DIY Chicken Stock

Soup weather is upon us! There may not be much better than a warm bowl of soup on a cold, winter day. All of my favorites start with a chicken broth/stock base (Sausage and Sweet Potato Soup and Buffalo Chicken Chili). If you make a lot of soups, you will probably be going to the grocery store to buy the ingredients- especially veggies and broth/stock. (NOTE- Broth is made from meat and stock is made from bones. I usually use stock for everything, even if it calls for broth.) Why not skip the expensive chicken stock purchase and use the scraps of your veggies to make your own chicken stock? Besides saving money, you actually know what is in your stock AND you can control the sodium.

It is souper super easy to make your own chicken stock. When I'm eating healthy (which will be now more than ever), I usually buy one or two of those rotisserie chickens that the grocery store has cooked on Sunday. I pick all the meat off the bones and set aside for salads, wraps, snacks, etc. Then I take the rest of the carcass and put it into a gallon sized ziplock baggie and put it in the freezer. I will usually make chicken stock once I have three or four carcasses saved up.

Besides the meat bones, you will need veggies, herbs, and spices. Whenever I'm cooking, I take all my scrap pieces of the veggies- bottoms and the skin peelings of carrots, leafy parts of celery, tops of peppers, papery skins of onions and garlic- and throw those in a gallon sized ziplock baggie. If I buy a whole onion but the recipe only calls for half, I chop up the remaining half in large pieces and into the baggie it goes. Do you have old frozen veggies that have developed freezer burn? Throw those into the baggie. Have fresh herbs or produce that needs to be used before they go bad? Into the baggie! I even throw pulp from juicing carrots and celery into the baggie. Keep these bags of scraps in your freezer until you have two full gallon bags. I've read to steer clear of freezing starchy veggie scraps like potatoes because they will make your stock cloudy. You can do a quick internet search to find out what types of veggies to NOT use when making broth....

A bunch of veggie scraps waiting to be frozen.

Freezer burned veggies? Perfect for making chicken stock!

Once you have a gallon baggie of bones (3-4 chickens) and two baggies of veggie scraps, it's STOCK MAKING DAY! Get the biggest pot you have. I use my 12 quart stock pot for this. Mine has a giant colander in it, which helps when it's time to strain all your bones and veggies out of the stock. Start by throwing in the chicken bones.

This is only one chicken. I knew I was going to the grocery store after I got the stock going. I added the other two carcasses after I got back.

Then throw in your veggies. Add enough water to cover everything!

I ended up only using two bags of scraps this time. The other went back into the freezer for next time!

I then throw in a handful of peppercorns and a handful of salt. ***If you don't add salt now, don't forget to add it later when using the stock for soup recipes. I went through a whole meal trying to figure out why my soup didn't taste like it normally did before I remembered the salt!***

I added about this much salt as well.

Have a few bay leaves? Throw them in! I didn't have any for this batch. The last item you need is 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar. Chicken bones (or bones in general) have a lot of beneficial minerals stored up in them. These are what help you feel better when you are sick and eat chicken noodle soup. The vinegar helps to leech the minerals out of the bones. Trust me....you won't taste the vinegar once the stock is made.

So once all your ingredients are in the pot, heat on high until it just starts to boil and then kick the heat all the way down to the lowest setting you have. Cover the pot and let this cook anywhere from 12-24 hours. From what I've read, you need to let it go at least 12 hours to infuse the flavor, but once you go longer than 24 hours, you start getting funky tastes. When I make stock, I let it go for 12 hours. 

After you've finished cooking your stock, let cool for awhile (I usually wait 30 minutes to an hour) and then strain all the solids from your stock (here's where that colander insert is handy). If you don't get all the little bits out at this point, that's ok. Put the stock in the fridge and let cool over night. 

The next morning, you'll find that all of the fat has congealed at the top of the stock.

Yummy.... 

Skim off the biggest globs of fat and then pour the stock through a cheese cloth to catch the rest (and to catch the little bits that you didn't get out the night before). At this point you can reheat your stock and then can it using a pressure canner. If you don't have all of that equipment, it freezes beautifully!

Use this method to make turkey stock after the holidays (you'll probably only need one turkey carcass)! It'll smell like Thanksgiving every time you open a new jar! Are you a vegetarian? Save your veggie scraps, omit the meat and vinegar, and simmer for 5-6 hours instead!

Reinventing Myself

I've always heard that you should never set New Years' Resolutions because more often than not, you will fail. Maybe that's because many people keep their resolutions to themselves. My thinking behind this post is that if I throw my goals out there into the interwebz, somebody can help keep me accountable. I have no idea who actually reads this, as I don't get much feedback. I do know that from time to time I'll get comments from friends on Facebook. I do know that others read this too...at the time that I'm writing this, my 32 posts have over 2,500 page views coming from all over the world. Hopefully this post will inspire someone to take this journey with me.

This year, I'm planning on reinventing myself. Probably not a terribly original resolution. I want to make my home and life less stressful (which, if you know me, I don't stress much....but right now home and life is adding grey hairs). I also want to work on my physical appearance (again....how original). Lastly, I want to work on inner self. I am not adding in spiritually, because my family has already begun working on this in the last few months. Plus, I haven't really looked into that aspect on Pinterest. Considering that's the whole concept behind my blog, I'll address the items that I can help conquer via Pinterest.

First I want to start with making my home and life less stressful. To me, that means keeping the house cleaner and decluttered. For the past couple of years, I've been a stay at home mom. I have all the time in the world to keep up with the housework, cooking, and cleaning. But I don't. The house looks like the Wood-Man and I work full time. I stumbled across a pretty feasible housecleaning and laundry schedule that works for me now, when I have all the time in the world, and that will work for me when I do start working again (anyone out there hiring???). However, for whatever reason, I didn't pin it. At the time I came across it, our printer wasn't working so I copied the cleaning chart by hand, stuck it on the fridge, and got to work. Each day's cleaning takes about 15 minutes (weekdays only!), and includes one load of laundry. I always dread cleaning and laundry day because it lasts all darn day. Usually by the end of it, I have stacks of clean clothes around the house that we never put away, which then adds to the clutter situation. BUT....I can handle putting away one load of clothes a day, and cleaning for 15 minutes! Here is my copy. If you know where this came from, let me know and I'll give credit. Also, I'm not super blog savvy so if you want a copy of this to alter for yourself, give me your email address in a comment and I'll send it to you.

Another new project the Woodman and I are tackling is a year-long declutter program. The best part of this program is that it gives you daily tasks in a calendar format that should only take about 15 minutes a day.

I first came across this calendar on a friend's Facebook page, but have also seen it on Pinterest. It comes from the Home Storage Solutions 101 website. This link takes you to a printable version of the January calendar (to get the rest of the year, you just have to subscribe to her email list). As seen in the picture above, most tasks have a link to further explain each task and/or offer suggestions.  Wood-Man and I easily completed today's task in about 3 minutes!

Task 1: Set up a donation and selling collection station

For the physical appearance, obviously I want to eat better and lose weight. We are going to start cutting out processed foods. I came across this 14 week program that slowly eases you in to clean eating.

A friend shared a blog post recently that also talked about losing weight. It basically said that most people focus on the outcome of pounds or inches lost. The author points out that its much easier to instead of focusing on an outcome, focus on the process of getting there. She listed three numbers. The first number was her pants size. The second was weight. The third was the amount of miles she ran in the past year. I'm going to take this approach. With the hope of focusing on the healthier eating and the increasing of mileage (mine will be walking instead of running), my first two numbers will shrink. 

So, I've sat here for about 10 minutes contemplating on actually listing my numbers. I physically feel sick to my stomach throwing out there what they are. If you know me, you know that I'm very overweight. I think for the moment, I'm just going to say that my mileage goal is 180 miles for the year. At the end of the year, I'll revisit this post and will post what my numbers were on Jan. 1, 2015 and what they ended up being on Dec. 31, 2015. You can hold me to that. 

Lastly, in order to improve my inner self, I am going to start a gratitude jar for our family. During the last half of the year, we have been really swamped with dealing with my broken ankle and the subsequent medical bills. For me, it has been a bit depressing and I'm struggling to remember the good stuff that happened (which I know we had a lot of good things occur). At this moment, when I think about 2014, my thoughts are, "Damn, that year sucked." Anyway, this jar will sit in the kitchen and as something good happens, we will jot down what it was and drop it in the jar. It can be something funny, something unexpected, something really awesome - basically anything good. On December 31, 2015, we can all sit down and read the slips of paper.

Make Your Own Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup Substitute

So last night I was making a recipe which called for a can of condensed cream of chicken soup. I don't normally keep that on hand in the pantry. I'm S.....L.....O.....W.....L.....Y trying to cut out processed foods. Seriously, if you can't pronounce the ingredients on the label and do not even know what they are, should you really be putting that in your body? Nope.

Anyways, I really wanted to make this recipe. It was one that my mom used to make and I haven't had it in probably 15-20 years (just recently found the paper where I copied the recipe). Off to Pinterest I go to find an alternative to cream of chicken soup. Up pops hundreds of pins relating to the topic. The recipe I used was super simple, consisted of 4 ingredients, and took maybe 8  minutes to whip up. And a huge plus.....it tasted so much better than the crap you get from the can! I could have eaten it straight out of the saucepan!

Next time you need cream of chicken soup, say no to the can and whip this up instead!

Cream of Chicken Soup Substitute

Ingredients: 

• 1 Tbsp flour
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup milk
• salt and pepper to taste (I didn't add these)

Directions:

Melt your butter in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat. Once completely melted, whisk in the flour and continue to whisk until it is smooth and bubbly. Remove the pan from heat and then slowly whisk in the  milk and chicken broth. Return pan to heat and bring to a gentle boil, whisking the entire time, until the soup thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste. This will make an equivalent to one can of soup. 

Ok, so as I type out the recipe, I think I made a mistake and added too much flour when I made this last night. Mine did look thicker than what you get out of a can. Well, it still tasted pretty darn awesome! I'm not sure how this would turn out using gluten free flour. The good thing is that all of these items are pretty cheap and it wouldn't be too expensive to experiment with gluten free flour! 

How to Make Your Own Holiday "Cheer", AKA Apple Pie Moonshine

So a while back I wrote about making apple butter using fresh picked apples courtesy of the North Georgia apple houses. I made apple butter and apple sauce to my heart's content, but then decided I wanted to make an apple pie. For whatever reason, I've never made an apple pie. Off to Pinterest I went to search for apple pie recipes; however, when I typed apple pie into the search box, a miraculous thing happened. The search box auto filled the rest of my phrase with apple pie moonshine. Not what I went looking for, but I sure did spend the next 30-40 minutes looking at different apple pie moonshine recipes. They ranged in difficulty from opening bottles and heating everything in a pot to actually making your own mash and all the other illegal steps involved. I wouldn't recommend the latter method. After perusing the recipes, I pinned a pretty easy one and decided to make it one day.

Fast forward a month or so. The Woodman went to help a friend de-clutter his parent's house. I guess they are pack rats. While helping, he came across a bunch of mason jars. A. BUNCH. Woodman's friend gave them to him, which he then brought home to me. After several bleach water soaks, a hand wash, and a run through the dishwasher, I had a lot of jars that needed to be used. And....what goes perfectly with mason jars? MOONSHINE! The holiday season was quickly approaching us and since we've been on a limited income, we've been giving homemade gifts for the last few years. I pulled up my saved recipe and got to work on this year's Christmas presents. (Sorry to our close friends and family reading this....I'm sure you're going to guess what your present is this year. But, if you hadn't figured it out yet based on pics I've posted on Facebook, then maybe you aren't good enough for my 'shine...) Hence, the inspiration for my post.

So, without further ado.....

Apple Pie Moonshine

You will need:

• The booze. 

For this recipe, you first need 190-proof Everclear Grain Alcohol. This stuff is no joke. It has warning labels all over the bottle about how flammable it is and how the bottle might explode. Apparently, it isn't even sold in some states. If not, get the highest proof you can find. Also, depending on how you want your moonshine to taste, you will need either vanilla vodka or some spiced rum. I used the vanilla vodka for my first batch and it gave the moonshine an apple pie with vanilla ice-cream on top taste to it! For my second batch, I used the spiced rum. You will need 3 cups of the Everclear and 2 cups of either the vodka or the spiced rum.

WARNING!!!!

Not going to lie- I made Woodman open the bottle. I was kind of scared!

• The rest of the ingredients

 Besides the booze, you will need 1 gallon of apple juice, 1 gallon of apple cider, 1.5 cups white sugar, 1.5 cups brown sugar, and cinnamon sticks. 

Other items needed are 9 quarts jars or any equivalent, a big stock pot, and a plastic funnel.

The procedure:

In a large stock pot(mine is a 12 qt. pot), add the apple juice, apple cider, both types of sugar, and the cinnamon sticks. DO NOT ADD THE ALCOHOL! For the cinnamon sticks, use at least 9 sticks. You will be putting a stick into each jar of 'shine, so if you use 9 quart jars, use 9 cinnamon sticks. I was using pint jars, so I threw in 18 sticks. Also, the first batch came out super sweet. I actually cut back and only used one cup of each type of sugar when I made the second batch and it was just fine. 

Over low to medium low heat, bring ingredients to a simmer, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar. Once it reaches a simmer, let it simmer for  30 minutes, all the while enjoying how awesome your kitchen smells. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool COMPLETELY. If you are in a rush, sit the pot down into a sink of ice water to help speed up the cooling process. Once completely cool, add in your alcohol and stir to incorporate. If you add the alcohol while the mixture is warm, the alcohol will burn off and you'll just have super sweet apple cider. 

Fish your cinnamon sticks out of the pot and put one into each jar.

Using a funnel, fill each jar full of 'shine. If you notice from the last picture to this one, I needed more jars than I thought. I even had enough for a small "quality control" glass.

Put your lids on and label your jars. Because these are gifts, I ordered labels from a company called Evermine. If I weren't giving these out, I would have just written on the lids!

Store in a cool, dark place or a fridge. This stuff tastes good the first day. It tastes great 2 weeks later. It tastes AMAZING after a month. Point to the story- let it sit at least 2 weeks. It needs to ferment a bit. The longer you let it go, the less of the alcohol you'll taste. 

I made one batch and let it sit for a month. About that time, my grandfather died. I remembered him telling me one time how he met my grandmother because he had to run moonshine over to her daddy from his daddy. He apparently ran moonshine all over the North GA mountains. Now, is this story true or just a tall tale? I'm sure some of my family reading this might be able to verify the facts. Either way, after his funeral, I had some of the moonshine in honor of him. I also wanted to do a little "research" on how strong this stuff was. 

Out of a quart jar, I drank about a third of it in one sitting. There was no alcohol taste to it at all. But holy cow...it sure does sneak up on you and packs a punch! So, as a disclaimer, don't drink and drive, and no underaged drinking!

Bottom's up!!!

PS- I just realized while typing this....I still never made my apple pie!!!

Bird Seed Ornaments

While perusing Pinterest about a month ago, I came across a pin for bird seed Christmas ornaments. I thought it might be a fun crafty thing to do with Peanut so I gave it a whirl. This is a pretty cheap craft to do. You probably have most of the items at home! Free or free-ish is always good, especially around this time of year. An added plus- apparently a lot of recipes for something like this calls for peanut butter. If you have a peanut allergy in your family, this is a safe recipe for you!

Bird Seed Ornaments

Ingredients:  3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup water, 1 envelope unflavored gelatin, 3 Tbsp corn syrup, 4 cups bird seed, molds (I used cookie cutters), nonstick spray, straws, wax paper, ribbon or twine 

Step 1- Get a super cute helper. It helps if they are wearing Christmas pjs. Add the flour, water, gelatin, and corn syrup in a large bowl.

Step 2- Mix until well combined.

Step 3- Add bird seed.

Step 4- Mix until well combined. Apparently Peanut didn't think this looked too appetizing.

Step 5- Coat molds or cookie cutters with nonstick spray. I placed my cookie cutters on wax paper to help cut down on clean up.

Step 6- Fill each mold with bird seed, pressing the seed flat. Place a straw through the seed to create a hole for your ribbon. ***Note- this is STICKY!!! You will have bird seed all over your hands. You might want to spoon some into the mold and then place a piece of wax paper on top of it before you press the seed down with your hands.

Step 7- Let the ornaments harden in the molds for 2-3 hours. Carefully pop them out of the molds, remove the straws, and place face down onto wax paper to let the other side dry. At this point, I let them dry overnight.

Step 8- Attach ribbon or twine through your ornaments.

Step 9- Make sure you have some sunny days ahead and then hang your ornaments. From what I've read, these will dissolve in wet weather. Not a huge problem though- the little birdies can eat the seed off the ground!

Good thing Woodman was home to assist with the ornament hanging!

I love those faces!

It's always helpful to have a Lucky Pup as a supervisor.

By the time I got back inside from the ornament hanging and to the bay window, birds had already found our ornaments and were flitting about! I did notice that the birds had a harder time perching on the ornaments with longer ribbon loops. The ornament wasn't very stable and would shake around, scaring the bird. I probably would make smaller loops if I did this again. I also read how some people made larger holes and just threaded the tree branches through the holes to stabilize the ornament, skipping the ribbon step altogether. 

To my teacher friends- this is a super easy project you can do with your class! Doesn't take long at all....don't want to eat up that instructional time! ;)

Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

When I first started this blog, my main goal was to really critique ideas found on Pinterest. I've seen so many pictures of Pinterest fails. Every project or recipe I've tried has so far worked (or tasted) great. So about ten months ago, while searching for some new recipes to try, I came across this Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup recipe from Martha Stewart. I thought to myself, "Hunh. Not too sure that sounds good, but I do happen to have all the ingredients in my kitchen." I mentioned trying it out to the Woodman. He didn't seem too thrilled about trying it either. Score, I thought! I'd have my first negative project to write about. I made it, we tried it, and....CRAP. WE LOVED IT!!! It even got a 4 year old's seal of approval. The sweet potatoes kind of scared me in this recipe (I love sweet potatoes, but seriously? Boiled in soup???) Holy cow....they were so savory. They melt in your mouth and blend perfectly with all the other flavors.

Fast forward to several days ago. I'm scouring my recipe board trying to come up with meals for the week. I was excited because it was super cold out and that only meant one thing....SOUP WEATHER! The sweet potato soup popped up, thank goodness, because I had completely forgotten about it. I dashed hobbled into the kitchen (broken ankle...read my last post), grabbed a recipe card, and wrote that sucker down. It takes a super special recipe for me to actually take the time to write it down. And now, it's time for you to write it down....  :)

Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

Prep time- 20 minutes

Cook time- 20-30 minutes

Ingredients-

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 large, yellow onion (diced)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• salt and pepper
• 3/4 lb. sweet Italian sausage with casings removed (or hot Italian sausage if you want to kick up the flavor!)
• 2 sweet potatoes (peeled, diced into medium chunks, 1 lb. total)
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 3/4 cups small pasta shells
• 4 cups roughly chopped mixed greens, such as kale and Swiss chard (I just used kale)
• Parmesan cheese for topping

Directions-

Gather up all your ingredients. I have some lovely, homemade chicken broth stored in my basement, but I forgot to have the hubby get it before he left for work this morning (stupid broken ankle...ginormous Aircast boot and narrow stairs do not mix well). I used Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base instead and added it to 4 cups of water for my broth. 

 Add 1 Tbsp. olive oil to a pot and heat over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent (about 6 minutes). Season with salt and pepper.

 Add sausage and cook until it is brown.

Add sweet potatoes, 4 cups chicken broth, and 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil. 

Add pasta and cook 3 minutes less than what is indicated in the instructions on the package. (Can't have gluten? Skip this ingredient or add gluten free pasta!)

 Add the greens, reduce heat, and cook until the noodles are done and the greens are wilted (about 3-4 minutes). Dish up and top with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Peanut approved! So thankful that I have an adventurous eater! (Please excuse the kale hanging out of his mouth!)

Give this recipe a shot and let me know what you think. I hope you enjoy!