Stew weather

Rather whine and cry about our second major cold front ... here's a pic of our stove this evening!  Beef stew with the last of the pole beans and the surviving turnips, with some store-bought veggies for good measure, and on the back burner is hubby's big pot of chili with beans.

Stew and chili on the stove

Of course, the dog is filing more paperwork with Amnesty International about further violations of the Geneva Convention (which prohibits torture).

Canned spiced apple rings

I was both brave and feeling pretty good today, so I took the plunge to try out my new waterbath canner, transforming a little under 3 pounds of Jonathan apples into spiced apple rings ... well, they were supposed to stay as rings.  I guess they were a smidge too ripe since the rings broke during cooking.  Technically, I have canned spiced apple ring bits.  LOL

canned spiced apple rings

I left out the red food coloring for them, as I just don't see the point.  I licked my finger after filling the half-pints, so it will definitely taste good.  All seven half-pints "popped" within half an hour of pulling them out, so I did it right!

Massive cook-fest in progress

I've had some good days over the weekend, which involved planting, yard work, building a second garden box ... and a whole heapin' mess o' cooking.  So much cooking that hubby was the one who suggested I get pics!  Hubby has been a happy man with a full belly ...

Saturday's quiche for brunchfast (credit to hubby for coining "brunchfast").  This was my first try at making a quiche, and I kinda-sorta followed a recipe from (of all things!) a Wal-Mart holiday sales flyer.  Seriously ...!  I say kinda-sorta because I didn't buy what they were trying to promote: ready-made pie crust and brand-name sausage, and for some reason they were only putting sausage in it.  I grabbed up my reprint of the 1896 Fanny Farmer Cookbook and made my own crust while hubby cut up fresh spinach and mushrooms to toss in with the browning sausage, then I sprinkled shredded sharp cheddar over the top right before putting it into the oven.  Here is the result (the one that kicked off hubby's "Do you want to get a picture of it before we devour it?")

My first homemade quiche

When son got home from Lexington, he lamented that we didn't save him any, and I learned that the kiddo loves quiche.  Hubby reassured him there WILL be more, with a look my way .... he claims he wants one each weekend now.

Another recipe from the same WM flyer: stuffed mushrooms which went beautifully with a nice thick-cut ribeye that was in the serious markdown case.  The entire dinner:

ribeye steak dinner

And a close-up of the stuffed mushrooms (which really ROCK fresh out of the oven!)

Stuffed mushrooms

Cream cheese, sharp cheddar, bacon, the diced-up stems, fresh spinach, a clove of fresh garlic, and a piece of dried-out cornbread crumbled up ...measurements?  Errr ... oh yeah!  I used 4 oz of cream cheese and 4 pieces of bacon ... the rest I just tossed in what looked like enough.  The recipe left out the stems, the spinach, and the cornbread, if I recall correctly.

Now for the sole survivor from the chicken pot pie the night before last:

Homemade chicken pot pie

It looks so lonely ... that is the butter-crust!  I finally got one half-way photogenic!  The guys pretty much raced each other to the stove for seconds, while I waited out the feeding-frenzy wondering if I had room for a second piece.  (I didn't.)  When they got done with seconds, they commiserated about leaving one survivor.

Hubby has offered to buy me a second glass pie pan, not only so I can make two quiches at once, but so we don't have to hurry to wash the one up.  He'll pretty much buy me any cooking implement I want, as long as I keep cooking good food.

It LOOKS like pot pie this time

I've been perusing my reprint of the 1896 Fanny Farmer Cookbook in an effort to do more cooking from scratch (due to dissatisfaction with the quality of stuff in the grocery store recently) and tonight I got brave enough to try a pot pie again.  That, and the leftover ham soup wasn't going to eat itself, and my son in particular prefers a pot pie over a soup.

I tried my rolling pin out at a pot pie a few weeks ago with a beef pot roast that didn't cook up tender enough, and the crust ... well ... there's a learning curve.  It tasted great, but it looked ... not pie-ish.  I had skipped the washing-the-butter step, thinking maybe it didn't apply to modern-made butter.  Once I finally scraped the dough off the rolling pin, pastry mat, and most of my hands, it just didn't look like a pie crust should.  Hubby said he wanted another one anyway, because the more I practice the more he has the opportunity to eat.

The Fanny Farmer cookbook has three different pie crust recipes (called "paste" and in the pastry chapter) so I tried the one without butter tonight, and this time it looks like a pot pie!

Ham pot pie

There was no holding hubby back when it came out of the oven, so this is what's left.  It turned out a bit dry, as I had enough pie dough to put a layer on the bottom which soaked up a good portion of the broth, but it does indeed taste like a pie crust.  Next time, more gravy/broth when using a bottom crust ... but it still has a LOT more flavor than the stuff in the freezer aisle at the grocery (that includes all the brand names - we love pot pies here).

This kind of cooking is the only change I've made to my diet since June ... oh, and in addition to using real butter instead of margarine I have even bought real lard to make my pie crusts.  And yes, I am still losing weight, although not as quickly as I did over the summer.

New cast iron!

So I might as well toss a few cooking posts on here while I'm at it ... it's maggie's fault of course for asking me to share how I make chicken stock.  Heehee ... maggie "blames" me for so much nowadays it's running joke that any time she claims something is my "fault" I automatically tell her "You're welcome!"

So for the past few weeks hubby has been debating the merits of getting a griddle so he can make more than one pancake at a time.  Last week I came home with a cast iron double-sided griddle, and found out he had an electric griddle in mind .... Bah!  I am making great progress in turning him into a cast iron convert.  Here is my stove top cast iron now, with the addition of the griddle (in this pic, he just finished pancakes plus eggs for breakfast).

new cast iron griddle plus my 3 trusty skillets

The other side has diagonal ridges to cook meats like hamburger patties ... or chicken breasts for sandwiches over the weekend.  I demonstrated both for hubby, and yesterday he started using the ridged side to whip up chicken breast sandwiches for our lunch.  He figured out that it's better to do bacon on the flat side of the griddle, though.

The truly cute thing about my new piece of cast iron is just how long the ridged side keeps my dog's attention (once it's cooled enough for the doggy to pre-rinse).

One thing I won't bother blogging about is cast iron care because Gloria already has some excellent posts on it!  Much easier to just link hers since I would only be repeating what she has already written.

Making my own chicken stock (broth)

This is the project that's been on my stove since mid-afternoon, and when I mentioned it in chat, Maggie commented that she hasn't "quite gotten a handle on the whole stock-making thing".  So I offered to blog it ... although I don't have pictures of every step since this is quite impromptu.

Start with whole fryers (or roasters or broilers ... a whole chicken that's been dressed out) and cut off the frying pieces (wings, legs) and fillet off the breasts, saving the skin, neck, giblets, and the carcass after you're done cutting off the pieces.  Put into a stock pot and just cover all the parts with water, then simmer for an hour to an hour-and-half.  I've noticed it turns out better doing an hour-and-half on a low simmer.

3 chickens, 2 stock pots

After it's simmered enough to cook the meat tender but NOT falling off the bones by itself, pull out all the chicken pieces, and (AFTER it's cool enough to handle!) pull the meat off the bones, then dice up the giblets.  Toss out the bones and skin.  Set the meat in the fridge, then break out season-stuff that you will be straining out.  In my case, that is onion, celery, and minced garlic.  Slow-simmer another hour.

After the second hour, pour the shtuff through first a wire strainer to catch all the solid pieces, then through cheesecloth (or in my case tonight, cheap cotton muslin because I can't find my cheesecloth).  At this point you can let it cool and put it up in containers, or if like me you made way more than you realized you can simmer it down to concentrate it.  Don't skim the fat out until you are ready to cook with it, as the fat will form a seal over the top.

Here is where I am at right now, simmering it down to concentrate it.  I've managed to get it all in my largest stock pot.

chicken stock simmering down

Just a note: the cheap cotton muslin makes a decent substitute for cheesecloth, so this qualifies as a way to use scraps!

You can also boil down ham bones or do a straight vegetable stock using this method - although straight veggie stock won't form a fat seal on top.

Hope that helps ya, Maggie!