Food

Having used the rest of the chicken for chicken parmesan, BBQ and fried gizzards, all you are left with is the scraps. A lot of people just toss the scraps, but if you are trying to use everything, or need to save some money, you have a couple of choices. You can feed the scraps to your cats or dogs, in a raw food diet, or you can cook them for stock. I chose the later, although Marley did get a few scraps.

Stock is easy to make. Just take all your scraps and put them into a big pot. You might want to cut down the back and breasts so that everything fits in there nicely. I like to brown this just a little. You can brown it nicely, but this takes a little work with this much meat, so I just brown what is on the bottom. It gives a little extra flavor to the stock. Now add just enough water to cover everything. Add some veggies. I use celery, carrots, parsnips and onion. You can also add some herbs. I grow oregano and basil, so this is what I use.

Let it boil for an hour or two, stirring occasionally. Run through a strainer, keeping the liquid and tossing the leftovers. You can pick out the veggies and little bits of meat, tossing just the bones. My dog loved the few bits he got. It is a lot of work to pick it out, so most people just toss it, since they would have tossed it had they not made stock from it. Don't give your pets the cooked bones. Raw chicken bones will crunch up nicely, cooked chicken bones shatter and can cut up their innards.

If you have followed my frugal tip to buy whole chickens, then you probably have some chicken breasts that need a recipe to go with them. This is one of my families favorites. It has all of Emma's favorite things, chicken, cheese, and dip. What else could you ask for?

Ingredients:

• Breasts of 3 chickens, cut into strips
• Olive Oil
• 2 eggs, scrambled
• 2 Pieces of bread, made into crumbs
• Oregano
• Garlic Powder
• 3 cups of spaghetti sauce
• Mozzarella
• Parmesan

Pre-heat oven to 350 F

Mix bread crumbs, oregano and garlic powder.

Heat pan, add oil.

Place 1 cup of sauce into bottom of baking dish. (I use two dishes for this amount of chicken)

Dip the chicken strips into the egg, then bread mixture. Place in pan and cook till light brown. Place into baking dish.

Cover with mozzarella, remaining sauce and parmesan. Place in oven, bake for 30 minutes, or until cheese is completely melted.

Last week I told you about the three chickens and how you can save some money by buying whole chickens, cutting them up, and using them for various recipes. I bought three chickens and am using them for several large recipes and freezing most of it. This way we can save some money by buying in bulk and also when I am working hard on my work sample or what not we will still have plenty of food around without my having to cook (or Elizabeth being the only one cooking, every day).

With store bought chickens they don't usually give you a lot of giblets. If you had raised the chickens you would have more. In my three chickens I got 4 hearts, 2 sets of lover and what I think was 4 kidneys. Not being a chicken anatomy expert I could be wrong on what it was, but I fried it all up for an appetizer. (Actually, 3 of the hearts went to Marley.)

Ingredients:

• Giblets
• Flour
• Parsley
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive Oil

Mix flour and seasoning in a bowl. Add giblets and coat with flour mix. Heat a skillet on medium high heat. Add enough oil to coat the pan. Add floured giblets. Fry until cooked through, about 7 minutes. Eat.

Next week you will see how I used the breasts to make Chicken Parmesan.

In this economy it is very important for everyone to be a little frugal. In any economy it is important to save, cut waste, etc. Today's frugal tip is on how to save money and reduce waste on food preparation by buying whole chickens instead of chicken parts. I hypothesized that if you buy a whole chicken you will get enough breast meat that with the price of boneless, skinless chicken breast, the remainder will be free. Let's look at my results and see if my hypothesis is correct.

I bought three whole birds. I then cut off the legs and wings and set them aside to make BBQ. I sliced off the breasts and set them aside for chicken parm and I pulled out the giblets for fried giblets. Everything else, the neck, ribs and back were tossed into a pan to make stock. I also gave a few scraps to the dog. I could use all the scraps as raw dog food, but have not spend enough time studying raw diet to know what I can and cannot give him.

Below is a chart of the birds. It shows the price of the bird, the weight of the bird, and the weight of the breast meat I got off. The first bird I did not get all the breast meat off, because I was still learning, so I might have gotten more breast meat had I been a little better bird hacker.

Now, what does this little table tell us. I had hypothesized that the breast weight would be enough that the cost of the bird would be covered by the value of the breasts. Boneless skinless chicken breasts from the same brand were $4.99. We ended up with 3.25 lbs of breasts, so that is worth $16.22. That did not quite make the $16.95 I spent on the three birds, but close. I also might have ended up with the extra 73 cents worth of meat had I been a better cutter in the first bird. Despite that, look in the picture to see how much more bird I got for that 73 cents!

I'm trying to learn how to make a good pizza. I love pizza, but paying $16 for a greasy meat on a cardboard crust does not appeal to me. The take and bake place up the road makes a good pizza for a lower cost, but I think I can still make it at home for less and get exactly what I want. Here is a picture of my first attempt.

Notice that the crust is not round. I used this recipe for pizza crust. I'd not recommend using it. The crust ended up flavorless and was hard to work. It was too thin for my taste as well. If you are after a thin, flavorless crust, this is a good choice. The hard to work part could be as much my fault as the recipes. I've never worked pizza dough before, so don't really know what I'm doing.

I think the sauce turned out fine though. The recipe was simple: mix 2 parts tomato sauce with 1 part tomato paste. Add some garlic, oregano and onion powder. Cook for a couple minutes to cook the garlic, or use garlic power if you don't want to cook it. Done. I'll also experiment with it some, but I liked this simple sauce.

I have two more crusts in the freezer that I'll need to make up and then I'll try another recipe. I might just bake up the two crusts as treats for the chickens. They are less picky eaters than I am. I'll keep you informed on my progress.

I made a batch of my meat sauce and for the first time, I actually wrote down the recipe. I've been making this recipe for 20 years, but have never written it down. My mom taught me how to make it and I improved it over time. I've talked with others about their sauce and used some of the techniques they use in order to improve the sauce. I've also at least quadrupled the size of the batch. I like to have enough left over to freeze. This batch will last the three of us about 6 months. There are a lot of ingredients, but the work is fairly easy, but it does take some time.

I use three types of meat for this sauce. I like the mix of flavors. You can use other meats as well. Elk is great with it, but it is not available at the market I go to and I've never been hunting. I also put a little cayenne in it. Not enough to make it spicy, just enough to cut any sweetness in the sauce and give it a little boost. If you can't find buffalo at your market, you can use beef, but buffalo has a richer taste and less fat.

The wine can also vary. I had Merlot around. I did not have any white wine, but I had some sake, so I used sake this time. It was fine. Some people also like to use a dessert wine, like Marsala, but I think it is a little too sweet, so I don't. Spice also vary. My mom always used "Italian Seasoning". I use individual spices. I don't put much salt in it, some people will put more in. I just put enough in to pull the flavor of the meat. Any more can be added later. Larger mushrooms slice easier. You can also buy pre-sliced mushrooms. I don't because they are more expensive and less environmentally sound (the packaging).

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 lb ground buffalo
• 1 lb ground mild or sweet sausage
• 1 red pepper
• 1 green pepper
• 2 onions
• 6 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 tsp oregano
• 2 tsp basil
• 1 tsp savory
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• 1 tsp tarragon
• 2 tsp parsley
• 2 tsp thyme
• 1 lb button and/or white mushrooms
• 1 cup red wine (like Merlot)
• 1 cup white wine (like chardonnay)
• 1/4 cup dry vermouth
• 4 29oz cans of tomato sauce
• 4 12oz cans of tomato paste

Dice onions and peppers. Mash and dice garlic. Clean and slice mushrooms.

Heat an 11 qt pot on medium to medium high heat. Add oil. Brown meat with onion, peppers, garlic, salt and herbs.

Reduce heat. Add mushrooms and simmer till onion, peppers and mushrooms are soft.

Add wine, simmer, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes.

Add sauce and paste. Stir. cover and simmer, stirring occasionally for 1 hour. Season with extra spices, if needed.

Remove bay leaves. Serve over spaghetti noodles and freeze remainder for later.

Since I have some time, I've been making big batches of food and freezing it. Yesterday I made some Coq au Vin and froze most of it. Kept a little out for dinner tonight and it was yummy. I read a couple of recipes, and combined them in order to get the results I wanted. Below is the recipe I ended up with.

Ingredients

• 6 lb whole chicken
• 5 tbsp butter
• 1 1⁄2 tbsp olive oil
• 6 oz bacon slices
• 18 pearl onions, or one medium onion sliced
• 6 oz whole mushrooms, small
• 3 celery stalks, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 2 1/2 tbsp flour
• 3 cup red wine, dry
• 1 cup beef stock
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2 bay leaves
• salt and pepper to taste

Tools

• Fry pan
• 3 qt casserole dish

Cut chicken into pieces, reserving the bones and scraps for raw dog food or chicken stock (I did a little of both). If you buy already cut chicken, get 4 lbs.

Blanch the bacon by boiling in water for a few minutes. This takes out some of the saltiness. Melt 3 tbsp of the butter in a pan with the olive oil. Fry bacon in butter oil mixture until crispy. Drain on paper towel and set aside.

pre-heat oven to 350 F. Lightly salt and brown the chicken in fat a couple minutes on each side. Place the chicken into a 3 qt casserole dish. Crumble bacon over top.

Fry onions and celery in fat until soft. Add to casserole dish.

Melt remaining butter in pan and saute mushrooms for 2 minutes. Drain on paper towel and set aside.

Blend flour and crushed garlic in remaining fat (add more butter if needed) and brown to make a rue. Add wine, stock and bay. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer, stirring, until thickened. Poor into casserole dish.

Cover and place in 350 F oven for 2 hours. Remove from oven, add mushrooms.

Eat hot, or place in freezer safe containers and freeze for later.

The next time I make this, I think I will make two birds. The one bird makes about 12 servings, but a larger bird will allow us to fill the freezer quicker.

I made some more banana bread, and altered the recipe I used last time a little. I think it turned out better, so I thought I'd post it. What is better about it, you ask? Well, it was moister for one. I have a fondness for moist bread. Try it and see how you like it. The main difference is that I used an extra banana, and they were just barely over-ripe, clearly still in the I could eat them stage, instead of the regular so over ripe that I won't eat them bananas that I usually use.

• 3/4 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 2 eggs
• 3 slightly over ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cream sugar with margarine. It should be well mixed and light and airy. Make sure the margarine is cold when you do this step. I've never tried it with real butter, but I bet you would need to let it warm to room temperature first.

Mash eggs with a fork. They should be well mashed, but a few big chunks are ok. They leave some nice moist spots in the bread.

Beat in eggs, bananas, milk and vanilla.

In another bowl, combine remaining ingredients.

Add dry mixture to wet mixture and combine. Mix just enough to combine.

Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake for about an hour, or until toothpick comes back clean. I did not cook until the toothpick was completely clean as it turns out a little dry if you do. It will continue to cook for a few minutes as it cools and will be moist.

Cool 5 minutes, remove from pan. Completely cool on cooling rack before wrapping and refrigerating or freezing.

Good day to my fellow bloggers who read this. I am blessed enough to be hosting the next Make it From Scratch carnival. This is a great carnival in which you can submit any article in which you talk about making something from scratch. This could be things such as the salsa I made the other day or the chicken coop I'm working on. It also could be some of the many other great things I've seen in some of the past issues of Make it From Scratch.

Be sure to submit your article. We ask that you only submit one article per blog and you have till midnight Sunday to submit your article. I'll have it posted by Tuesday Morning (probably Monday night, in case I oversleep on Tuesday and don't have time before work). I look forward to reading all the great submission!

With all the tomatoes and tomatillos I've harvested over the last few days, I needed to use them or lose them. I choose to make a couple salsas. Here are the recipes I used. One note. When handling the pepper, it is best to use gloves as they will continue to burn your hands for a long time afterwords.

Tomatillo Salsa

• 1 1/2 lb tomatillos
• 1/2 cup chopped white onion
• 1/2 cup cilantro leaves
• 1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 2 Jalapeño peppers OR 2 serrano peppers, stemmed and seeded. (hold seeds aside)
• Salt to taste

Remove the husk from the tomatillos and rinse them off to remove all the sticky wax from them.

Cut tomatillos and peppers in half. Place on a cookie sheet (foil can be added for easy cleanup). Broil for 5-8 minutes, until browned to lightly blackened or dark brown.

Place all ingredients into food processor or blender and pulse until desired consistency. Add salt last to taste.

Taste. If too hot, add more tomatillos. If not hot enough, add a few of the pepper seeds you held aside. Let sit several hours for flavor to fully blend.

Tomato Salsa

• 2-3 medium sized fresh tomatoes (from 1 lb to 1 1/2 lb)
• 1/2 red onion
• 1 jalapeño chili pepper - stems, ribs, seeds removed. Hold seeds aside.
• 1 serano chili pepper (stems, ribs, seeds removed). Holds seeds aside.
• Juice of one lime
• 1/2 cup cilantro
• Salt and pepper to taste

Chop the tomatoes, onions, peppers and cilantro to the desired consistency. If you want it chunky, cut it chunky. If you want it smooth, use the food processor.

Combine all ingredients. Taste, if too hot, add more tomato, if not hot enough add a few pepper seeds. Let sit a few hours for flavor to fully blend.