DIY-Chicken Stock

Ok...Homemade Chicken Stock! Cheap...Easy....Delicious...Freezable...Versatile....mmm how many more words can I come up with to describe this????

<Smiling> I'll quit now that you get the point.

I am going to tell you something...I don't really care for chicken! I know...What? How did you lose so much weight without eating chicken? Isn't it supposed to be the ultimate diet food? Well see chicken gets really dry really easy....and dry meats and my tummy just don't agree. So unless it is floating in some kind of sauce I don't dare eat it....however I have a hubby that would eat it roasted every other meal. So I tend to cook it quite frequently. My other problem is doing the whole deboning thing. Can I just say YUCK!?

Bob the Rooster

 If it is boneless I can pretend it doesn't look like Bob the Rooster in the backyard....but boneless chicken is expensive and I can generally find chicken with bones in it a lot cheaper a lot more often! I mean I found whole chickens for $.99 each a while back! So I suffer through the deboning process...and I tend to do alot at once so that I don't have to do it very often!
Now this is how I do it...if you have a different easier method please share it with me!

DIY-Chicken Stock

1 Large Stock Pot (it is even better in a Crock Pot but you can only fit in one at a time)
1-3 whole chickens (breasts, thighs, leg quarters or whatever kind you prefer...mine is called the cheapest!)
2-3 carrots
2-3 stalks celery (that limp stuff you forgot you bought works great!)
1 large onion
water to cover completely

Remove you chickens from the packaging, remove neck and gizzards (I throw them away...you do what you want) and rinse thoroughly.
Place in pot with enough water to cover. Now wash a couple of carrots, you don't even have to peel them, just give them a good washing and cut the tops off! Wash your celery. Peel and quarter your onion. Now throw all these veggies in the pot...don't worry you won't be eating them...they are for flavor and vitamins! Place lid on pot and simmer until you chicken is falling off the bone.
Remove chickens from pot and debone! Use chicken immediately or store for later use.
Place bones back in pot and simmer overnight! (And yes I said place the bones back in the pot...didn't you know that's where all the good stuff is? That's why doctors want you to eat homemade chicken soup when you are sick....all those wonderful nutrients from the chicken stock!) The next morning turn the heat off and let stock cool. Then strain off all the solid stuff in the pot, discard....and all that liquid is your chicken stock! Yummy!
I place mine in glass freezer jars and freeze it...but any freezable container will do!
I do hope you enjoy this...it always takes me a couple of days to eat chicken after this whole process...but I am weird like that!
God Bless, Mama D

Weekly Menu Plan

Well folks I had to revamp this weeks menu plan....being flexible is good...especially when you plans change! And I found out the end of last week that I am going to have a house full of company this weekend. Don't get me wrong I love company, it is generally family and I love family get togethers....and my Momma helps with the cooking, It's all good!

I am also utilizing a couple of those $.99 chickens I got a couple of weeks ago. I have several dishes that contain chicken in the menu this week...so I took out two of those lovely birds and have been cooking them most of the day. I deboned them this evening and used part of the meat for our supper, then threw the bones back in the pot to finish making homemade chicken stock! Yummy!!! Beats that canned stuff hands down any day and super easy! (I will do a post tomorrow!)

Sunday
Red Beans and Rice (which is officially struck from my menu...the sausage and spices tore both mine and my husbands tummy's up....so we no likey!)

Monday
Chicken and Stuffing
Green Beans
Sweet Corn

Tuesday
Homemade Chicken Pot Pie
Buttermilk Biscuits

Wednesday
Meatloaf
Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans

Thursday
Egg Drop Soup
Egg Rolls

Friday (Company)
Sandwiches

Saturday
Combination Meal with the Family

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
God Bless, Mama D

DIY-Homemade Vanilla

Homemade Vanilla....oh I was so excited when I read the first post I found on making your own homemade vanilla. You see when I was a senior in high school we lived 10 miles from the border of Mexico....and when friends and family would come and visit we would go shop across the border. One of the most asked for gifts from Mexico was their Pure Vanilla! And it was super cheap!!! Less than $5 for a liter!!! That's a lot of vanilla! Now 13 years down the road...my Momma, grandmothers and I have all run through our stockpile of vanilla! I do a lot of baking and can sure tell the difference....I miss that glorious rich vanilla!

About 6 months ago Momma and I ran across a post on how to make your own vanilla. We were amazed at how simple the ingredients and instructions were, and we decided then and there to make some for ourselves. However our road block came with the expensive of the vanilla beans themselves....it didn't occur to us to get less beans and use less vodka!!! Silly us! However this week I finally got all the ingredients together and put together my first batch of homemade vanilla....which should be ready about August! If it turns out like I am hoping it will ...I will have enough to share with my good friends....maybe even sell some...who knows!!!

Do It Yourself - Homemade Vanilla

1. Search EBay, Amazon.com, the Internet.....buy a 3/4 to 1 pound of vanilla beans.


My two bottles of cheap vodka and 1 pound of vanilla beans

 I couldn't find anyplace that sold 3/4 pound of vanilla beans and couldn't afford $50 for the Madagascar beans that were recommended. I bought mine on Ebay for $15....I just hope I don't regret it!

2. Buy 2-1.75 liter bottles(1 gallon) of Vodka.....the cheap stuff will do! And don't ask me why I bought two different kinds of Vodka...I don't know...it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time! I don't buy alcohol very often, and when I do I am generally buying for someone else and just get what they want! I just don't drink...so it is not something I am all that knowledgeable about...and when you are faced with a 15 foot isle of Vodka... I get confused and over whelmed....who knew there were that many kinds and varieties!!! 

3. Now you need a clean, glass, gallon sized jar! I found mine in that back of the cabinet....my grandmother kept all kinds of things!!! This appears to be a pickle jar....if you don't have one big jar, several smaller jars would work!

4. Take you kitchen shears and cut each vanilla bean in half ....but leave about 1 inch together so the bean with not fall apart!

Vanilla bean cut in half!!!

Now this step is the only tedious part of the process. But your hands smell really good afterwards because you have the oil from the beans all over you hands!

5. Place all the vanilla beans in you glass jar.

Vanilla Beans in Jar

6. Pour all that cheap vodka over the beans and put the lid on!

Vanilla Beans soaked in Vodka

7. Now leave your jar in a cool, dark, dry place for 6 months! And you should come out with wonderful homemade vanilla extract!!!!

OK...now I am a forgetful person! I get some many things going at one time that I forget what I am doing! And the instructions that I read suggest that you shake your vanilla about once a month....just to mix it up some. I will forget when I made this ....I will only remember that it will be done in August. So to help myself I marked my kitchen calendar every month on the date that I needed to check on my vanilla. I also put these labels on the lid.

Reminder Label on the lid!

That way I have record of the date that I made this vanilla, and can mark off each month that I check/shake my jar.
And just for my own curiosity I am gonna take pictures of it each month so you and I can see it's progress!
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! God Bless, Mama D

Golden Mushroom Meatballs!

Golden Mushroom Meatballs

When I was growing up my Momma always had a couple of meals that were either reserved for special occasions or were served when we had company over after church on Sundays. This happens to be one of my Momma's recipes! It can be prepared ahead of time, frozen if need be, it can be heated up in a variety of ways, and it is a people pleaser. Now I am gonna warn you this is not a meal that stretches that meat allowance that some people have...and I have only tried this recipe with ground beef or ground beef mixed with venison, however I am sure that if you want to cut some calorie corners and use ground turkey or chicken...go right ahead...just don't cut out the Golden Mushroom Soup!

Golden Mushroom Meatballs

1-2 lbs ground beef (I got about 15 servings out of 2 lbs)
1 egg
1 pkg. dry onion soup mix
1 -2 heels of bread, crumbled
Flour for dredging
Oil for browning
1 -2 cans Campbell's Golden Mushroom Soup

Place a large skillet on the cook top over medium heat. cover the bottom of skillet with oil...I used olive oil to give mine a little extra flavor...you don't need much just enough to brown your meatballs!

In a large mixing bowl combine your ground meat with egg, onion soup mix, and crumbled bread. Salt and Pepper to taste. And yes I used my bare hands and it got all over them...I even had Bear taking pictures for me!
Roll your meat in to balls...Mine normally fit in the palm of my hand...but you can make them whatever size you need....just remember the smaller you make them the less time it will take them to cook!

My Meatballs turned out this size!

As you form your meatballs, roll them in flour and place them in your hot skillet.

Rolled in flour

Now you want to brown your meatballs on both sides. You are not fully cooking them at this point just getting them brown and crusty. Depending on how many you made...you may need to do these in batches.

The one that is turned over is what they should look like when browned.

Now at this point you can place these meatballs in a freezable container, let them cool, label and freeze. Or put them in the fridge for the next day. My Momma likes to make a big batch of these, serve half for the current meal and put the other half in the freezer for later.

Once all you meatball are browned.....mix your Golden Mushroom Soup with a can of water, pour over meatballs, cover and finish cooking.

Ready to be covered and cooked

Now you have more than one option on how you finish cooking these baby's.

1. I choose to finish mine on top of the stove. I just popped a lid on top of this skillet, turned my heat down on low and let it cook for about 45 minutes.

2. I could have transfer this to a casserole dish and baked it at 350 degree for 30 minutes

3. Or I have even made these in an electric skillet, following the same stove top method.

4. I suppose you could place these in a crock pot if you wanted to...if you do let me know how it turned out.

See what I mean on how versatile these are!!??? You can also freeze these fully cooked!

*Note* I did not have the dry onion soup that this recipe called for in my cabinet....so I did a little search online to find a recipe....I will never buy that stuff again! It is way to easy to make! I just used 8 tsp. of dry onion, 1 tsp onion powder...I didn't have the beef bouillon that it called for but they tasted just fine with out it!

Now my Momma always served these with some kind of green veggie, mashed potatoes and a slice of bread or homemade rolls. The soup makes a fantastic gravy!!!

Happy cooking and God Bless,
Mama D

New Mixer

Well there is a club here in Texas called the Texas Extension Education Association....most people remember them being called the Home Demonstration Clubs....anyways....the point is I used to be a member of one of our local chapters. I enjoyed working with them but my family situation changed and I need to spend more time concentrating on my family and less time doing stuff for club. However, the local clubs are full of friends that I know and love, and I occasionally help them out with various things. This week I offered to make cookies for them....5 dozen for most of the club members at a discounted price equals Mama D making 95 DOZEN cookies! Luckily I have lots of freezer space and heavy duty stand mixer! Or so I thought!

My old Mix master

This is my trusty Stand mixer....I have been using this for about the last 7 years. I loved it! It died as I was making cookies on Monday of this week! I had a couple of panicky moments...you remember the 95 dozen cookies I was talking about! I had a 1970's version that I found in the back of the cabinet when I moved into my Grandmother's house...after trying to make one batch of cookies I discovered why it was in the back of the cabinet!

Lucky for me one of those really nice club ladies called me Monday night...said she had a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer that I could borrow for the week! AAAhhhh....do you hear my sigh of relief!

OK now I have been wanting one of those Kitchen Aid Stand Mixers since forever!!! It has always been one of those unattainable dreams...1. they are really expensive (especially for mine and my husbands budget), 2. I had this more reasonably priced Mix Master, 3. it just wasn't practical! So I drool over them when I see them in stores....amazed at all the really pretty colors that will match your kitchen and personality....dream over all the things I could make with one....but never really thought that I would get one.

My husband decided that I needed one....so when he decides I need something I generally get it...as long as he has the means to get it for me! Now let me explain something about my husband....he really doesn't buy me gifts for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Birthday, Anniversary, Christmas...it's not that he doesn't love me, he just doesn't remember things like that till its too late and he has paid the bills with his pay check, you know silly stuff like that...he just blows all of the money he makes taking care of us!! BUT he considers out tax return extra money....and depending on our financial standing depends on what he does with the tax return....this year we are doing good. So, because I have become Ms. Homemaker Extraordinaire and make everything from scratch, cater, bake for the public to bring in extra money and generally use my stand mixer on a daily basis, a want became a need and need became reality!

All pretty and shiney! It needs flour dusting!

My new Professional 5 Plus arrived on Wednesday morning!!! I was so happy I did a very bad Happy Dance! And of course the first thing I did was take it out of the box and take a picture of it...then put it to use! I have had it a little over 24 hours and it has made about 40 dozen cookies and a 5 Flavor Cake...and before the weekend is over it will have made much more! I am so excited about this machine!

Now it took me 2 weeks to shop for this mixer and finally pick out the one I wanted. Do you know how many varieties there are of this simple looking Stand mixer??? Well I didn't count, but there are a bunch! I found through my comparison shopping that the main differences are the wattage of the motor, the size of the mixing bowl and weather the bowl lifts or the head tilts! My model came with a 450 watt motor, a 5 quart mixing bowl and a bowl lift!

The other thing I figured out is that the shopKitchenAid.com website had the best prices for their product. Which is kinda surprising to me....most of the product websites are the highest! Or so I thought! They also offer refurbished models. Now when I saw that I immediately thought that they meant broken ones that had been fixed and were being resold...and that was partially true! However most of them were returns that had been inspected and resold...and they still come with a 6 month warranty! Now this is the route that I took...I managed to get a mixer that would have cost me over $400 for just a little over $200! Yay Me! I would call that a bargain!

I hope you have a wonderful, warm and pleasant evening! I have spaghetti on the stove and a family waiting!
God Bless, Mama D

Peanut Butter Cookies

Yummy Peanut Butter Cookies....I have always liked peanut butter cookies but have never really found a recipe I liked.....well I finally found one! And it is surprisingly similar to a chocolate chip cookie recipe! These turned out just perfect! I made a quadruple batch today....26 dozen cookies! Whew!

This recipe averages 6-7 dozen cookies per recipe!

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup Butter (I used 1/2 butter 1/2 margarine)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup peanut butter
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter until soft and creamy, then add both sugars. Add eggs and beat well. Add peanut butter and mix well. Combine dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients. Blending well. Roll into small balls (I used my handy dandy small scoop) Flatten with fork in a criss cross manner. Bake 8-10 minutes.

Mama D's Tips

Before baking check the expiration date on your baking soda and baking powder. That has ruined more bacthes of cookies than I can count in this house. That is until I finally figured out what was wrong. They both have an active shelf life of about 6 months...so if you are not sure....buy new!

German Potato Soup

OK folks I have to apologize for the lack of pictures here....I will add some later....but somewhere between my living room and my kitchen my camera went missing! Hey it's a big house! I search frantically for it for about 15 minutes...then decided getting dinner on the table was much more important than having pictures for my blog! So here it is my pictureless blog entry! Of course after everything was cooked, eaten and put away, my darling husband walked out of the room and came back with ....can you guess??? Yeap my camera! And he is just ornery enough that he won't tell me where he finds stuff like that because he knows it drives me insane!!!

OK now that I have shared with you that little tidbit about my life, let me tell you what I cooked for dinner. German Potato Soup....yummy! It's creamy, cheesy and full of good for you veggies! It has and always will be my favorite potato soup! My Momma's best friend shared this recipe with her when I was a little girl. Every time I make this recipe I think of Linda and her girls, Stephanie and Shannon! Thank you for all the wonderful memories!

German Potato Soup

5 cups water
5 chicken bouillon cubes (or substitute both with chicken stock)

Bring to a boil in a large pan.

1 cup peeled and diced carrots (sometimes I get lazy and use baby carrots)
1 cup diced onion (mine wear already chopped and in the freezer!)
1 cup diced celery (same as the onion)

Add to boiling water and cook for 20 minutes.

5-6 cups of peeled and diced potatoes

Add to veggies and cook for another 20 minutes.
When veggies are tender add 2 cans of Cream of Chicken Soup and 1 lb. of Velveeta Cheese cubed. Stir frequently and reduce you heat to prevent sticking. Heat until cheese has melted and serve! Cornbread is the perfect side!

Mama D's Variations

Okay sometimes I substitute red potatoes for the regular potatoes...it all kinda of depends on if I can find them on sale or have them on hand.

I have also been know to add some sweet corn to the pot when I have some leftover in the fridge.

Now my Daddy the Meat Eater...who doesn't think he can eat a meal without meat in it has us add ham to the mixture...I don't really care for that addition so we started leaving his ham on the side and let him just add it to him portion.

Also a can of chopped green chilies gives it a little kick...this is something I like but don't do often because of my picky eaters!

I hope you enjoy this as much as I always have, with this next round of cold weather coming our way tonight....it would be a good thing to try!
God Bless, Mama D