Chicken Broth

One of my favorite things to make from scratch is chicken broth. It makes me feel like Laura Ingalls Wilder. Honeybear likes to make fun of me for being a "Doomsday Prepper" but he's really very thankful that we have 37 quarts of homemade chicken broth because you just never know when the store...might...run....out.....??? What? That's probably not likely but it's better for us because I know exactly what I put into it. And I'm very comforted by that. :) The Doomsday Prepper nickname may or may not be in reference to how many pounds of dried goods we have in the garage or how we could probably survive for several months on the food in the garage/freezer/pantry combined. And he doesn't even know that my mom is bringing 10 more pounds of dried stuff over this weekend. Woohoo!!! Oh, I got side tracked. Sorry. Broth. Here we go...there's no real recipe which might scare you if you are new to cooking, but don't let it. It's just going to taste different depending on what you put in it. I save chicken bones from every rotisserie chicken I buy. (And why buy 1 rotisserie chicken when you can buy 2 for twice the price! I pull all the meat off and throw it in a separate freezer bag for a quick meal when I need it. It is SO handy) I throw the skin and wing tips and all the bones and extra fat into a freezer bag and freeze it until I have several bags of carcasses (what a NASTY word) to work with. I throw the bones into the biggest pot that I have and cover it with water. Now for the fun part...clean out your fridge! That celery that's not so crunchy...give it a rough chop and throw it in! Bendy carrots? Throw those in! (Don't use anything rotten or moldy...just limp) I usually put celery, carrots, onion, garlic, & peppercorns into the water and bring it to a boil. Once it boils, lower it to a simmer for a couple of hours. Depending on how much meat was left on the bones - you may be able to strain off the broth and refill the pot again. I like a nice rich broth so I don't usually do this. Strain your broth through a fine mesh strainer so that you're left with just the broth. I just made broth this last weekend and had enough carcasses (yuck!) to make 23 quarts of broth. That made me happy. I used to pour the broth in ziplock tupperware containers and freeze them. But then Honeybear's mom bought me a Pressure Cooker and I've been on cloud 9 ever since. It's soooo great! If you are serious about canning or making broth and things like that I think it's a good investment. Easy for me to say since I didn't have to actually make the investment. You can get a large one for about $80. Mine fits 7 quart sized jars at one time. It takes a LONG time from start to finish but I don't do it until I have lots so that it's worthwhile and I just work it in between laundry & cleaning the house on a weekend day. If you just want to try a small batch first put it in a few tupperware containers with lids and freeze them. You can defrost them or just throw the frozen block into soup as you need it. If you do buy a canner - read the instructions carefully and follow them closely.

Here's my broth bubbling on the stove in 2 big pots:

And here's my 21 jars of finished broth! I used 2 jars immediately in some soup I made.

Happy Canning!!!

Homemade Ranch Dressing

This is my mom's recipe and I'm not sure where she got it but it's a staple in our house.
Here's what you'll need:

In case you can't see all that...it's:

Buttermilk

Mayo

Sour Cream (or you can use all Mayo)

Pepper

Parsley

Accent

Garlic Salt

Shaker (a mason jar with lid would work too)

My shaker has measurements listed on the sides which makes it really easy to make this. First I put in 8oz buttermilk. Then add 8oz of mayo (or 4oz mayo & 4oz sour cream). Add a heaping TBSP of Parsley, a heaping tsp of garlic salt, dash of accent and several turns of the pepper grinder...more or less depending on your taste. Shake it up & Viola!!! Delicious ranch dressing. It's better than Hidden Valley. No - you shut up! It's true. :)

Our shaker has this thing that goes inside before you put the lid on. It really helps mix everything up, but get whatever container you like best.

Homemade Rock Candy

I saw this on Pinterest and wanted to try it out. SOOOO easy. And what a fun thing to do with your kids - if they have the patience to wait a week that is!

Rock Candy

1 Cup Water

3 Cups Sugar

Food Coloring (optional)

Bamboo skewer

Clothespin or other handy device (you'll see)

Tall thin clear glass

Boil the water. Keep it at a good simmer. Add the sugar 1/4 Cup at a time and wait until it has completely dissolved before adding more. Continue until all the sugar has been added. Add food coloring if you want. The mixture gets "weird looking". My pictures didn't turn out. The water turns almost yellowish looking and sort of resembles the texture of oil. It was weird. Anyhoo. Let the sugar water mixture cool a little and then pour it into a tall clear thin glass. I used a drinking glass but a Mason Jar would work well also. Honeybear put a couple of knives in the glass to absorb the heat. So smart! If you have a clothespin pinch the bamboo skewer in the pincher part and then rest the clothespin on the top of the glass so that the skewer does NOT touch the sides or bottom of the glass. If you don't - you'll have to get creative. Honeybear grapped a lid to a to-go coffee cup and it worked PERFECTLY! So smart - I think I'll keep him. Then my lid just sits on the top of the glass and I'm good to go. Don't touch this. Crystals will start to form and it should be ready in about a week. I chronicled my rock candy progress with daily pictures.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

  

Day 4 - it's becoming obvious that there is going to be more rock candy on the inside of my glass than there will be on the bamboo skewer. And although it's hard to see it - the candy is "growing" on the skewer!!

So in hindsight - I probably wouldn't do this again. There were waaaay more crystals on the glass than the skewer & boy was that fun to wash off the glass. But a neat little trick for kids of you're up to it! 

Green Onion Savior!

Also something I saw on Pinterest and decided to try. Last Friday I used all of the green from my bunch of green onions. I stuck the ends in a glass with water and rinsed them and refilled the water (almost) every day. They started growing again!!! Perhaps this is not news to any of you but I thought it was fascinating. Here's daily pictures of that phenomenon! :) I put them in the glass on Friday night but didn't take a picture until Monday night. It's hard to tell from the photos but even on Monday you could tell they were growing because you can see the edge where I cut them and the new growth! So cool!!!

Stuffed Peppers

This might be my longest post yet. Because of all the pictures!!! This recipe is not complicated but it can take some time. Several of the components can be made ahead of time which is a huge time saver. And I have never made this the same way twice. Invariably something is missing from my fridge or I see something in there that I think would be good so I just throw it in the mix. The other nice thing is that this ALWAYS makes more stuffing than I have peppers to fill. Why is this nice? Well - because this is delicious when you stuff it in a tortilla and add some scrambled eggs for a quick breakfast burrito. Or fill a tortilla for a regular burrito. Or heat it up and eat it straight. Or buy more peppers and make it again later in the week! Or make the Italian Sausage Noodle Bake recipe that I posted on Tuesday! Ver-Sa-Tile. :)



Last night I made the Italian Sausage Noodle Bake and I made twice as much of the meat (ground turkey & chicken Italian sausage) as I needed. I made rice today so that was ready when I went to mix this all together too. Those are the time savers. Although I have found that you can start cooking the rice when you start cooking everything else and its usually ready about the same time. The only problem with this recipe is that I don't measure anything, although that's also the best part - you can tailor this to your families likes & dislikes really easily! Just add whatever veggies you like and remove anything that you don't. I really like adding stuff with different colors - just because it makes it so pretty!!! Enough of the chit chat - here's my "recipe" from tonight's creation. Oh - original credit for this one goes to my Mutha, Mumsy, Mother, Mommy, Mom - Helen. :)

Ingredients:
Cooked rice (we like brown)
About a pound of ground meat - I like to use Italian Sausage (I used chicken today, but have used pork sausage previously - it's all good) and/or ground turkey or ground chicken. I've never used ground beef but I suppose you could try it! Tonight I used 1/2 ground turkey & 1/2 chicken Italian sausage.
3 Green Peppers - I have learned that when choosing the green peppers at the store it's best to pick the ones that have 4 "bumps" on the bottom, rather than 3. This allows them to lay flat when you cut them in half. Also - the larger the better. You can fit more stuffing that way. :)
Chicken Stock
Celery
Onion
Garlic
Colored Bell Peppers - we usually have a bag of those sweet little peppers from Costco
Mushrooms
Carrots - I buy the bag of matchstick carrots and just rough chopped them
Spinach - I put the whole bag in tonight! Just a rough chop on this too
Parmesan Cheese

*Depending on your oven speed - figure out when you need to preheat it to 350.

Cut your green bell peppers in half from top to bottom. Clear out the insides but be careful when you remove the "top". you just want to remove the top - don't rip off any of the pepper with it - it's the side of the pepper when you lay it down so you want it to be there so the stuffing doesn't fall out. This recipe works best if you pre-cook the bell peppers a little. Less time in the oven later if you par-boil them just a little. Just throw them in a pot of boiling water and let them simmer for a few minutes. They'll change color and soften up. Don't overcook them - you don't want them to fall apart when you pull them out. When they're done drain the water off and place them in a greased casserole dish. Depending on how many peppers you are making you can pick an appropriate pan. 3 peppers takes up a 13x9 pan usually. Set this aside - it's ok if it cools off while you make the stuffing.

Ok - start cooking your rice (follow the package directions) if you don't have any leftover.

In a large frying pan, put some olive oil and start cooking the meat over a medium low heat until it's cooked through. Drain any fat. While the meat is cooking you can start prepping all the veggies. (Remember - my meat was already cooked so that's why you only see veggies in the pictures) Everything should be diced or chopped fairly small. Depending on what veggies you are going to use - you'll add them in order of what needs to cook the longest.

Celery, Onion & Carrot takes a little longer than mushrooms. The matchstick carrots don't take as long as if you chopped up an actual carrot. You don't want to cook everything to mush - unless you're into that sort of thing! Everything is going to finish cooking when you put this in the oven. Tonight I threw everything in and let it cook down and then put about 2 cups of rice in the mix too. You might need to add some chicken stock to your mix. You don't want it soupy but the rice will soak up a lot of liquid and you don't want it to dry out in the oven.

 Again - just add as much rice as you like. Lastly I threw in the chopped spinach.

 This wilts down so quick I just stirred it in and then it was ready to stuff in the peppers!

Stuff the peppers as full as you can and then mound some more on the top! Top with some Parmesan cheese & bake for about 20 minutes. If you think the stuffing mixture is a little dry just pour a little chicken stock into each pepper so that it doesn't dry out when he bakes.

Enjoy!

Italian Sausage Noodle Bake

The original inspiration for this is a recipe I found on the Food Network. But I have modified it so much through several renditions that I'm just calling it my own. :)

1/2 lb ground chicken or turkey (I used turkey - cuz that's what was in the freezer)

1/2 lb Italian sausage (I used chicken Italian sausage from Costco - a new fave)

Olive Oil

3-4 cloves garlic - chopped

1 Onion - chopped

2 TBSP Italian Seasoning

1 TBSP dried parsley

Salt & Pepper

2 cups mozzarella cheese

2 14 oz cans diced tomatoes (I used 1 fire roasted & 1 regular)

Several Basil leaves - chopped (I love basil so I use the whole container)

2 cups dried pasta (I used whole wheat)

1 cup Parmesan cheese (I used a Parmesan/Mozzarella blend)Preheat oven to 400. Grease a 13x9 pan.

1/2 cup Italian style breadcrumbs (if you only have plain breadcrumbs you can add your own seasoning!)

Place olive oil in the pan and add meat. Cook until brown all over. Add onion & garlic and cook an additional few minutes. Add Italian seasoning and salt & pepper.

While the meat is cooking, boil water in a separate pan and cook noodles until just tender. They will cook a little more in the oven so don't overcook them here. When they are done strain them and place them in a large mixing bowl.

Add meat to the noodles and mix. Add mozzarella, tomatoes and basil & mix well.

Pour this mixture into the pan.

Mix breadcrumbs & Parmesan cheese in a bowl and cover the noodle mixture.  

Bake for about 30 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown.

Oh - Did I forget to mention that Honeybear loves this dish?

Snowmaggedon 2012

Under all that snow are my Blueberry Plants. I am not quite sure how they are surviving let along how they are able to hold that much snow on their skinny little branches. Resilient things I tell ya!

I thought I was so smart to use these old chairs to grow peas on. Turns out they are just as adorable when they are covered in snow! 

And last but not least - the BBQ. To show JUST how much snow we have. It's amazing.  And according to some reports - it's not over yet!

I am very fortunate and VERY thankful to have the ability to work from home during weather like this. My car is buried. Oh...here...I'll show you...

That was yesterday. It's worse today. Anyhow. Back to being grateful. I have spent the last 4 days at home in my pajamas sipping on warm drinks and blasting the electric fireplace under the table at my legs while wrapped in a blanket. Because it's cold. Really cold. And what a view...4 days in a row it has been snowing like crazy all morning long and halfway into the afternoon. GORGEOUS.

Now, while I am grateful - I am also going a little stir crazy. I pounce on Honeybear the moment he walks in the door. He laughs and calls me crazy and then lets me follow him around for a few minutes while he tells me about his day. As much as I love hearing how his day went...mostly I just need to TALK TO SOMEONE!!!!! I know I am a social butterfly but it really sinks in when you don't have anyone to talk to. He took me to Costco tonight so that I could see what the outside world looked like. It was nice to get out. Not so nice to pay the bill after walking around for an hour just to extend my "get out of jail free" card. Oh well. It was worth it! I feel refreshed enough to stay at home again tomorrow...because I just don't see me driving to work in the ice/snow/freezing rain that is still ahead of us.

Now...off to see if Honeybear will build a snoman with me!