November 24, 2012

Outside Temp: 25 F (a little rain, a little snow today.  The weather wasn't sure what it wanted to do)

What I cooked today:
Turkey Stock: I made up some stock from yesterday's turkey bones.  The house smelled just like turkey all afternoon.  No, I'm not sick of turkey, yet.

Update:
Patrick and I went into town this afternoon, for some shopping.  He needed some things from Home Depot, and I managed to run out of both flour and brown sugar (gasp!).  At the grocery store, the kid helping me was amazed that I might actually use a 25 lb bag of flour.  I explained that I go through a 25 lb bag about 3 times a year.  He was stunned.  I laughed.

March 15, 2012

Outside Temp: 39 F (again, very pretty today.  Not too windy, and clear and sunny!)

What I cooked today:
Chicken Soup (with stars!): We had a debate between stars and short noodles... the stars won.  I have to say that since it is so easy to make chicken soup when you have all the ingredients on hand, I wonder why I ever used canned soup.  Oh yea, because Katie likes Cambells better than homemade... She's a kid, so I guess I can forgive her ignorance.

Chicken Stock: I picked up a fryer chicken in town this week (which I should have waited, since they are on sale for $0.79/lb!), so I cut it up and made more stock.  I'm out of chicken in my freezer, so I really just needed the breasts.  But, since I've been using up my stock, I figured it was worth it to make up some more.  I only canned 4 quarts, since I used up about 2-3 quarts in the soup tonight... it just didn't seem right to used stock that was already canned, when I had fresh stock sitting in the stock pot!

Update:
Pretty relaxing day... I made my stock.  I walked down to the post office and chatted for a while. The kids were home from school early (school was out at 1pm, instead of 3:30pm), so we chatted about their day.

We had our Adult Faith class tonight.  We are studying the Gospel of John, and Patrick found a copy of St. Thomas Aquinas' essays about John.  So, from about 1pm until we left for the class (about 6pm), Patrick and I read through the gospel and the essays.  Oh my goodness, St. Thomas is amazing.  If you ever have the chance to read his works, it's totally worth it!  Of course, we were only covering the 5th chapter of John, which is about 2 pages long.  We read about 50 pages of essays, and it only covered the first page of the gospel.  Amazing.  I'm really looking forward to next week's class, where we cover Chapter 12. 

February 3, 2012

Outside Temp: 19 F (a little chilly outside, but it's been nice and warm all day, in the 40s.)

What I cooked today:
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Tomato Soup: A total classic.  Is there anything better?  Of course, at least one child had only the soup and one child had only the sandwich, but Patrick and I ate enough to make up for it!  Yummmy.

Chicken Soup with Stars: I think my husband was the biggest kid at the table.  "ooooo, stars!  They're soo cool!".  He was so excited about the silly stars.  Of course, he really liked the soup and only added a few pinches of salt.  He is always, always adding salt to food.  I've come to realize I can never salt it enough, so I just salt it enough for me, and let him add all the salt he wants.

More Chicken Stock: I was almost depressed when I saw that whole fryer chickens were on sale for $0.88 / lb at Albertsons this week.  But I picked up two chickens anyway, and waited until today to make my stock.  I'm getting better at it.  I'm really getting better at cutting up the silly chicken.  Legs and Thighs come off in one nice slice, and they go right into a FoodSaver bag and into the freezer for BBQ chicken, someday.  Then I slice off the wings and throw them in the pot (that is already simmering with onions, celery and carrots, and about 8 cups of water).  Then I carefully slice off the breasts.  This is the kind of tricky part, since I like to have them cut off perfectly.  I'm getting pretty good.  Then, of course, the rest of the carcass goes into the pot.  Add some salt and pepper and the lid and just babysit all day, adding extra water as necessary.  I pulled out about 4-5 cups of stock to make my soup, and just added extra water back into the pot.  Since I had another 2-3 hours before I started pressure canning the stock, I knew the water would absorb all that nice flavor. 

I also realized that I only have to pressure can the stock for about 25 minutes, not the 90 minutes I did last time.  Which is good, since I have 2 batches to can.  The first batch is already done, just de-pressurizing. 

Update:
Thank goodness, today was a better day than yesterday.

We were able to finish off some our apologies today (one will have to wait until tomorrow), which prompted my child to say:
"You know, mom, saying sorry does actually make you feel better."

Then came the day of forced manual labor.  My child had to scrub some really nasty windows, inside and out.  Then clean the bedroom.  Then Ryan's room, vacuuming both.  Then the laundry.  Then the dishes.  Then the floor.  Then homework could finally be started.  After dinner consisted of cleaning the family room, which is kind of a mess (all Ryan's fault, I'm sure). 

No computer, no TV.  Not even watching siblings play. 

Oh boy, did the day suck for my child.  But I hope that lessons were learned.  We may continue his forced labor through the weekend, I haven't decided yet.

We also got a call from a Realtor in Great Falls, saying they wanted to show the house to someone on Sunday.  Now, we're not total slobs, but we have a lot of stuff that really has no place.  Since we knew our stay here was not permanent, a lot of things are still in boxes and such. 

So, today and tomorrow have had us going around the house, closing up boxes and putting them in the garage.  We really want the place to look nice for whomever is coming by.  We have been here since September, and this is the first time someone wanted to see the house.  I know the owner really, really wants to sell it, but with all the issues, I can imagine it's going to be pretty hard to sell the place.  If we can make the place look nice, maybe the person coming by will buy it.  And since we're looking for somewhere else to live anyway, there's no hard feelings. 

So, in a "making the best of a bad situation", I'm getting a little extra help cleaning up the house, and my child is getting the chance to make justified reparations.  Talk about killing 2 birds with one stone... which is pretty hard to do, I can imagine.  Not that I've ever tried to kill a bird with a stone... Or tried to kill a bird, period.  Hmmm, I'll have to try that sometime, just to see if it's really that hard!

January 29, 2012

Outside Temp: 47 F (seriously!  I'm trying to be patient, but winter is taking it's darn sweet time... I know... I'll hate it by April... )

What I cooked today:
French Toast: I love making breakfast for everyone on the weekend.  Since the kids eat at school, we don't do breakfast on weekdays.  So, I'm left with weekends to make awesome carbohydrate filled meals that you can pour pure sugar on...

Chicken and Rice Soup: Since I was making stock, Patrick was concerned that my pressure canner didn't actually do it's job last week.  So, to prove that it was fine, we used the canned stock from last week for soup today (which was kind of stupid, since I had about 10 quarts of stock simmering on the stove).  We popped open the jar, and there was no funky smell or anything.  It just smelled like chicken stock.  We made up the soup, and it tasted great.  So, now he is comfortable with me pressure canning my stock.  Oh thank goodness, since that was totally keeping me up at night.

Chicken Stock: about 10 quarts of the stuff.  I bought 2 fryer chickens at the store this week (only to find that they were cheaper this week.   I borrowed an 8 qt stock pot from Patrick's mom, since I could only fit one chicken in my pot.  So, all day long, the stock simmered.  I would add some extra water throughout the day, making sure it stayed right up there at the top.  Then after dinner, I sterilized the jars, filled them, and placed them in my pressure canner.  Of course, my pressure canner can only hold 7 quart jars.  So, we had to pressure can them in 2 batches.  According to my instructions, I needed to pressure can them for at least an hour, and up to 1 1/2 hours.  Since we got the (first batch) of jars into the canner and got it pressurized and going around 10:30, that would make the first batch done around midnight, and the second batch done around 2am.  Oh lovely.  That was NOT my plan.  Oh well, the things you do for good food.

Update:
Because we've been having such awesome wind, we decided not to go skiing today.  I know, total shocker.  No skiing?  How could it possibly be a Sunday that doesn't include skiing.  And yet, here we are.

Allen was invited to a movie with a friend, so he was gone by 1pm.  Spoiled kid... didn't have to help with the dishes or the laundry all day!

I got caught up on my laundry, which took about 7 loads.  Granted, there was some laundry to be done before the septic issues, so I was feeling guilty.  And since we didn't have anything else to do today anyway, I spent it babysitting my stock and folding laundry.  But no complaints... I love my working septic system.

January 23, 2012

Outside Temp: 28 F (it was over 32 most of the day, which makes for some very slushy roads)

What I cooked today:
Chicken Stock: I cooked up about 4 quarts of chicken stock today, which I then canned in my pressure canner.  Now, I can just put them in my pantry and use them whenever I need them, without having to defrost!  I still have 2 more fryer chickens, so I see this happening 2 more times in the next few days. 

Orange Chicken: With the stock cooking all day, I forgot that I had to actually make dinner.  I had some chicken defrosted from a few days ago, so I whipped up the orange chicken sauce and cooked up the chicken.  I didn't spoil the kids with fried rice, but they still ate up every bite.  I even had a few tablespoons of sauce left, which everyone fought over to pour over their rice.  Katie tried to steal my last bite of chicken, but I wouldn't let her!  Bad mom!

Update:
Ryan had speech therapy today, and I had in the back of my head that it was not at 8:00, like usual.  But for the life of me, I couldn't remember when I was supposed to be there.  So, I brought all the kids to school at 8, and waited.  And waited.  Around 9am, I gave up and headed home.  I walked through the door, only to be greeted by Patrick telling me the speech therapist would be there by 9:30.  So, we turned right around and headed back to the school. 

So, when the speech therapist told me today that she would be there at 9:30 next week, I put it right into my Outlook calendar the moment I stepped in the house.  Hopefully, I won't forget next week!

It turned out to be a blessing, since Ryan finished with speech right around the same time the kids were outside for recess.  So, Ryan headed out with the other kids.  There was a large section of ice that was still frozen, and the kids were skating over it in their boots.  The kids helped Ryan skate over it as well!  He had so much fun!

We had our Adult Faith class tonight, which is always nice (and not just because it's 2 hours with no kids!).   The program we are working on is a series of DVD sessions, about 50 minutes each.  It's a great program and we have time to stop the video and discuss what we are learning.  It's nice to be able to spend time, talking with our wonderful neighbors, and simply being a part of the community.

October 30, 2011

Outside Temp: 56 F (and rising... We are having a Chinook, which is a warm wind that causes big temp changes... Snow is scheduled for tomorrow night and again Thursday and Friday)

What I cooked today:
Chicken Stock: I purchased two fryer chickens last week, since they were on sale, and I had the second one in the freezer until Friday, when I was planning on making another batch of stock.  Of course, Friday and Saturday were so busy, I didn't get it done.  So, I HAD to do something with the chicken today or risk loosing it!  So, I cut it up and tossed it in the crock pot for the last 10ish hours.  I saved back the breast and thighs for the chicken noodle soup tonight.  I'm getting pretty good at cutting apart a chicken and I'm beginning to wonder why I've been paying $3.50 a pound for chicken breast, when I can get the whole chicken for less, and still end up with 2 perfectly good breasts (not to mention some really awesome broth!)

Chicken Noodle Soup:  Since we played in the snow today (see below), we really needed a warm soup to come home to.  Nothing compares to homemade chicken noodle soup.  Sooooo easy!  The broth was mostly done by the time we were ready for dinner, so I simply sauteed some onions, carrots and celery for a few minutes, added about 4 cups of stock and 2 cups of water.  Then I cut up and cooked the chicken breasts and thighs from the chicken from this morning, and tossed those into the pot and simmered for another 30-40 minutes.  During that time, I boiled up some egg noodles.  I dished the noodles into the bowls first, then added the soup, which keeps the noodles from over cooking.  Totally awesome!


Update:
Connor was complaining because he missed the snow the other day.  He was at practice and by the time he got home and ate dinner, it was dark.  Since he had school the next day, the snow was all melted before he got home.  Granted, I can completely understand why he was upset. 

So, we got up this morning with very little to do, and decided to have a picnic up in the mountains.  We packed a cooler with sandwich fixing's and a picnic basket with bread, granola bars, and Reese's peanut butter cups (oh yea) and jumped in the car and headed up into the mountains.

The first 30 minutes made me a little nervous, since it was in the mid 50's outside and there wasn't a lick of snow anywhere.  But as we got a little higher, I began to notice some snow in the shadows, around Belt Creek.  By the time we got up to the snow area, there was a small amount of snow on the ground.  We pulled off the road into the 'Recreation Area', which is code for Snowmobiles and cross country skiers.

The parking lot was covered in snow!  We simply pulled the car into a (snow covered) parking spot and jumped out.  The kids immediately began picking up snow and forming snowballs to throw at each other. 

Then we moved onto Snow Angels

Then, we decided to work on a snow man!!

And he turned out fine...
But, then Katie and Connor had to make a BIGGER one! Of course, by now the snow was really melting and we got a lot of dirt into our snowman, but that didn't matter.  I promised them that next time there should be more snow, less dirt.  :)
We finished off the snow trip with a short hike in the wood, which was awesome.  We saw tracks from a rabbit, and probably the wolf that was hunting the rabbit.  And the kids were bummed when I told them not to venture too far off the trail.  After seeing the size of the wolf tracks, we might want to bring some sort of firearm for protection next time!

After the snow trip, we headed into Belt for their 'OctoberFest and Halloween Carnival'.  The kids had fun in the haunted house and they played a few carnival games, but I think they were pooped from all the fresh air and fun!  I know I was!!!

October 23, 2011

Current Outside Temp: 41 F

What I cooked today:

Frozen Pomegranates:  We bought 22 lbs of pomegranates from Bountiful Baskets about two weeks ago, and finally, last night, finished 'processing' them.  We'd removed all the seeds (using the awesome underwater method) and today they were frozen solid enough to pack into FoodSaver bags and toss in the freezer.  What on earth am I going to do with 7 1/2 lbs of pomegranate seeds? 

Chicken Stock:  I bought a 'fryer chicken' from Albertsons this week (for $0.79 a lb!) and had to do something with it.  I used to think that chickens were just born in chunks, you know, like breasts, wings, legs, etc.  It turns out that chickens are like turkeys, born as a whole bird, and you can cut the individual pieces off!  Who knew?

Okay, I'm kidding, I knew they came as a whole bird, but I had never really done anything with a whole bird except the turkey at Thanksgiving.  And this bird was way too small to stuff and serve with mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. 

Referencing my handy 'Alton Brown: Good Eats' cookbook, I learned today how to octo-sect a chicken.  I cut the bird into all eight parts (breasts, wings, thighs and legs), and didn't do too bad of a job.   I took the breasts and the thighs and sealed them up with my foodSaver and tossed them into the freezer.  The legs and wings, and the rest of the bird, went into my 12 qt stock pot, along with an onion, a carrot and a stalk of celery.  The top went on and within about 20 minutes, all was boiling nicely. 

Of course, today we had to go into Great Falls for our weekly shopping trip, so I transferred the stock into my crock pot.  It filled the pot to the top, just shy of going over the top.  I left it simmering for about 8 hours and came home to a pot filled with beautiful homemade chicken stock!  I strained out all the 'stuff' and was left with about 12 cups of stock.  It chilled for about 2 hours in my fridge, and then I canned it.  I'm throwing the jars into the freezer, instead of pressure canning it: a) because I'm too lazy to do it tonight.  and b) because I want to read up a little more on pressure canning meat products before I subject my family to the string of bacteria that can occur.  'Alton' suggested putting it into ice cube trays, and then you can use as little or as much as you want. But I figured I'd make a mess of that.  Maybe next time!

Chicken and Noodle Soup:  Using a couple cups of my newly made stock, I tossed together some carrots, celery and onions to make a great homemade chicken soup!  I had a single 'freezer burned' chicken breast in my freezer, so that got defrosted and cooked and tossed into the soup.  Cooking up a handful of noodles, dinner was ready about 45 minutes after I walked in the door!  Patrick said the broth was awesome! 

 Update:
Today was our weekly trip into Great Falls for shopping.  It's about 40 miles in (and 40 miles out) of Great Falls, so I hate to do it more than necessary.  Since Patrick's parents are leaving on Tuesday, I thought we'd take advantage of them (again) and have them watch the kids so Patrick and I could have a date.  Of course, that date consisted of shopping, but I'll take it!  In 3 hours, we hit Big R, Walgreen's, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Smiths and Albertsons.  I worked on my weekly list of meal planning last night and I think I'm good until next Sunday. 

Tomorrow's forecast is for a high of 45 and a low of 27, which means it will be kind of cold.  Not really cold, but kind of cold.  It's also calling for rain, which means I might get to see more snow tomorrow or Tuesday morning!  It also means that at 6:45 tomorrow morning, in the dark, while I'm getting the kids ready for school, it will be cold.  Ugh, I'm not looking forward to the whining tomorrow morning: 'Mom, I'm cold, I don't want to get out of bed!'.  But, since I'm driving them in tomorrow, instead of taking the bus (Ryan has speech at 8:15), they get an extra 10 minutes!  :)

The boys have their first Basketball game tomorrow night, in Belt.  Apparently, Belt's team is really good, but we'll try our best!  I can't wait to see the boys on the court!  Stay tuned for pictures tomorrow...