Italian Wedding Soup 01/27/2012
Method: 1. Saute carrots, onion and celery in oil until soft and starting to brown. 2. While veggies sauté, make the meatballs: mix beef, eggs, breadcrumbs, parmesan, salt and pepper in a separate mixing bowl. Form into ½ inch balls, and set on a baking sheet. 3. Cook meatballs on the baking sheet in 375F degree oven for 12-15 minutes. 4. Stir in the spinach to the sautéing veggies and let it wilt. 5. Add chicken stock to veggies. 6. Let the mixture reduce on high heat. 7. Add pasta to soup to cook. 8. When meatballs are cooked, add them to the soup. 9. Boil 5 minutes and season with salt and pepper. Add Comment wonderful chicken stock...for cheap 11/18/2011
wonderful chicken stock...for cheap 11/18/2011
This recipe comes from the amateur gourmet and is a wonderful way to use all of the chicken instead of just the breask, thigh and legs. Enjoy.  It’s cheap and easy to have homemade chicken stock on hand: all you really need is time. And thyme. But mostly time. Sure, it can be expensive–I still can’t get over The Barefoot Contessa’s recipe which calls for not one, not two, but THREE whole chickens that you boil for three hours and discard. That seems extraordinarily wasteful, don’t you think? I’ve played around with lots of stock recipes, but my latest foray into stock making was a pretty happy one. The recipe comes from Molly Stevens and it’s simple and straightforward and cheap, cheap, cheap. What makes it so cheap is that you use chicken backs. I bought 5 lbs of chicken backs from Key Food for less than $5. I was slightly hesitant, at first, because unlike the chickens I normally buy–which are either organic or free-range or both–they only had generic chicken backs (along with generic chicken feet, chicken necks, and gizzards.) Here’s how I rationalized my purchase: the economics of chicken production are such that companies don’t make their money from selling chicken backs, feet, etc. They make their money from whole chickens, chicken thighs, and–most definitely–chicken breasts. So buying generic chicken backs, while not ideal, most likely doesn’t affect much in the factory farmed chicken industry. In fact, if you want to put a positive spin on it, you’re ensuring that this chicken–which may have been a tortured, unhappy chicken–didn’t die just for its breast and thighs. You’re honoring the animal by using all of its parts. Anyway, I got sidetracked. You’re here for a stock recipe, right? Ok, here’s what you do. When you buy your backs (4 lbs), also buy 1 medium onion, 1 medium carrot, 1 celery stalk, 5 thyme sprigs, 5 parsley sprigs, 1 bay leaf and 6 black peppercorns. (Ok, I doubt you can buy just 5 parsley sprigs, but you get the idea.) 
Now the cooking. 1. Heat the oven to 400F; wash and pat very dry the chicken backs. Place in a single layer in a roasting pan… …and roast, turning hafway through, for 35 minutes until golden brown. 2. Now transfer the chicken pieces to a deep stockpot; pour off the excess fat from the roasting pan and put the pan on two burners on medium heat. Pour in 1/2 cup of water (enough to cover the bottom) and scrape up all the bits and drippings. Pour this seasoned water into the stock pot and add the chopped yellow onion, the chopped medium carrot, the chopped celery stalk, the peppercorns and all the herbs tied together (so you can fish them out later.) Now fill the pot with cold water to cover the bones by about 1 inch (it’s about 10 1/2 cups of cold water), GENTLY bring to a simmer over medium heat and let it simmer gently–GENTLY! (“Princess Bride,” anyone?)–for 3 hours. Skim the surface as it goes and never, EVER let it boil or you’ll have greasy cloudy stock. (Confession: mine boiled for a brief second, but I quickly took it off the heat to rescue it.) 3. Three hours later, you’re basically done. Strain the stock–get rid of all the solids–and refrigerate. The next morning, remove all the fat from the top and you’ve got stock, baby. I measured out 4 cup portions which I put in Tupperware and stored in the freezer. This recipe yielded 12 cups of stock; so I have 3 containers ready to go. Isn’t that pretty cool? $5 worth of chicken backs yielded 12 cups of golden chicken stock that’ll make my food taste restaurant quality. And that’s chicken stock for ya, 1, 2, 3. Keeping a Light in Your Chicken House 08/18/2011
This is an article from Robert Plamondon's Poultry Newsletter that I recieve via email every month. I enjoy his articles very much. His latest is on the question of Artificial Lighting for Chickens during fall and winter. Since I recieve a lot of questions regarding lighting....I hope you enjoy. For more information, here is his website. www.plamondon.com/freerange.html
Artificial Lighting for Hens Let me start by scoffing at the people who think that artificial lights are bad for hens. The fact is that lights are nowhere near so effective as people think they are. On modern poultry farms, you get about 15% more eggs per year if you use lights to give hens a constant day length year-round. Under old-fashioned farm conditions, which is what my hens see, the annual egg output is not affected much by artificial lights. A Dozen Reasons to have Urban Chickens 08/10/2011
From the site: goodworldfood.com
Thinking about a few chickens? Here are a dozen reasons why you should have them in your backyard: 1. Fresh, healthy, delicious eggs, free of pesticides and antibiotics. 2. Cruelty free raised food. 3. Chickens eat table scraps, reducing municipal solid waste. Monsanto facing GMO lawsuit 08/09/2011
Alot of things go on behind the scenes regarding our food. Mostly giants trying to squash those that are smaller farmers, making it harder and harder to grow good food. I thought this lawsuit an interesting read. Hope you do to.  A class action suit has been filed by a group of plaintiffs connected with the organic/natural foods movement against the gene-splicing giant, Monsanto Corporation. The suit, filed March 29, 2011, in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, in Manhattan, seeks a declaratory judgment against Monsanto. If granted, the judgment will prohibit Monsanto from suing for patent infringement in the event that its patented genes, such as the glyphosate tolerance gene, should turn up in seeds or plants grown by organic or heirloom farmers.
August Gardening Tips 08/03/2011
Planting
Sow seeds of cool weather crops such as carrots, parsley, radishes, Swiss chard, lettuce, and beets Sow perennial seeds: Shasta daisy, coreopsis, columbines and black-eyed Susan Fall vegetables can be planted now. You can also start to plant seedlings of cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts Late-blooming perennials, such as Helianthus, Helenium, Heliopsis, and Rudbeckia, make great color displays in the fall landscape. Plant autumn-flowering crocus, sternbergia, colchicum, and other fall-flowering bulbs as soon as they become available at garden centers. Crocus and sternbergia need full sun; colchicum can be planted in areas receiving light shade. Five Ways to Eat Squash Blossoms 07/28/2011
 Taken from the website www.thekitchn.com
Along with the arrival of summer squashes this season are their dainty, edible flowers. The bright orange blossoms sold at farmers' and specialty markets are generally from zucchini plants, though the flowers of other summer squashes may be eaten, as well. The blossoms are often served fried – a dish we will never turn down, but there are several other ways to fully enjoy the beautiful color and delicate texture and flavor of this summer ingredient. Christmas Moments to Remember 07/14/2011
I know it's not Christmas, but thought I'd post a blog I'd written several years back. Enjoy.
Buster has been wonderful in giving me moments I'll treasure and hope to be able to tell my grandchildren about when they are young. Each year, there seems to be something he says, that i remember as a "kodak" moment. When we first got our first set of chicks, he peeked into the box to see the RIR baby chicks. He promptly stuck his finger in the air holes trying to touch them, and then looked up at me and said, "mommy, look! these chicks have red peckers!!" That's the day he learned that chickens may peck but they have beaks. it's summer 06/21/2011
it's that time of year again when everything's just too darn hot. are incubators and hatchers will get turned off and cleaned...no new babies till september. we'll be taking a break as buster starts up his football season with the pearland football league and concentrating on raising the babies that we hatched in late winter/early spring to show at the fayette county fair in la grange. see you there! |
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