How to make Stock

Ok, so I have had some people question how to make their own stock. Its so easy... first of all, I keep a stock bag in my freezer at all times... what this is, is a gallon sized freezer bag with STOCK written on it that I put all of my ends of celery, my bits of carrots, skins of onions, left over garlic, green pepper stems...pretty much anything veggie related that I was going to pitch!!! I just pop it in the freezer bag and save it for stock! Now, when I have a chicken or turkey...or anything like that, I take the meat off the bone and KEEP the carcass!

I roast the contents of my "stock bag" to bring out the flavors ( I heat my oven to 350, put everything on a baking sheet drizzle with EVOO, season with salt and pepper and bake for 10 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, I put my carcass in a large stock pot and cover with water. Once the veggies are done, I add them to my stock pot. Add seasonings and bring to a boil. Once at a boil, reduce heat and simmer for many many hours (over night is good, I like to give it a good 24hours though for the best flavor) The goal is to get the bone marrow out of the bones.

Once it has simmered and all of the flavors are combined and wonderful, you should be left with a nice dark stock. Strain through a cheesecloth or very fine strainer. Let sit so the fat can rise and it can be easily separated.

Now Beef Stock is a little trickier...
You need to start out with some good sized beef BONES. Bake them at 450 for 30 minutes uncovered... then add your veggies and bake another 30 minutes... remove from the baking dish and be sure to scrap up all of the goodies on the bottom of the pan... now transfer all of that into a stock pot, fill with water, season and bring to a boil, once it comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for many many hours. Once again, I recommend overnight, but I would go as far as all day and all night! And why not, your house will smell WONDERFUL the whole time!!! Once it has simmered and all of the flavors are combined and wonderful, you should be left with a nice dark stock. Strain through a cheesecloth or very fine strainer. Let sit so the fat can rise and it can be easily separated.

All Stocks can be stored in the fridge for around a week, or can be frozen. I recommend freezing in ice cube trays to control portions!

Potato Soup

A medium Onion
a few stalks of celery
a couple good sized potatoes
6 tbls butter
6 tbls flour
2 chicken bouillon cubes (or you could just use a good chicken stock in leu of water and chicken bouillon)
1 1/2 cups chopped cooked ham
2 cups milk
1/2 cup heavy cream (I totally used more than this)

In a dutch oven or stock pot, sweat the diced onion and celery, season with salt and pepper. Add chopped potatoes, and ham, cover with water. Boil for 10 minutes until potatoes start to get tender. Meanwhile, in a sauce pan or skillet, melt butter and wisk in flour, stir for 1 min, then begin to add milk. once incorporated, add the heavy cream stir for 3-5 minutes until thickened.

Once you have boiled the potatoes with the water and blah blah, reduce heat and add bouillion cubes stir, once they are dissolved add the milk mixture. Cook another few minutes so all of the flavors blend, season with salt and pepper to taste!

It is soooo good!!

Homemade Doggie Treats

Here is a fun recipe that the kids love to help with! The dogs love them and I feel good about giving it to them because I KNOW what has gone into them.

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup powdered dry milk
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. honey
6 tbs. homemade turkey, chicken or beef stock (I use the fatty filmy layer that I scrap off the top of the pot. The dogs LOVE it!!)
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly oil a cookie sheet. Combine flour, dry milk, garlic powder and honey. Cut in meat drippings until mixture resembles corn meal. Mix in egg. Add enough water so that mixture forms a ball. Using your fingers, pat out dough onto cookie sheet to 1/2" thick. Cut dough into squares or if you have a cool doggie biscuit cutter, that would work too, whatever is most appropriate for your dog size. Prick each cookie with fork. Bake 25-30 minutes. Remove from tray and cool on rack. Store in airtight container.

I made these for all of the neighborhood doggies as Christmas Treats!!!

Dishwasher detergent

Once in a while, there is a little more month at the end of my money...and I need to do dishes, but really dont want to spend a ton of money on dish detergent. So I needed to play around with some homemade options, when this one came up...

2 1/2 cups washing soda (crystals)
2 1/2 cups borax
5 -7 drops essential oil (optional but I use lemon oil)

Directions:

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and make into a finer powder... put in a ziplock bag or airtight container... use 1 1/2-2 tablespoons per load. You can use white vinegar in the rinse aid dispenser for sparkling dishes!!

Chewy Granola Bar

We are having a fundraiser for the Point Place Lions (my competition squad) and we are serving lunch to the customers at the UCC Church Craft Show tomorrow from 9am-3pm. Well, as you can imagine, people dont eat lunch at 9am, so I had to think, do we do nothing and not lose money, or do I improvise! I of course chose to improvise, and made breakfast oatmeal bars to sell from 9-10:30am. I wasn't sure how they would turn out, but man were they good! You can pretty much put whatever you want in them, but this is what I did.

Breakfast Oatmeal Bars

Ingredients

• 4 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup Wheat all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup chunky peanut butter
  
• 2 cups miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Pre-heat your oven to 325 and grease a 9x13 pan. Mix EVERYTHING in your mixer then press firmly into pan. Bake for 18 mins, let cool.

Hint- Line your pan with Foil or parchment, then when its done baking, just lift it out and let it cool on a baking rack. If you don't line your pan, do not remove the bars from the pan until they are cool.

You can substitute raisins, or dried fruit of any kind, you can mix and match any of your favorite flavors to make this recipe your own!

My family really enjoys these, I think yours will too!

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Apple Cake- Perfect for this awesome time of the year!

6 apples, Any kind of baking apple or all-purpose
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar ( I use organic, but refined is ok too)

2 3/4 cups flour, sifted (I use cake flour, but you can use all-purpose if you want)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan, Peel, core and chop apples into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ones, then add eggs, one at a time. Scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated.

Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spread half of apples over it. Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until a tester comes out clean.