Getting More From Your Chicken: Freezing Chicken Bone Broth

    

     Small steps to being self sufficient! Raising, butchering, cooking, and preserving our own meat! We sent a rooster to freezer camp yesterday. Today, I roasted it and we ate it for dinner. It was the best rooster we have had so far! Three of us ate from it tonight, and I froze up 2 meal size packages of chicken for future meals. Right now, I have bone broth simmering on the stove. I plan on freezing it in different size containers and then repackaging them into a gallon size baggie when the are frozen. I did this last time, and used muffin and quart size frozen broth for things like gravy, soups and mashed potatoes, or some good ol' broth for a cold!. Mmmmm... my house smells so good!


What I put in my chicken bone broth:

1. 1 full chicken carcass broke up as best as possible. Breaking the bones helps to insure you get all of the healthy bone goodness. My carcass came from roasting a whole chicken.
2. About 1 cup of diced raw carrots that were from our Thanksgiving dinner a couple of days ago.
3. About 1 cup of diced raw celery, also from the veggie tray.
4. 1 clove of garlic, chopped and smashed
5. 1 small onion diced (it was about the size of an egg.)
6. Salt and Pepper to taste.

Next, I simmered it for about 3 hours. The remaining chicken meat had fallen off of the bones. The garlic and onions had dissolved into the broth and the carrots and celery were super tender. I strained the broth into another pot. Zoey and I munched on the celery and carrots for a bit before adding the strained portion into the pigs slop bowl. The bones went into the garden to compost. 

I dipped out 2 cup portions into recycled lunch meat packaging. These are very convenient when using for recipes. You can also dip out larger portions as well.

When they were frozen, I just popped them out of the plastic bowls and put them in labeled gallon freezer bags.

I also measured out 1 cup servings into muffin tins. I DO NOT recommend using disposable tins unless you just do not care about reusing them. When you pop the little frozen broth circles out it crushes them. Warming the bottom of them for a second might help with preserving them. I do not have any other kind of muffin pans. I picked these up at a local grocery store for .88 cents each. I would prefer to keep them but it will take a bit of work to get them back into shape.. We will see if my patience holds out.

Once Frozen, I placed them in a gallon freezer bag as well. Now when I need a quick pick me up when I start to feel sickly, I can just pop one in a coffee cup and microwave it. Although, the nutrients would be better preserved if I put it in a sauce pan to reheat. These work great for making mashed potatoes and gravies as well. 

     I would really like to learn how to can my chicken broth, but honestly, I'm a bit 'chicken' to try the pressure canner my friend loaned to me. Like I said, baby steps... At least I'm walking the walk towards self sufficiency... baby steps or not! 
What are you doing to become more self sufficient?

Make Some Cookies With That Girl!

     When my son was an infant, many, many moons ago, a good friend of mine came over while I was baking cookies. She was amazed that I was making cookies with out a mix. I was amazed she had never made cookies unless they came out of a tube or a 'just add water' bag. I have thought of this many times over the years. How sad it was to me that she had never made homemade cookies before. Fast forward to many many moons later and I realized, I have never made homemade cookies with my own daughter! 
     How could that happen? Mrs. 'I'm all about the homemade, from scratch' has never made cookies from scratch with her own daughter? Seriously? We make cookies a lot, but they always come from a tube. Crazy, right? Well, in our last house, sometimes the cookies didn't always turn out the best. Then, the oven went out. In this house... okay, I have no excuses. I honestly didn't even realize we had never made cookies from scratch before. Not until Zoey and I were at the store buying ingredients for the cookies we wanted to make. She kept saying, "But Mom, we need to get dough!" I was not really understanding what she was saying until she said, "For the cookies, duh..." Oh. Ummm.... Whoops! Time to have a homemade cookie talk and make some cookies with that girl!
     So what kind of cookies did we want to make? Chocolate chip, pecan, coconut cookies! Our very favorite neighbor, Bree, gave us some pecans from her yard and Zoey shelled them last week. Then I saw a recipe for 'Cowboy Cookies' and we thought they sounded great. We forgot to get oatmeal at the store, so me made the old tried and true chocolate chip cookies and added pecans and coconut to them. 
     I didn't take any photos while we were making cookies. I wanted this to be a Mommy and Me moment. No camera, no staging, just me and her making cookies. Like it is supposed to be. Cookie pictures came after. 

Here is the recipe:

Chocolate-Coconut-Pecan Cookies

(We could not come up with anything better!)

1 cup of butter (room temperature)

3/4 cup of granulated sugar

3/4 cup of packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 eggs

2-1/4 cups of all purpose flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup of coconut

1 cup of chopped pecans

     Preheat oven to 350. Mix together butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs together. Add flour, baking soda and salt. Mix together until dough forms. Add in chocolate chips, coconut and pecans until mixed well. Drop small spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes. (We like slightly gooey cookies so we only do the 10 minutes.)  Allow to cool completely. Makes about 5 dozen. Enjoy!

     If you have never baked with your family, why not try some today. Cooking with your kids is a great way to spend family time. They learn fractions, a bit of chemistry, and it is a great bonding experience. Not to mention, you will have lots of yummy cookies!

Remember, if you have a nut allergy, leave the pecans out! Please use common sense when trying anything you find on here or the web! Also, if you eat the dough raw, you will put yourself in the position to possibly get salmonella from raw eggs. So don't eat the dough!

Cooking Lesson Turned Anatomy Lesson

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Completely unexpected! 

     My daughter had been bugging me to make "little turkeys" (Cornish Hens) for a while now. I figured, why not? She needs to know what a real chicken looks like whole. Thought this could be the first step in learning to cut up a full sized chicken. 

     Yes, of course we made the little hens dance. :) 

     Zoey prepared them by covering them up with a whole lot of butter. Then, we covered them in foil and cooked our hens to perfection. She gobbled it all up! (No pun intended) The whole time she was eating, she was also asking questions about the different parts of the hens. Through out the whole entire meal! She found the breast bone with the cartilage and the bone attached together and gave me a crazy look. I explained the soft wiggly stuff was cartilage, just like on the tip of her nose and the roundness of her ears. She felt the bone part of her nose and how it came down to the softer part. For a moment, she looked very thoughtful. Then she said, "Hmmm... so that's why skeletons don't have ears!" 

Real life, hands on learning at it's best!     

Do you cook with your kids? We would love to hear

about your favorite kid friendly meals! 

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online. 

YOU ATE A WHAT?

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    As soon as I would tell someone, they would immediately make the sour pucker face, shake all over like a seizure and turn green. Some ran away screaming in fright. So of course I would have to tell them again, "We ate snake last night!" Same reaction, kinda funny. "You ate a what?" "Yes, we ate a snake." Complete and total freak out! Got to love it!
     Yes, we ate a snake. Yes, it was good. Yes, we will probably eat another if we can catch one again. "Who killed it?'
"My husband."
"Did you skin and gut it?"
"No, my son did. I didn't even realize what was going on till he brought it to me and asked how he could cook it."
"But, you ate it?"
"Well, yes of course I did!"
(Insert retching/gagging sound here!)

     Truth be told, we as a family, have wanted to try snake for a while. That is what happens when your son is a survival show junkie. Since he was old enough to watch t.v. he loved animal documentaries and shows. His teachers would comment on how he was the only one that would watch a documentary when they were studying certain animals. He was glued! When shows like "Survivor Man' started popping up everywhere, he was hooked. What boy in the country wouldn't be? Now that he is older, he has boasted his adventures through the woods and down the creek. (Where he should not have been cause it was forbidden. Can't be mad, cause at his age, that is where I would have been as well!) Many a time has he asked me, "Mom, if i find a snake, will you cook it for me?" "Well, yes, as long as you don't mess with it and show us the snake first so we can make sure it is not venomous" "What if I get a squirrel?" "You skin and gut it, I'll cook it!" Since that day he has watched his shows, dreamed of being a survivalist, and kept a look out for snakes and other critters he could eat.
     Once, son and daughter brought me a tiny, thin snake. Rescued from the cat a moment too late, its head was the only thing damaged. "Mom! Let's cook it!" It looked way too small. "If you can skin and gut it, I will cook it!" Several frustrating minutes went by. Not a very easy clean nor a whole lot of meat from the wiggling dead snake. Their faces were priceless. The cat was happy to get his prize back.
    So when your 17 year old son, who has waited YEARS to try snake, comes in with it skinned and gutted perfectly and says, "Mom, show me how to cook it!" Well then, that's just what you do!
     A small fire was made on the grill. He seasoned it with some garlic salt. (Everything tastes good with garlic salt, right?) My son patiently flipped his snake until it appeared to be finished cooking. When he tried it, he was not impressed. "It doesn't really taste like anything. Can you cook it like you cook garlic chicken in the pan?" In went some butter and garlic into the cast iron. 15 minutes later we were gathered around the kitchen counter, devouring a snake and pulling the delicate meat from around the tiny bones!

I'm glad my son finally got to try snake, and also, that he was not disappointed! 

     Yes, we ate snake. Yes, we liked it. AND YES, we will do it again if we get a chance!

DISCLAIMER FOR ALL OF YOU FREAKING OUT CAUSE SNAKES ARE WONDERFUL FOR THE ECOSYSTEM: I agree! And if the snake had not been in a fight with my dog at the time, he might have been able to go along his merry way. My husband did not know if it was venomous or not. Nor did he care at the time. This death did serve a purpose, we ate the flesh for dinner, chickens and dogs ate the insides and my daughter preserved the skin! Waste not, Want not! 

Disclosure: This post contains no affiliate links, However, I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online.

Cooking On the Wood Burning Stove

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      When you are raising a well prepared child it is essential they know how to cook for themselves on a variety of cooking sources. One of our favorite winter activities is cooking on the wood burning stove.

     Taco meat on the stove was our actual inspiration for doing the Tuna Can Burner Experiment. To get the meat to cook, we had to get the fire nice and HOT! It had been cold all that afternoon, but by the time we started cooking, we were sweating by the fire. We brainstormed ideas on how to cook with out having to have a super hot fire. Our electricity goes out more in the summer than in the winter. 

     My daughter's wood burning stove specialty is 'Chicken Fajita Soup.' It is a recipe I came up with and she perfected. This is a great cold weather recipe. It is simple and easy. 

Chicken Fajita Soup

1 Can of Corn

2 Cans of Ranch Style Beans

1 large Can of Petite Diced Tomatoes

1 Can of Rotel Diced Tomatoes and Chilis

2-3 Large Chicken Breasts Boiled and Shredded to bite size pieces

1 Large Onion sauteed till tender

4 slices of American Cheese or a 1 in block of Velveeta

Fajita Seasoning to taste

(The affiliate links listed above are for example only. The prices at your local store are much better than the ones I found on Amazon.)

Open all cans and pour directly in to a large pot. Do not drain the cans! Add remaining ingredients. Use the Ranch Style Bean cans to fill with water and pour into the pot as well. Let simmer for 10-20 Minutes. 
Top with shredded cheddar cheese, fresh diced tomatoes, sour cream, onions, and/or tortilla chips. 

YUM!!

For info on the benefits of cooking with kids, please visit these websites...

http://www.portlandfamily.com/posts/kids-in-the-kitchen-10-benefits-of-cooking-with-children/

http://www.aicr.org/assets/docs/pdf/healthykids/powerful-plants-cooking-with-kids.pdf

http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/learning/cooking_preschool.html

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/features/cooking-with-your-children

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online. 

Measuring Cup Fractions

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      Our first homeschooling by momma lesson! We has just un-enrolled from her online charter school. Suddenly I found myself scrambling to come up with her lessons on such short notice. So I decided to find out what she knew and didn't know. one of the first things i asked her about was fractions. I was amazed she did not know anything about fractions. Finding free worksheets on fractions was easy, but i thought we would start with a little hands on activity first. 

Measuring Cup Fractions

     I got out our measuring cups, 2 cups of sugar, a large bowl to hold the sugar, and a pie pan to catch any extra sugar while she was transferring it from one measuring cup to another. I explained how cups, 1/2 cups, and 1/4 cups all go together. We talked about how there is always a whole and the bottom number explained how many scoops it took to make the whole. Zoey then tested out what I was telling her by seeing how many 1/4 cup and 1/2 cup scoops it took to fill up the 1 cup. Then i brought out the 1/3 and 2/3 measuring cups. She questimated how many she thought it would take to fill up the 1 cup scoop. She then tested out her theory. We also worked with tsp and tbs. I wish i had got pictures of all of it but i really didn't think about it until we got to our extension lesson of baking cupcakes. My daughter really liked playing in the sugar and exploring with the measuring cups. So that we could extend the lesson a little further and explain in a little different way, I got out a pie pan and made a layer of sugar in the bottom. I asked her to show me a half, 1/3, 1/4 and so on. 

Baking Cup Cakes

She read the directions, and gathered up all of her materials to make them.  It was great! Mommy just sat back and watched. :) 

She read the box without even saying "I cant read!"

Not one egg shell went in! I was quiet Impressed! 

We talked about raw eggs and not eating them,

but, of course we licked the bowl when she was done!

Look at those whipping skills!

Just 2/3 full!

   

     Unfortunatley, this is as far as we got with the photos! 

The cup cakes were amazing! She was very proud of herself. I think her dad ate the most of them. :) 

We covered these areas with this lesson including the  extension lesson.

Reading, Math, Fractions, Following Directions, Health and Safety, Personal Hygiene, and Housekeeping.

FREE Fraction Worksheets:
http://www.education.com/worksheet/article/fraction-math-pizza/

http://www.education.com/worksheet/article/fraction-fundamentals-part/

Disclaimer: This post contains no affiliate links. However, I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online. 

Tuna Can Burner

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PROBLEM: The power is knocked out from a bad ice storm! What do you do? How will you cook hot meals for your cold family? 
SOLUTION: Tuna Can Burner! 

I saw this on a homestead/prepper type page, thought it would be a good idea to try. 

We used old candle wax, cardboard from a 24pk of Pepsi,  and a tuna can the hubby ate for lunch!  

  We turned a pan of water on low to melt the candle wax.

After cutting a 1 in strip off of a pepsi can she rolled it into coil.

We decided it was not enough and added another strip around the first coil.

She then poured the hot candle wax around the coils.

Setting up to make chili! We used 2 rocks to hold the pan high enough above the flame.

She lit the burner,

and put the pan on the rocks.

After about 3 minutes the chili was hot and ready!

Declared 'BEST CHILI EVER!'

NOTE TO FUTURE TUNA CAN MAKERS! This burner is amazing! It cooked quickly and once blown out and cooled, there was barely any used. So it is also makes it cost effective. Especially when all the materials used are recycled and re-purposed! HOWEVER, I do not feel this should be used inside your home. It gives off a lot of black smoke. Use a pan you will not get upset about getting a lot of soot on the bottom of as well. 

     Now I am sure I will have to put in a disclaimer here. I do not allow my child to play with fire. I do feel it necessary for her to learn to use it properly though. When she is pouring the melted wax into the tuna can, I pretested the hotness of the jar and found it to be very cool. I allowed her to pour it with out the use of a glove, because, it was easier to see what she was doing. 

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online.