dream of going back in time. Getting older scares, comforts, and amuses me all at once.

I have a lot of friends in their 40’s and 50’s, and I’ve learned I have to watch how I word my birthday feelings. With them, there’s generally no sympathy for me on this matter. ”You think 31 is bad, try 50!” or “Stop your whining, you’re still in your prime! Look at me, I’m all but used up!” Then I have the opposite side of the spectrum…. my Mom started having kids again when I was in middle school so I’m 12 and 15 years older than my siblings. To them, you’d think I’m ancient. “Karen… you’re so… OLD… I’m totally serious… you’re freakin’ OLD”.  

Gotta love it, right?

I spent my birthday how I wanted for the most part.  The boyfriend and I had lunch downtown at my new favorite cafe and then did some shopping (I got myself some presents: two pairs of new boots and Oil of Olay to help ward off impending wrinkles).  We then came back home and watched my new Scooba (you know, the floor washing robot…. eeeee!! I’m so excited!!!) wash the hardwood floors in our living room. Since J was on call for his job we decided to hold off going out to my traditional fancy birthday dinner until next weekend. The last thing we wanted was to be in the middle of our eight course tasting menu if he had to rush off to take care of something three hours away. We decided to stay in and make this Mexican Chicken Soup for my Barefoot Bloggers assignment instead.

I had no issues about trusting Ina Garten with my birthday dinner, even if it was just a soup.  I’ve been a huge fan of all of the soups of hers I’ve tried in the past (especially the Cheddar Corn Chowder and the Butternut Squash Apple).  I knew it would be good. I’m still waiting for that first Ina Garten recipe to come along (either through the Barefoot Bloggers or just trying her stuff on my own) where I think “eh whatever, this isn’t that great…”.  It just hasn’t happened yet.  And I’m no butt kisser, I would say if I didn’t like something… the “Great Contessa” or not.

One thing I LOVE about Ina is that she dislikes cilantro as much as I do.  While she recognizes that it has it’s place in certain recipes, she always makes it an optional ingredient.  And I will always exercise the “No” option.  Cilantro is just vile to me.  I can eat it and live through it, but I think it’s taste ruins most of the dishes it a part of.  Now, this recipe did have ground coriander seeds which seem to be the fruit of the cilantro plant. I don’t have anything against coriander since it tastes more lemony than anything. So it was invited into my soup with open arms.  

We used a traditionally seasoned rotisserie chicken as a shortcut to roasting chicken breasts in the oven for 40 minutes first.   We also went the pre-shredded carrot route as well as store bought chicken stock.  These shortcuts made for a pretty fast dinner from start to finish.  Ina suggests starting with one tablespoon of salt depending on the saltiness of the stock but I cut it down drastically. I only ended up using less than 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt (we did use low sodium chicken broth as well) and it was seasoned just fine for us.  One thing I noticed was that the corn tortillas totally disappeared into the soup.  They were nowhere to be found.  I’m going to trust they add something superb flavor wise.  If not, I now have about 30 more six inch tortillas to figure out what to do with for no good reason.  I liked Tostitos chips with a hint of lime as part of the garnish along with sour cream and cheddar cheese.  We did get avocado but I think I picked the unripest one in the barrel – the inside was as hard as a rock.  Oh well, they all looked green, what can you do?***

This soup was a success and held up to my highfalutin’ birthday dinner standards.  

Thanks to Judy of Judy’s Gross Eats for choosing the Mexican Chicken Soup as the second November recipe for the Barefoot Bloggers group. Make sure you stop by her blog to see what she thought of her choice.

Mexican Chicken Soup recipe can be found on Food Network here!

***I researched avocado ripeness detecting and a good one should feel like what pressing on the end of your nose feels like.  Ok, I think I understand.  Thanks, ehow!