Soup from Scratch

Since I appear to be channeling Little Suzy Homemaker, I figured I should just go hog wild and use the carcass of my less than perfect roasted chicken to make homemade chicken stock. I found a recipe for Basic Chicken Stock on a blog called Vintage Victuals. The recipe is adapted from The Joy of Cooking. The whole thing is so simple I can't believe I didn't try this sooner!

As a kid, I remember my mom making chicken stock. It seemed like soooo much work. Of course my mom made it on the stove using a recipe we saw on Martha's show called Everyday. It took all day. I remember not being able to do anything or go anywhere because we had to baby sit that simmering pot. I swear Martha makes everything more difficult than it has to be.

The recipe I used from Vintage Victuals doesn't need to be monitored at all. It uses a crockpot! Brilliant!!! I tossed all the ingredients into the crockpot and let the whole mess stew overnight. In the morning, I had stock that was cheaper and more flavorful than anything I could have found at the store. Mrblocko and I picked through the bones and recovered enough meat to make a hearty chicken omelet for breakfast.

What did I make with the stock? Cinderella wedding soup! ( I wrote about the Italian Wedding Soup in a previous post. I link the recipe in that post.) This time I used half orzo and half alphabet noodles. Blockette thinks the alphabet noodles are the best noodles EVER. She gave us a narrative of what letters she was eating throughout the entire meal.
This photo gives you an idea of how much soup this recipe yields. There are four containers on the bottom shelf and if you look closely there is a half full container on the top shelf. The tall containers hold four cups. These are the leftovers after we ate dinner. Like I said...a lot of soup. Good thing the soup freezes well!

The only issue I have with this recipe was that the broth became a bit gray after sitting in the fridge overnight. I think this may have been because I didn't strain my chicken stock through cheese cloth. The color could also be a result of boiling the noodles in the stock. All the starch from cooking the noodles remains in the soup. While this probably results in a more flavorful noodle, I think the starches make the broth on the murky side.


Basic Chicken Stock from Vintage victuals
1 chicken carcass
4 quarts of water
10 pepper corns
6 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons parsley
1 teaspoon thyme
1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
3 ribs of celery, roughly chopped

Place the chicken carcass in your crock pot. Pour the water over it and add the rest of the ingredients. Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours; on high 3-5 hours. I left this batch on low overnight. Strain. Freezes well.

Roasted Chicken, Take One

I've never roasted a chicken before. I thought it was about time I gave it a go. Why not when roaster chickens were on sale for $.88/pound? Usually, when I try something new, I like to have Mrblocko around for moral support. That was the plan, but he was unexpectedly detained at work. I was on my own. I gave myself a little pep talk and told myself "You can do this!"

The recipe I used came from Rebecca at Ezra Pound Cake. Her recipe is called Martha's Perfect Roast Chicken. It's adapted from Good ol' Martha Stewart. She's gotta know a thing or two about cooking. Doesn't she? At least the people who she pays to write her recipe's should. The recipe seemed simple enough....I followed the recipe VERY carefully. I didn't have a lemon so I stuffed the bird with an orange instead. Not a major change. Certainly nothing that would alter how the chicken cooked in the oven.

Desperately in need of some encouragement, I called my best friend MrsThunder. She's never roasted a chicken either, at least not successfully. (There was an incident with a roaster chicken and a crockpot. Let's just say things did not go as planned.) Specifically, I wanted to know if she thought it would be ok to use white embroidery thread instead of twine to truss the chicken. She agreed that it would be a suitable substitute. Then we got to talking about how I was cooking the chicken. She asked what I had my oven set to. I told her the recipe said 450. There was a slight intake of air and she said, "That seems kind of high." She went on her computer and did a quick search on roasting chicken and most recipes she found said to cook the bird around 350-375. By this time I was 30 minutes into a 50 minute cook time. I think I said something like, "Well, wish me luck."

I took the chicken out of the oven after 50 minutes and stuck my meat thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh, like the recipe instructed. The temp read 180. I panicked. The recipe said that the temp should read 165. I worried that I had ruined it and overcooked the chicken. The chicken sat for 20 minutes (10 minutes longer than the recipe stated). I cut into the breast and nice clear liquid came out. That's a good sign I thought. Doesn't it look pretty?Then, pinkish liquid oozed out as I started removing pieces of meat. It pooled up and over my cutting board, down the counter, down the cabinets and on the floor. I grabbed a bowl and held it under the rim of the counter to catch the juices. I yelled for Blockette to come and hold the bowl. She started freaking out and said, "Mommy the chicken is NEVER going to stop leaking! Why is the chicken leaking???!!"

I transferred the chicken to a lasagna pan so it could catch the juices and I could still continue to carve it. I relieved Blockette from her juice catching duties and proceeded to clean up the huge mess in the kitchen. As I resumed carving the bird, I found the meat in the center was not completely cooked. I shrugged my shoulders and continued massacring the carcass and put all the chicken in a bowl.

We couldn't very well have chicken and gravy for dinner, not without serious hazard to our digestive tracts. I took half the chicken I removed from the bones and tossed it into a skillet with some taco seasoning and water. Viola, we had chicken tacos for dinner, with plenty left over for um...leftovers. The other half I divided in half again and mixed one part with BBQ sauce and the other with Peking sauce. I separated them into individual portions, and froze them for Mrblocko to take with him to work for lunch.

I really wanted this to work and I can't figure out why it didn't. Obviously it worked for Rebecca at Ezra Pound Cake or she wouldn't have posted it on her blog. Maybe it's my oven? Next time I'm going to cook the roaster chicken at a lower temp for a longer time. Hopefully that will be the solution! I'll also make sure that Mrblocko is around to lend a hand so I don't have to traumatize our 4 year old again with an endlessly leaking chicken. Bawk Bawk!


Martha's Perfect Roast Chicken from Ezra Pound Cake
For the Chicken:
1 fresh whole chicken (about 4 pounds)
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1 lemon, cut into 1/4-inch rounds
4 sprigs rosemary
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature


For Pan Sauce:
1/2 cup dry white wine or chicken stock
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

To Prepare the Chicken: Heat oven to 450 F. Remove giblets and liver from cavity; discard. Let chicken rest at room temperature 1 hour. Trim excess fat from cavity. Rinse chicken thoroughly under cold water, inside and out, then pat dry, making sure the cavity is as dry as possible. Season cavity with salt and pepper, then stuff with lemon, rosemary and garlic. Rub skin with 2 tablespoons butter. Tie chicken’s legs together with twine. Season all over generously with salt and pepper.

To Roast: Place chicken in a large ovenproof skillet or small roasting pan (fitted with rack, if desired). Roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh (avoiding bone) registers 165 F, 50 to 55 min. Transfer chicken to a platter. Let rest 10 minu.

To Make Pan Sauce: Spoon and discard fat from juices in pan; pour accumulated juices in chicken cavity and plate into pan. Place pan over med-high heat. Pour in wine or stock to deglaze pan, stirring and scraping up browned bits with a wooden spoon. Cook until reduced by half, then pour through a small fine sieve into a liquid measuring cup. Return to skillet and add 1 tablespoon butter, swirling pan until melted and incorporated. Carve chicken and serve with pan sauce.

Focaccia Bread and Crockpot Lasagna

First things first, I gotta talk about this blitz bread. It has totally rocked my world. It's a yeast bread but it requires no kneading. I don't have much luck with kneading. I always end up with a big club hand of dough.

This bread is slightly thicker than focaccia bread you'd buy at the store. You don't need to knead the bread because you don't want a lot of rise from it. Focaccia is supposed to be a thinner bread. I've made no knead bread before, and it takes a long time. The classic no knead bread has several long rise times, and a long baking time in a super hot oven. Not so with this bread. It only calls for an hour long rise time, and you bake it at 375 for 40 minutes. Bread that you can make in under 2 hours? I'm all over that!

The recipe says to beat at high speed with a hand mixer. Know what? I didn't even do that. I thought the dough might be too sticky and strain the motor on my hand mixer. I just used a good old fashioned spoon and mixed the dough as fast as I could for a minute. This worked great! The dough still rose very nicely. I think it even rose a bit more than I expected.

I had a half cup of feta cheese I wanted to use up, so I tossed that in. I wouldn't go out of my way to put it in next time. It didn't do anything to improve the flavor of the bread in my opinion. If I had leftover feta I'd add it again, but only if I didn't have another use for it. It's definitely not necessary.

I had gotten a free container of Pasta sprinkle from Penzeys and I thought this bread would be a perfect use for the spice blend. It contains California basil, Turkish oregano, minced garlic and thyme. I also substituted garlic powder for the garlic salt. I thought the bread would be salty enough with the other salt in the recipe. It worked wonderfully, and made the bread extra garlic-y. Yay!

Next time I'll try baking this in two 8 inch cake pans. The 9x13 loaf was a lot for us to eat before it got stale. I'll try freezing one loaf to see how that works. I know quick bread freezes nicely, but I'm not sure about yeasted bread. It will be interesting to see if it gets gummy after being defrosted.
I've mentioned on here before that I'm not one of those people who thinks lasagna is a complicated dish. You can prep it all the night before and then stick it in the oven when you're ready to cook it. There's nothing much more simple than that, or so I thought. Enter Kraft's Slow cooker lasagna. I assembled the dish the night before in the liner of my crock pot. In the afternoon I took to out of the fridge and let it simmer in the crock pot until dinner. Between this and the bread, the house smelled like heaven. Blockette started asking if we could have dinner around 3:30.

I used Meijer's brand roasted red pepper and garlic pasta sauce. Even though I prefer Ragu brand's chunkier pasta, I find myself gravitating to the Meijer's brand because of the roasted red pepper flavor. I don't know when it happened, but somewhere along the line I've seemed to acquire a taste for roasted red peppers. I never seem to have the time or forethought to roast some ahead of time to add to my favorite pasta sauce. I guess Ragu does make a roasted red pepper flavor, but my Meijer's doesn't carry it. I think it's just so I will buy the Meijer's brand. I've got that much clout. Well I should. I'm there enough.

Anyhow, as I get back on track... I only made one substitution in this recipe. I used small curd low fat cottage cheese instead of the icky ricotta. And all was right with the world. The End.


Blitz Bread from Mel's Kitchen Cafe
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 tablespoons olive oil (plus additional for drizzling)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 1/2 cups (14 ¾ ounces) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
3 teaspoons dried herbs
dried herbs for sprinkling

Lightly grease a 9″ x 13″ pan, and drizzle 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil in the bottom. Combine all of the ingredients, except the dried herbs for sprinkling, and beat at high speed with an electric mixer for 60 seconds. Scoop the sticky batter into the prepared pan, cover the pan, and let it rise at room temperature for 60 minutes, till it is puffy.

While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 375°F. Gently poke the dough all over with your index finger. Drizzle it lightly with olive oil, and sprinkle with the dried herbs of your choice, if desired. Bake the bread till it’s golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove it from the oven, wait 5 minutes, then turn it out of the pan onto a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

*To make cheese-stuffed bread: Add 1 cup crumbled feta cheese to the dough after it’s been kneaded for 60 seconds.


Kraft's Slow Cooker Lasagna
1 lb. ground beef
1 jar (24 oz.) spaghetti sauce
1 cup water
1 container (15 oz.) P Ricotta Cheese
1 pkg. (7 oz.)Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided
1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese, divided
1 egg
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
6 lasagna noodles, uncooked
Make It

BROWN meat in large skillet; drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce and water. Mix ricotta, 1-1/2 cups mozzarella, 2 Tbsp. Parmesan, egg and parsley. SPOON 1 cup meat sauce into slow cooker; top with layers of half each of the noodles (broken to fit) and cheese mixture. Cover with 2 cups meat sauce. Top with remaining noodles (broken to fit), cheese mixture and meat sauce. Cover with lid. COOK on LOW 4 to 6 hours or until liquid is absorbed. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses; let stand, covered, 10 min or until melted.

Baked Lemon Noodles

This dish was very lemony and it was totally 100% my fault. I can't even blame the cats.

Apparently I'm losing the ability to read. I see the words but they don't get processed by the ol' noggin. This recipe for baked lemon pasta would have turned out much better had I read the directions properly. Instead of giving half a lemon a squeeze when preparing the creamy sauce, I squeezed the bejeezus out of the entire lemon. What I should have done was give the lemon a squeeze into the sauce, then squeeze a bit more juice over the dish after it gets baked. I also sprinkled parsley and Parmesan over the top before I popped it in the oven. It would have been better if I put it on after the dish had baked.

I can't wait to make these noodles again and not screw it up.


Baked Lemon Noodles from The Pioneer Woman
1 pound Thin Spaghetti
4 Tablespoons Salted Butter
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 whole Lemon, Juiced And Zested
2 cups Sour Cream
1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt, Or More To Taste
Plenty Of Grated Parmesan Cheese
Flat-leaf Parsley, Chopped
Extra Lemon Juice

Preheat oven to 375. Cook spaghetti until al dente. In a skillet, melt butter with olive oil over LOW HEAT. When butter is melted, add minced garlic. Squeeze lemon juice into the pan. Turn off heat. Add sour cream and stir mixture together. Add lemon zest and salt. Taste, then add more salt if necessary. Pour mixture over drained spaghetti and stir together, then pour spaghetti into an oven safe dish.
Bake, covered, for 15 min. Then remove foil and bake for an additional 7-10 min. (Don’t bake too long or the pasta will dry out.) When you remove it from the oven, squeeze a little more lemon juice over the top. Top generously with Parmesan cheese, then chopped parsley. Give it a final squeeze of lemon juice at the end.

Baklava...still hates me

Why do I keep attempting baklava? Why? Why do I keep doing this to myself? I swear Baklava has declared me it's arch enemy. At least this version was less disastrous than previous attempts.

The very first time I tried to make baklava I the honey mixture I was boiling on the stove overflowed. I never knew how viscous warm honey truly is. Honey got all over the burner, stove top, oven door, kitchen floor and under the oven. No matter how often or hard I scrubbed, my feet were sticky whenever I stood at the stove. Luckily, that was back when I didn't do much cooking. I was able to ignore the issue quite nicely. This happened back when I was living in an apartment. Coincidentally, Mrblocko and I moved into our first house shortly after this incident. I still wonder if the next people to live in that apartment had an ant problem because I was to lazy to clean up the honey from under the stove.

Attempt number two came several years later. I had been cooking more frequently and had gained loads more confidence in the kitchen. I was extremely careful with the honey mixture, making sure it didn't boil over. This time it was the phyllo that gave me the trouble. I mentioned in Phyllo victory that the thin sheets of pastry have caused me pains in the past. I thought I was being careful. No matter what I did the sheets started to dry out as I was brushing on the butter. Wasn't the butter supposed to prevent this from happening? I guess not. By the time the phyllo met the baking pan, it was crispy.

I assumed I could make it better by putting the nuts and honey mixture on it. Surely the honey would soak into the phyllo and rehydrate it as it baked. NOPE! The only thing that happened was the phyllo didn't cook up and got too gummy to cut into squares. Only the inch or so along the edge was edible.

I got so angry at myself that I vowed I would never attempt to make baklava ever again. Of course then I saw a recipe called Lazy Cook's Baklava. I thought how could I possibly mess that up? There's no phyllo, and you don't heat up the honey! Famous last words.

Several months ago I accidentally grabbed puff pastry shells instead of the sheets. I came across this particular baklava recipe searching for a way to use them up. I've never used the shells before and I guess I didn't read the directions well enough, or just didn't understand what I was supposed to do.
Notice that the pastry isn't puffed up very high. The original recipe called for mini shells. I had the regular sized ones. I thought...how different could they be? I'll just adjust the bake time and add the nuts half way through. Not exactly. Had I read the directions on the box correctly I would have known that you bake the pastry to the full time, then take out the circular part that had the word "Top" imprinted on it.

What did I do? I smashed down that top part and added the nuts. This, of course, suppressed the rising of the shells' exterior. The result? Icky under cooked centers. The edges were tasty though. Mrblocko made me promise to try this one more time. Next time I'll try them with the mini shells. Hopefully, then baklava will decide that I'm a swell lady and raise the white flag.

Lazy Cook's Baklava from Noble Pig
1 box (2.1 ounce) frozen mini fillo shells
1/3 cup chopped pistachios
1/3 cup chopped cashews
1/3 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon water

Chop pistachios, cashews and almonds. Combine into one mixture. Fill shells with nuts and bake in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes or until shells are lightly browned.Mix honey with water. Remove the cups from the oven and spoon in honey mixture (really fill them up). Serve warm or at room temperature.

Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Ripple

I was very pleased how this pumpkin harvest bread from Cookie madness turned out. I think the chocolate ripple looks like a big smile. It's like the bread is glad to have chocolate in it's belly. I'm not sure how the ripple wound up looking like this. A truly happy accident! I first tried the chocolate pumpkin combo in cookies about 2 years ago. I thought the fusion of flavors was peculiar. I'm glad I got over my self and gave it a whirl. Pumpkin and chocolate are best buds. This bread is no exception.

I was surprised that this bread wasn't more moist. Don't misunderstand me, this bread was by no means dry. I'm used to quick bread that contains zucchini or banana. They tend to be very moist, sometimes a bit too moist. Does anyone else have that problem? By day three, the fruit based quick bread I make always gets sticky and gooey. Maybe it's just me.

The next time I make this I'm going to try it in mini loaves. That way I can freeze some and not gorge myself by eating half a loaf for breakfast!

Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Ripple from Cookie Madness
2 cups all purpose flour (9 oz)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 cup vegetable oil
½ cup milk
2 large eggs
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup canned pumpkin (or sweet potato)
1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans
2 1/2 oz melted chocolate — bittersweet

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9×5" metal loaf pan with flour-added cooking spray. Mix flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, clovers and ginger; set aside. Mix oil, milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla and pumpkin in a mixing bowl. Stir in flour mix. Before flour mix is completely mixed in, add nuts. Spoon out 1 c pumpkin mix and stir it with melted chocolate. Layer 1/2 pumpkin mix in pan. Spread chocolate batter over te pumpkin batter then top with final layer of pumpkin batter. Bake on center rack for 55 minutes.

Autumn in your Crock pot

This dish makes your house smell so wonderful, and it tastes better than it smells. I got this recipe for autumn sausage crockpot from A Year of Slow Cooking. She describes this dish as "eating a bowl full of Fall." I told Mrblocko that before we ate it the first time. After the first bite he exclaimed, "OMG! She was right."This is a recipe that I keep in rotation all throughout the Fall and Winter. It's that time of year again! Woot woot! Doncha just love it when it starts getting cooler out? It's like nature is giving you permission to fill the house with the aroma of baked goods. Ok, so the crockpot isn't the same as using the oven to bake, but it stinks up the house just as perty.

The recipe doesn't specify, but in the past I've used regular raisins. This time I only had golden raisins. The dish has a better color composition with the regular raisins. Next time I'll save the golden raisins for baking. The other change I made to the recipe was to increase the carrots. 1/4 cup seemed to be a bit stingy for my liking. (If I remember correctly, this time I used 2 large carrots.) I also like to use 2 different types of apples to mix up the flavors. The dish should be even more colorful, but I had to peel the apples in order to appease Mrblocko. He doesn't like apple peal. (tisk tisk)

Autumn Sausage Casserole from A Year of Slow Cooking
1 pound sausage (I used chicken with artichoke and garlic)
1 large, or 2 small apples, chopped (no need to peel)
1 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped carrots
3 cups already cooked long-grain rice
1/2 cup raisins
1 T dried parsley flakes
1 T brown sugar
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/3 cup chicken broth or water

The amount of ingredients fit nicely in a 4 quart crockpot. If you are going to use uncooked pork sausage, I'd recommend browning on the stove top, and draining before adding to the crockpot. Otherwise, dump all the ingredients into the crock, and stir well. Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours, or on high for 3-4. You're really only heating through, and allowing the vegetables to soften. This will not stick together like a gloppy casserole; it has the consistency of fried rice. Use bowls to serve rather than plates.