Taking Stock In Our (supper's) Future

Today is stock day, here at the Saucy house. It's as close to pure kitchen therapy as I think I can get. As I'm writing this, I'm thinking of another thing I cook that has the same overall wonderful feeling as making chicken stock, and I can't think of one. Granted, it's hard to think of other things with the smell of homemade chicken stock wafting through the house on a cold, overcast, fall day.

It's so therapeutic to me because I'm using parts of the bird that would normally be tossed out. I'm using other kitchen scraps that again would be tossed out. But by planning ahead, knowing what will come of it, and embracing the overall symphonic pleasure of recycling, improving, and enriching foods-to-come is what brings me such peace and joy. Knowing that I have chicken stock in the freezer makes me feel like no matter what else is going on, I can make a warm, comforting, flavorful homemade meal out of just about anything.

Here's what I do. We love roasted chicken. We hate waiting for the whole thing to cook in her natural shape, so I do what's called "spatchcock", which means I remove the backbone, split the breast bone, remove the chest bone, and spread the bird flat. She cooks quicker and more evenly. And I can get tasty things like salt, pepper, olive oil, thyme, rosemary, sage, and garlic on all of her parts. 

I have a large plastic bowl with a sealable lid that I put the backbone, chest bone, and contents of the yucky bag of innards that comes inside. I don't like owful, but as an additive to my stock, it's great. Plus, they put the neck in that packet too, and that's just chicken stock gold.

So, in this container in the freezer, I have what's listed above, but I also have the bones from the bird I roasted, and parts do the skin uneaten too. The pan drippings, and anything left on the cutting board. Just pure chicken essence. And it's all from "scraps" that most of us throw away. To me, though, that is sacrilege. 

I buy celery in the bunch because it's cheaper than the hearts only, and I chop the tops off and put them in the freezer bowl too. When we have eaten all the nice long stalks, I put the little pieces from the inside into the freezer bowl too. 

I also buy onions in bulk, and they usually have a lot more of the papery coating than the individual ones do, so I put my huge stock pot under my onion basket and catch all those onion papers, and I'll take a few minutes to coax a few more off of the larger ones. 

Today's pot contains a lot of onion paper, the tops and heart of a celery stalk, and about 4(?) birds worth of roasted bones, skin, and uneaten parts. I then poured in water to the top of my stock pot, and let it simmer. I'll let it simmer for most of the day. I don't really time it. It's about smell, and look to me. But once it's done, I'll let it cool, then strain it, then pour the stock into containers to freeze. 

My LORD, I love stock day! Stay hungry, and remember to play with your food.

NOvember.

No. That's not a typo in the title. I'm doing a diet challenge with my Beach Body Coach during the month of November, and along with the basic rules of the challenge, I'm going to also challenge myself to consume NO dairy, NO grains, and NO alcohol this month as well. We're starting on Monday the 4th, so it will be almost 4 weeks. I will, however, consider Thanksgiving a day off. The once a year day to celebrate FOOD will be celebrated in all it's glory.

The rules to the November Challenge are simple. Drink a "Shakeology" shake once a day, communicate with the group via Facebook, and exercise. I'm hoping that with the elimination of dairy, grains, and alcohol, I can drop 20 pounds this month.

I'll be having my shake either for breakfast, or for brunch daily. Lunch will be lettuce wraps, or leftovers from supper the night before. Suppers are almost always grilled or roasted lean meat and a green veggie. We also love cauliflower around here. Perhaps I'll experiment with a whipped cauliflower "crust" on a casserole of some sort. Chicken, onions, spinach, garlic, and the cauli-crust. May have to work on this. Sounds doable for sure. 

I have a few Paleo cook books, so I'll check out some of the ideas and meals they have listed to get more ideas. I'm not a fan of making something familiar out of new ingredients. I don't think gluten free bread is an equal substitute to wheat flour based breads. I do, however, love gluten free bread as a completely different food. When I eat whipped cauliflower, I don't say to myself, "It tastes JUST like mashed potatoes!" because it doesn't taste anything like potatoes. It not the same texture, and the taste isn't similar. But, I do love myself some whipped cauliflower, yes I do. And I love mashed potatoes, but I don't think they are the same, and I don't feel they are exchangeable. That's an insult to the two dishes as individuals. And you're not mashing the cauliflower, so it annoys me when people call it mashed cauliflower. You're whirring the shit out of it in the food processor or blender, not delicately mashing or even "whipping" with your hand blender. 

I'm not a low-carb newbie. I lost over 70 pounds in my late 20's doing the low-carb thing. My beautiful unborn son would only allow me to eat French toast for a few weeks, and when you're pregnant and your baby demands a specific food, you listen. Both pregnancies were close together, and my second was difficult and included bed rest for 7 weeks. Almost 2 months in bed does quite a number on your physical structure. But, GG is 3.5 now, and the magical skinny-fairy has not shown up and granted my wish of being thin, strong, and healthy with only the wave of her magic wand. Stupid bitch. I guess the Kardashians pay more than I do. 

Really, it's better this way. I'm way too much of a control freak. I'm sure the skinny-fairy would do something "wrong", so I should just do this myself. I don't like pissing off the fairy's, after all. Never a good idea.

So, wish me luck, stay hungry, and play with your food.

Halloween Night Chili

Yesterday at gymnastics, of of my best girlfriends said she was making a huge pot of chili for Halloween night supper. Boo thought this was the best idea he'd heard in his whole 5 years, and announced to Daddy last night that we were having chili for supper tonight. This, of course, put a sparkle in both of my men's eyes. It's a good thing I had all the needed supplies, or Miss Jen would have found another 4 on her front porch tonight with bowls and spoons.

Here's how I started it. 

2 pounds of lean ground beef went into my dutch oven over high heat. I added salt, chili powder, cumin, paprika, and garlic to the meat as it was browning. I then diced 2 medium white onions and added them to the browned/spiced meat. I didn't drain what little fat was there. That's FLAVOR!  I then poured in about a cup of burgundy wine to both deglaze and add richness.

Over night, I soaked about 2 cups of dried pinto beans in water and 3 small dried bay leaves. If you suddenly want to have chili, and haven't done this step, you can cook the beans in the mixture dry, but you'll need more time, more water, and the texture won't be the same. Or, you can use canned beans. 

Now, remember... When I'm cooking, I almost NEVER use a recipe. Yet, somehow, I'm able to do things like this, where the volume of what I've done is slam damn perfect.

So, after adding a small can of tomato paste, and giving it a good stir...

It goes on the back burner on low...

Gets her lid put on, and she will sit right here and slowly and gently simmer all day until the beans are tender and all the favors are mingled, yummy, and perfect. I'll taste throughout the afternoon and adjust flavor says need-be. 

Throughout the afternoon, I stirred, tasted, and looked at consistency. There looked to be too much water early afternoon, but the beans were still a little too firm, I knew they would need that water, so I didn't add a thickener. To thicken your chili, you can keep some of your soaked beans out of the mix, put them in a separate cooking pot, then blend them into a purée once they are cooked tender, and add that purée to your chili. Natural thickener that's still gluten free.

Late afternoon, it needed both salt and more spices. I added more kosher salt and chili powder. I used all my cumin in the meat mixture first thing, so I started hunting through the spice cabinet for something chili-like to add that wasn't spicy. The kids and I are hot-wimps. Low and behold, I found some taco seasoning. I gave it a smell, it smelled like a good blend to add to what I already had, so I put a good bit in. I gave it a stir, and a new taste, and dubbed it AWESOME!

Both kids tasted, and the girl said, "It's delicious!", and the boy closed his eyes, chewed, thought about it, smiled, and said, "That's it. Yes, that'll do."

Here's the final product. Me Saucy dubbed it just about perfect. For his bowl I added about a tablespoon of dried chipotle chili flakes. I brought it to him while he was outside doling out the candy to the trick-or-treaters. Upon careful consideration, he said the only thing that would have made it better, would have been cheese and diced raw red onion.

So there we have it. Oh, ps, the girl child didn't eat it for supper. I made her scrambled eggs instead. She's in her 3-year-old, "I only want to eat things that are white, light brown, yellow, or orange" phase. You know, grilled cheese, peanut butter sandwiches, chicken nuggets, Mac-N-Cheese, Cheerioes, milk, bananas, oranges, scrambled eggs. Instead of fight with her, I just make sure she has a balanced day based on what she will eat. OH, and I forgot... She'll eat her weight in broccoli. That's the only thing not white, orange, yellow, or light brown that she'll eat.

Ok, enough about what my mini-me's diet. This is about chili! Wonderful, warm, thick, hearty chili. And it was awesome. 

Stay hungry and play with your food.

 

Gummy Bear Science

Yesterday, Tuesday, is science day here at preschool home-school. I went to my favorite resource, Pinterest, and looked up fun science experiments. There are tons of cool choices, and yes, I've made a pin board for future classes and ideas. 

The Gummy Bear absorbtion experiment was the one we could do with supplies here at home. 

Luckily, the gummy bears that we had on-hand were from the Carter administration, so they were adequately prepared to take on a good bit of water for a drastic change.

The hardest part of the experiment was keeping the little's hands off them, keeping them from eating the control group, keeping them from eating the experiment, and keeping them from stirring the gummy bears.

I used a clear plastic reusable container and put a few inches of cool tap water in it. Then placed the rock solid (they honestly made a thump sound when they hit the bottom) gummy bears into the water. 

The 5 year old and 3 year old were really very good about the experiment. They would go running to check on it every 30 minutes or so, exclaim over what they saw, then go back to building with their blocks or coloring.

I started to throw it out last night after they went to bed, thinking they would dissolve completely in the water over night, but I didn't throw them away, and they didn't dissolve. The picture above is from the next morning. Both kids were very excited to see what happened over night, and we're very impressed with how much water they had absorbed.

The very next thing they said was, "can we eat them now?". 

We also learned that gummy bears that have been soaked in water for about 20 hours are very soft and squishy.

And slippery!

They're pretty hard to pick up, in fact.

VERY HARD to pick up.

Mommy ended up helping...

And then they were gone. The control group was left. Both little's wanted to try to eat them, but both spit them out. I would have to guess we were more along the side of the consistency of Jolly Rancher's than gummy bears, at this point in their life cycle.

So there we have the gummy bear absorbtion experiment. I need to pick up food coloring for next weeks class, so keep an eye out for our color experiments.

Have fun, and remember to play with your food!

Sewing Knees

I needed to break out the needle and thread the other night to patch a favorite stuffed animal. Emergency medical sewturing was needed, so as a little girl with huge blue eyes looked on, I carefully sewed up a lambs front paw.

This sudenly sparked the sewing bug, so I got out a project I've been meaning to tackle for a long time. Our son is rough in his jeans. The knees are almost always blown out before he grows out of them, but I keep him in them as long as I can. I'm cheap. I don't want to throw away a perfectly good pair of jeans that just need a bit of mending. Plus, I can just patch the knees and then his little sister can wear them.

Remember the cheap part? I also keep just about every random article of fabric for "projects". I'm SURE I'm going to make a T-Shirt quilt for my husband from all his 2,000 antique T-Shirts. I also want to make blankets for the kids out of their old baby blankets and uber cute baby clothes that were "special". This being said, I still have crib sheets too because they are nice large pieces of fabric for these "projects" I have in mind.

So I have blue jeans with holes in the knees and pink Minnie Mouse fabric from a crib sheet. Viola! Knee patches. I found the spot in the elastic where it was sewn together, made a small snip in the hem to get to it, then pulled it free in one long piece. (Kept, of course, for another project.) I then cut 2 squares from the sheet and folded them into 4 pieces for durability, and sewed them to the inside of the holy knee. I used purple thread, and left it looking hand done. I didn't futz over making it look professional or exact. And I think they are PERFECT! Here are pictures from the 2 pair I've finished.

Day 5 of GNC "Detox & "Cleanse", and it's over because it's crap.

In my carbohydrate and sugar overload last night, I realized after climbing into bed that I had forgotten my PM pack. I took it this morning, and haven't noticed ANYTHING different from yesterday. In fact, after discovering the gluten in the 2 pills, and eliminating them from the collection, there is really nothing to report...shall we say...biologically in the plumbing.

The good news about the ridiculous dinner I had last night is that I didn't gain anything. I didn't lose, but didn't gain, so I call that a draw. Not a win, and not a loss.

Woke up early this morning and couldn't go back to sleep, so I came on downstairs for coffee, a fire, and the morning news. I made bacon in the oven, and it was the BEST BATCH EVER! My 3 year old disappeared and was quiet for too long before I realized she had helped herself to the chewy batch I made for my Honey. He likes it a little less "done" than I do. I like mine about 4.12 seconds shy of burnt. I don't want any "give" in my bacon at all. 

The kids had cereal and bacon for breakfast. I just had my coffee and bacon. 

We dropped Boo off at martial arts practice, and then GG and I drove across town to the drive through Starbucks. I ordered a sugar free vanilla skim latte, then we drove back to pick up The Boo. Perfect timing, and he was VERY excited that he got to use 2 nunchucks today. 

It's 1:30, and everyone has had lunch. The kids their favorite versions of PB&J. GG likes hers sans J. Boo likes his "triple decker" style, which I made one day when we had 5 pieces of bread left. 2 went to GG's sandwich and with 3 left over, I made Boo a 3-piece sandwich. He LOVED it. I had my regular lettuce roast beef wrap and seltzer water.

Supper was a hamburger patty at the neighborhood Halloween block party. And gin and 7-up. 

The next morning, after eating almost nothing, and drinking the hard stuff, I was not feeling very awesome. Sunday was a fairly normal day, a lot like the others. He kids wake me up, I feed them, have coffee, then have some breakfast a little later, or skip on until lunch. Supper was flank steak and baked oven fries.

On Monday, I wasn't feeling well, but not like the headache from Sunday morning. My tummy hurt. Up early with the kids, let my Honey sleep in, then went to a Dr appt check up, then home to work on projects with the family. Upon coming home, I spent most of the rest of the day running to the potty. My husband took the kids to the gym around mid-afternoon, and I was feeling so awful. That I thought I may have caught the flu. I checked my temp, and I was normal, but I sure wasn't feeling normal. Everything hurt. Skin, hair, tummy, and I was COLD. I'm never cold. The back door was open, and I finally shut it and went to the thermostat to verify my suspicion that it was clearly in the 40's in the house. Imagine my surprise to discover it was 71! 

I considered putting a chicken in the oven, then sending my Honey a text to tell him I was going to bed, and that dinner was in the oven, with a reminder of what temp to cook the bird. While I was prepping the chicken, I felt nauseous, and really thought I was going to barf all over the kitchen. But slowly, I felt better. I even had supper with the family, and it was delicious. But, 20 minutes after supper,  I was back in the potty feeling terrible again. Off to bed for me.

Today is Tuesday, and things are the same. After eating, I feel terrible. Then after several hours, I feel well again, and even a little hungry. I eat, and feel horrible again for a few hours, then a little better, then fine. Then I eat, and it starts over. The scale-obsessed side of me doesn't mind so much. The mommy that needs to get things done, who can't go to bed because her kids will destroy the house, and is counting down the minutes until Daddy comes home (181 until he's off work, then another 64 after that before he's home), is quite over this bug, and is looking forward to a happy tummy, hopefully tomorrow.

Oh, and the detox & cleanse set was nothing more than a gigantic waste of time, money, and hope. If anything, it cleaned out the things in my system that would have fought off this bug.