Crock pot chicken broth

Mmm! Does this ever make the house smell good! I make it in the crock pot so that I don't have to worry about watching something on the stove all day (because I will worry).

I start by adding veggies to the crock pot, including carrots, celery and onions. The first time that I made this broth, I had collected vegetable parts in the freezer for awhile, so it was quite the mix. Next, add the leftover chicken with bones that I roasted for dinner (or more likely picked up cooked because I was working late and husband was sick), and place it in the crock pot. Add salt, pepper, garlic cloves, and a splash of vinegar (supposed to bring out more of the good stuff from the bones). Add water to cover, which equals about 6 cups in my slow cooker.

Cook on high (low is probably fine) overnight. Let cool. Remove and discard vegetables. Remove meat from bones. The meat should literally fall off the bones, but make sure you get all the bones out. Cool in the refrigerator, and then freeze in 1 or 2 cup portions in the freezer. I store mine in freezer bags marked with the date and the amount, freezing them first on a cookie sheet so that the bags are flat and store easily.

Use as needed, for instance in some yummy homemade chicken noodle soup.

Making Marshmallows

Last night we (mostly me) made homemade marshmallows. Not the healthiest food in the world, but nonetheless, tasty and fun to make. And, as a side benefit, making marshmallows works as a science project for Little One: mixing solids and liquids and heating them changes the form of the matter, mixing in air changes the consistency. You can do your own search, but here is the recipe that I used:

Homemade Marshmallows

.75-oz unflavored gelatin (3 envelopes of gelatin)
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cups light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Corn starch
Powered sugar

Line 9 x 9-inch pan with plastic wrap and lightly oil it. Set aside. (I used two smaller pans since I didn’t have the correct size. I also sprinkled the oiled plastic wrap with the powered sugar mix below.)

In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Soak for about 10 minutes. (I don’t have a stand electric mixer, so I used a large bowl. You do need a large bowl.)

Meanwhile, combine sugar, corn syrup and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a rapid boil and boil hard for 1 minute. (Other recipes called for a candy thermometer, which I don’t have. Notice a trend?)

Pour the boiling syrup into soaked gelatin and turn on the mixer, using the whisk attachment, to high speed. Add the salt and beat for 12 minutes. After 12 minutes, add in the vanilla extract beat to incorporate. (To continue the trend, I don’t have a whisk attachment for my hand electric mixer, although I’m pretty sure I did at one time.)

Lightly grease your hands and the spatula. Scrape marshmallow into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Take another piece of lightly oiled plastic wrap and press lightly on top of the marshmallow, creating a seal. Let mixture sit for a few hours, or overnight, until cooled and firmly set. (Just like on the bottom of the pan, I sprinkled some of the powered sugar mixture on top first.)

In a shallow dish, combine equal parts cornstarch and powered sugar. Remove marshmallow from pan and cut into equal pieces with scissors or a chef's knife. Dredge each piece of marshmallow in confectioners' sugar mixture. (At the time of this post, I haven’t gotten this far. I read on another site that using a pizza cutter works great too.)

Store in an airtight container. Makes about 40 large marshmallows, depending on the size you choose to cut them.

Little One and I had great fun, especially scraping the bowl afterwards. Granted, we had to go straight to bath, but it was still yummy!

Organic okra at farmers market

Every now and then, we drive out to a small farmers market in one of the suburbs. We don't go often since it is a 30+ minute drive and only has a couple of stalls that we go to (we can finish in 15 minutes - with browsing). But unlike the big city farmers market 10 minutes from our house, this one has a couple of organic farmers (vegetables, meats, cheeses, eggs).

This weekend was one of those weekends to make the drive. We picked up some wonderful fresh squash, bell peppers and okra. In fact, I may have to go back next weekend to pick up some more okra. Last summer I stored up a bunch after one of the daughters taught me how to freeze it. Wash, dry and slice. Place on cookie sheet and freeze. Remove from cookie sheet and store in freezer bags. We used it for months.

For those that shy away from okra, it's really quite good. And easy to prepare. Once sliced, add to pan with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Add garlic and chopped green onion if you like. "Fry" up until slightly crisp. Serve.

Bread and Butter

Wow, apparently May was a busy month for me. My apologies for the lack of posts. Awhile back, Aussie Therese asked for the soda bread recipe that I wrote about on April 1. So, ever on top of things, here it is.

Soda Bread Recipe

This recipe isn’t mine. I found it on the Internet, but didn’t save the link. My apologies to whomever this recipe belongs. I've add commentary throughout.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
2 cups buttermilk
Grease or foil for baking sheet

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Make a well in the center of the mixture. Add buttermilk to mixture. Mix with your hands and/or have your child mix with his/her hands until blended (dough will be sticky). Wash child’s hands. Turn dough out onto a generously floured surface. Knead lightly four to five times. Shape dough into an 8-inch round loaf (or in my case, two 4-inch round loaves). Place on baking sheet coated or covered (I don’t like cooking spray). Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees, and continue to bake for another 15 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on wire rack.

This is totally me and why I don’t bake much: I apparently did something wrong because even though I baked two smaller loaves instead of the one loaf suggested by the recipe, it took a bit longer to bake. I’d say at least another 15-20 minutes. And then it turned out rather dense, although I know soda bread is a denser bread.

Butter

Cream
Salt (optional)

Find a container with a secure top. We used an old baby food jar, but that doesn’t make much. Something like a jam jar would probably work great. Fill jar half way with cream (as organic and close to raw as you can get). Securely close jar. Shake, roll, or otherwise agitate for 10-15 minutes. Make a game of it with your child (mine preferred that I do most of the work). The cream will change first to whipped cream and will be very thick. Keep shaking. All of the sudden, it will change to butter; you will hear the change first (since by this time you have stopped watching the jar while you shake it). Keep shaking a few more times. Pour liquid into another container if you want fresh buttermilk. Rinse butter in jar under cold water; rinse several times. Empty onto a plate and press (use the bottom of a spoon). You want to press as much liquid out as possible. Add salt to taste if you like. Enjoy!

Butter and Bread

I found lovely cream and milk that is as close to raw as can be in a store from Farmers' All Natural Creamery. Boy, is it tasty! It's from grass-fed cows, organic, non-homogenized, VAT pasteurized, no added hormones. The milk comes with cream on the top.

Needless to say, the milk and cream don't last all that long. Since the cream only came in a quart size (more than we can use in the ~5-6 days that it lasts), I decided to make butter with Little One. She found it mostly fun, although Dad and I did most of the shaking. It turned out great!

Next we made brown Irish soda bread. Quite easy to make and pretty good. My husband refused to taste it and commented on its density.

Fun projects to do with the Little One. She even chose to wear her apron - all on her own!

Save money by not wasting fruits and vegetables

No rocket science here: make sure you use your fruits and vegetables before they go bad. We are usually pretty good about this at our house since we love fruits and vegetables. But every now and then, I throw something out. I hate to do it. Seems like such a waste.

So, besides only buying what I think we will use, I will now try to freeze any leftovers. Again, this seems so obvious, especially since I freeze extra portions of soups and such. Apparently it took reading Shauna's post to get me to really think about freezing extras.

Here is a trick to freezing portions of soups, stews, and I assume just about anything: label and fill a plastic bag with the portion that you will need in the future, close and lay flat on a cookie sheet, and place in freezer. When it is frozen, you will be able to stack the flat portion more easily than a lumpy version that's just thrown in the freezer. Now, there's some rocket science!

Organic Pricing

On a recent trip to Whole Foods to pick up some organic milk, I decided to check out their store brand pricing in comparison to products at other grocery stores. It still seems expensive, but not necessarily by much. I haven't done in depth analysis, but I did find this article by someone who did. The organic, 365 Everyday Value brand of milk seems to run about 15-30% more (using my best guess on what milk runs at Kroger).

So, perhaps we will buy a few more organic products after all.

Going Organic

I only wish I had the time! Sure, I would love to be buying and eating only organic, but...

Nevertheless, I'd like to try. It's true that switching everything all at once to organic may be difficult, so perhaps just some things for now. Maybe it will be peanut butter, but I'm thinking more along the lines of decreasing processed foods. I did take Little One to the local Farmer's Market this weekend where we bought some yummy fruits and veggies. And today's lunch errand was to Sprouts, where I purchased some raw nuts, lentils, beans and whole wheat pasta (which I will mix in slowly with the regular pasta). It's a start!