Recipe

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.

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.

As I've been learning about canning, I thought I'd try some dandelion jelly. After all, dandelions are so easy to come by. The recipe called for 4 cups of petals, so I went out to get them. I came back a half hour later, with 2 cups... I made a half batch.

To collect, I picked up a bowl and headed out into the yard. I grabbed all the flowers in my yard. This added up to not a whole lot. So I headed down to a park that I know is not sprayed and started picking. After a half hour Elizabeth called to say that dinner was prepared. I got home with very grungy hands and a mere two cups of flowers. I've read that you can freeze the flowers without damaging them. Maybe next time I'll just pick a few from my yard and when my bag reached the full amount, then I'll make the jelly.

You want to pick the largest flowers you can find to keep you prep work down. You will then pull off the green. I just used my fingers to squeeze as much of the yellow flower out and pull as much of the green away as I could. Some of the green still got in, but that is ok. You want to remove as much of the green as you can, because it is bitter.

I then boiled the flowers for a few minutes to get the flavor out of them, added the sugar, forgetting that you are supposed to add the pectin first, and then added the pectin. I then remembered the lemon juice and added it. Next time I think I will make the jelly in the morning when I'm a little clearer in the head and don't make so many mistakes. I had the recipe in front of me to reference, and kept referencing, but still made mistakes.

The next day, I came back to check it out and guess what? It didn't set. I poured it back into the pan, got it heated up again, added a little more pectin and sugar and burnt it in the process. It is now too dark, and too thick. It tastes ok, but it has the look and consistency of honey.

The first recipe I read on dandelion jelly actually claimed it tasted honey-like. It does. I recommend trying it if you have not. It is a little too sweet to eat on its own, but works great on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The recipe I ended up using is this one, but I cut the recipe in half as that is how many blossoms I had.

I mentioned a while back that I was taking a self study course in preserving. I am about 1/2 way through the course and it turns out that by preserving they mean canning. It mentions freezing as an option, but does not talk about drying or any other preserving techniques. I am learning a lot about canning though.

For my first canning attempt, I made Gooseberry Jam with the leftover berries from the Gooseberry Pie I made the other day. Again, it was very tart. I used some small jars that I go, they hold about 1/2 cup. I got 8 jars worth, so 4 cups. I had to cut the recipe to 3/4 size as that is all the berries I had. Here is the recipe I used, at full size, it should make an extra jar or two more than I got. Next I think I'm going to make dandelion jelly.

Gooseberry Jam

ingredients
4 cups chopped gooseberries *
6 cups sugar
Pectin Package

* Start with about 2 quarts of berries. Lightly chop them in the food processor, or chop them by hand. Should make about 4 cups.

Directions
Start water in canner boiling. Sterilize jars and lids. Keep jars hot.

Heat the berries in a large pot along with the pectin. Stir frequently until it reaches a full boil. Stir in sugar. Return to full boil and boil for 1 minute, stirring continuously. Remove from heat and skim foam. Fill hot jars, 1/8 - 1/4 inch from top. Wipe top, put on lid and screw on ring. Place into canner with water 1-2 inches above the tops of the jars. Cover, bring to boil. Boil for 10 minutes at sea level (adjust if at a higher altitude). Let cool 24 hours.

Elizabeth and I went to the farmers market yesterday. I always like going there. One of the farmers had gooseberries. I've always wanted to try them, ever since I saw Snow White and heard her refer to gooseberry pie. They also show up a lot in other children's books. I got a half flat for $12. I used half of them to make a gooseberry pie. The other half I'll use to make some gooseberry jam. I'll make it tomorrow.

The pie was good, although a little tarter than I expected. Gooseberries are quite tart, but with all the sugar, I expected them to be sweeter. The crust I made was a little tough too. We also wanted to dig in right away, while it was warm. It is supposed to cool, which allows it to congeal more and make nicer looking slices. All in all, for the first pie I've ever made, it turned out quite good. After I make the jam, I'll let you know how my first attempt at jam goes.

Here is the recipe I used for the pie. I got it from the farmer I got the gooseberries from.

Gooseberry Pie

Makes 8 servings. Takes 1 hour.

Ingredients

• Pastry for 9 inch double-crust pie (I used one from the pillsbury cook book. I added a little too much water.)
• 4 cups fresh or frozen gooseberries
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon light cream or milk
• Sugar (about 2 teaspoons)

Preparation

1. Prepare and roll out pastry for a double crust pie.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine berries and 1 tablespoon water. Cook over medium-low heat till the berries "pop", stirring occasionally.
3. Combine the sugar, the flour and netmeg; add to the gooseberries in the saucepan. Cook and stir till mixture just begins to bubble.
4. Spread mixture on the pastry lined pie pan. Add the top crust. Seal and flute edge. Cut slits for steam to escape. Brush top crust with cream or milk. Sprinkle with the sugar. Cover the edge of the pie with foil.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove foil. Bake for another 20 minutes or till top is golden. Cool.