how to make stock, more pantry notes

here is a past post for you to laugh over, it's from when Thaddeaus Peabody was young (we all know and love the little devil cat from hell right?)
it's called 'are you sure you are a cat'

a bit more pantry notes:
essentials- things like baking soda and baking powder, salt, herb/spices, sugar, flour, various oils and flavorings, rice, pasta, cocoa, jello,  home canned pickles.....things like that
things we need every day, i try to always have a backup on the shelf. i occasionally do run out but it's pretty rare now.
i have a list for this too.
i also have a smallish cabinet for some of this
now if you have your list of meals, this list, and an idea of what you'd like put by, we can talk about what type of freezer containers for the meals, and jars for either the dried stuff and the home canned stuff.
i use a vacuum sealer, freezer containers, and currently for the milk i froze, empty spring water bottles. (those are for short term freezing of milk)

for the emergency pantry, i keep actual cooked meals in the freezer and home canned jars of foods such as stews, that really helped during the power outage we had with hurricane sandy. i was able to reheat food on the wood stove. *** i use the OLD corning ware that can go on the stovetop and in the oven, not the french white stuff that is not stove top safe

the turkey stock i froze the other day, is in quart round freezer containers, labeled with the month/year and the type stock 'turkey' ....
if you get into the habit of every time you make a chicken or a turkey, and you use the leftover carcass to make stock, you shouldn't ever have to worry about having stock in the freezer again.

*** a fast way to make stock- you can reroast the carcass or bones to make the stock a darker color, but i don't always do that...i do however scrap the 'fond' out of the bottom of the roasting pans, and i save ALL the leftover juices for the stock.

fill a stockpot with cold water, add the carcass or bones, and if you want to use them, vegetables such as onion or leek, carrot, garlic, celery, and possibly if you like the taste a parsnip.
(save the parsley and or dill for later on in the cooking process)
simmer for a few hours, adding water if you have to
if you do salt, (i don't usually) use kosher salt, as the taste is better i think.

don't be afraid to taste your stock, and also if you need to ....let it simmer down and concentrate it to save room.
when it's finished, strain out the bones, and the veggies.....
you can put it in the fridge overnight then remove any fat layer that's on the top, but i do keep some fat with the stock...... as my dad used to say, 'you need some of the fat' turns out he was right, as there are fat soluble vitamins in it!

stock in the freezer is something i've always done, i've also canned stock for the pantry
that is done in a pressure canner at 10# for my elevation, 15 minutes.

i am also hoping to get around to listing some of the books i love for canning, dehydrating, and putting food by.
plus maybe a list of some of the varieties of veggies i grow for freezing and canning...
if you are interested please let me know.

now the other thing i wanted to tell you folks, i am thinking of moving the blog to wordpress, i've been with blogger for about ten years now, and i am thinking that it's time to move on
i have over 1600 posts here, some useful, some funny, some just daily life, and a few vents on when stuff goes wrong.
right now i am extremely disappointed in google, and blogger so i am going to think seriously about this
if i move to wordpress, it would be a paid website hosting due to the sheer size of the this blog,
which means i would also have to really decide to actively make this a job. that is in addition to painting...... i think i could do both interchangeably
if you have any opinions on this let me know ok?

til next time

vi

a short detour

picking meat off the turkey

adding bones to the stock pot

 i put the turkey carcass into the stockpot after getting as much meat as i could off.
have you done your turkey stock yet?
i got 5 quarts, three of which are in the freezer
the other two....that was our soup base for supper tonight
turkey soup with celery, onion and cabbage!
oh and bite sized raviolis

i love having stock on hand, and i love using the very last of the turkey up!

turkey meat and some stuffing

painting updates, pantry notes *** pretty long pt 1 of many

i was up most of the night painting, i think it's starting to come along now. i am starting to like what i see here. however i will be cautious with my optimism, as i don't want to become so enraptured with this painting that i don't see if i make a mistake. it's good to keep a critical eye on your work. 

this particular series will be larger in size then my original ones, and i think more intricate, reflective of where i am in my life now.

i do like the 'peeking into' aspect of this painting, a glimpse into a sheltered and secret world. 

some of my favorite things are in this painting, maple leaves, wild berries, the nest and eggs. 

this painting was extremely soft starting out, and still is mostly, but i think things are starting to sharpen up a bit, which they needed to.

now onto another thing that i was asked about recently...

starting and maintaining a home pantry without making yourself nuts. yes it can be a huge job but it's easy one step at a time.

our forefathers (really our foreMOTHERS) marked the rhythm of the seasons of an agricultural based year, taking things in plentiful and season and preserving them for times of want and winter.

for us, it is more a matter of making sure that if there is a hardship, such as illness or job loss...

or a storm, or money is tight, we can survive. despite the supermarkets all around us full of food and goods, sometimes they are beyond our grasp.

so i am going to try to help you put a pantry together if you don't have one, increase your pantry if you do have one, and try to help you save some money while you are doing it.

***please note that when i refer to our pantry it includes batch cooking freezer meals, dried foods, canned foods and homemade 'tv dinners'' part of our pantry, as during hurricane sandy (no running water and no electricity for over a week and then no hot water for another 2 weeks) the food i had already cooked ahead was what we reheated on the woodstove.  it also includes extra amounts of things like coffee, tea, sugar, lightbulbs, toilet paper..... 

first you need a plan. 

and a notebook (i use a three ring binder- and i get a ream of prepunched holed paper for it)

ok, what do you eat during the week (please don't say 'take out every night'..or we will have to talk)

let's just say an average week

make a list of your suppers

here's mine for cold week in fall: 

sunday- pasta and sauce (salad)

monday- meatloaf, baked potato, carrots (gravy optional)

tuesday- chicken stir fry with mixed veggies, brown rice

wednesday- porkchops in apple cider with homemade mac/cheese and home canned cole slaw (yes it stayed crisp
thursday- chicken soup with no knead bread

friday- homemade pizza

saturday- beef stew

summers are in a way, easier as we eat a lot of salads out of the garden, but we'll just do this normal type week.

what else does your family eat?

make a short list of favorite main dish meals

i have a list of about 60 different main dishes put away.......

now you know that you have to eat daily,

so decide for now, how many days or weeks you would like to have stocked for?

***i started out when we were first married (37 years ago) stocking monthly, we shopped once a month, i spend saturday cooking and then we ate for the month without worry....just picking up milk and maybe eggs or bread and some fresh veggies weekly (we lived in an apartment at that time and i worked full time outside of the house)

when we moved here, we started to stock up for 3 months at a time, but soon graduated to 6 months at a time....and finally to a year at a time.

let's say you want to stock for two weeks, 

you know you need 14 meals, but say your family LOVES homemade pizza and you have that every friday night....ok so that really is only 13 meals (cause one is doubled)

and say you make a big roast on a sunday, then cut it up for stew, and the leftover stew is now going into a pot pie, ...hmmmmm see what i mean? (hint, cut the roast into stew chunks before you put it away on sunday, and it's ready to go for a fast stew during the week.)

now i know at this point in the process, i was sitting there overwhelmed and wondering how i was going to do this, where i was going to put everything, afford everything, .....and just remember everything. if you're at that point right now, just remember, i too was there, we were on a very tight budget, we have an extremely tiny house, no closets, a damp basement, a total wreck of a kitchen without kitchen counters, and i was scared, so if i can do this YOU can do this, 

ok so we have a sample week of supper menus, and a list of other meals your family likes

plus an idea of how many weeks (2) you want to try and stock for.

now we do some math,  first off you take the meals you know you will repeat ......so that would be say two meals of  homemade pizza

and you are going to make a roast either of beef or chicken or even turkey, and cut that up for a stew, and the pot pie.

now you just have to fill in the others (fill in your own meals ok-i'm working on a pdf for you to download)

1. roast
2. stew and/or potpie
3. chicken stir fry 
4. meatloaf
5. pizza
6. pizza
7. pork chops
8. pasta
9. soup and sandwitch
10. baked chicken
11. tuna casserole
12. tilapia fillets with parmesan coating
13. enchiladas
14. chili

ok so there is about a two week batch of meals...just supper at this point, cause lunches are normally leftovers (so i just make extras- enough for a meal or two for the freezer and a bit leftover for lunch the next day)

now we are going to break it down into manageable units ( which is going to start tomorrow as i have been working all day and my eyes are exhausted!)

please leave any questions you may have in the comments and we'll work them out as we go along

dehydrating 102- & pantry cooking- PHOTO heavy

to continue from yesterday
(for rho)
today i am going to show you how to use some dried veggies in a meal.
i took pictures and posted them of the tortilla potpie bowls the other day (scroll down) if you would like to make a pot pie using tortillas (which we do as it's fast)...and that is a whole wheat tortilla in the photo.

melted butter with olive oil added

1/8 cup flour added

now as to filling, i tend to leftovers for potpies, and normally i start with a roux, which is a mix of equal parts flour and a fat .....
for pot pies i use a mix of butter and olive oil for the fat.

starting to whisk flour in

beef stock added

so lets say we start with a tablespoon of butter and one of olive oil, melt the butter in a heavy bottom pot, then add the oil and let that heat a bit
then add about 1/8 cup of flour, you can use all purpose
 whisk that together
i used beef stock in this, about 1-1/2 cups

finished sauce

you can use whatever you have on hand. you can even use bullion reconstituted if you absolutely have to. (ignore my crappy non counter, i am still trying to get counters in the kitchen!)

whisk it while heating until it gets thicker and smooth.
it should be lump free doing it this way
btw, this will also make gravy if you need to, the very same method, but use the pan drippings after you separate out the fats

dried onions in mason jar

dried veggies soaking

 meanwhile i took some dried veggies and started to soak them in hot water as we aren't going to do a true soup or stew. i just grabbed whatever i had close on the shelf, so it ended up as diced eggplant, vidalia onions, and some diced sweet peppers ( i need to dry another batch of carrots it looks like)

chicken sauteing in pan

leftover potatoes and onions to add

i diced up some chicken breast i had.....and simmered that with the veggies and their dehydrating water- i also had some leftover potatoes and onions from the other night....yup they went in there also




added some fresh ground pepper, and a dash of paprika and garlic powder,  a bit of tomato sauce i had in the fridge (you can use a cube you froze from something else)

dried veggies added to pan

sauce added and stirred

then added the roux thickened beef stock to it all and dumped it into the tortilla bowl..








i briefly softened another tortilla(not soft enough from the look of the photo) and put that on top, then into the oven at 350 for about 20 to 30 minutes. (i like the top a bit crispy)

add paprika & tomato sauce

add to the tortilla bowl

it is pantry and leftover cooking at it's finest!....
now i like to keep a lot of whole wheat tortillas on hand for my new found love ....enchiladas!
which i make out of leftovers, and add chopped vegetables to.
so these tortilla pot pies are sort of an extension of that idea, and while the enchiladas freeze well, i've never tried to freeze these.

i know that the photos are not the best however this is a pretty good way to use up leftovers, or make overs.... i use leftover everything (including leftover gravy when i made the turkey leftover pot pie)

out of the oven!- smells great!

cover with another tortilla and bake

 now i hope this helps you, because it does help to have another way to make leftovers, and to use pantry items.


by drying your own veggies and fruits, when are in season, you save a lot of money, and by keeping a pantry full of food, you know that in case of emergency you have a safety margin for yourself and your family.

here again are some sites for dehydration
http://www.clemson.edu/sustainableag/IP147_food_dehydration.pdf

http://msuextension.org/publications/HomeHealthandFamily/MT200907HR.pdf

http://nchfp.uga.edu/

i hope this helps you....
please let me know in the comments

GOOD morning! how was your holiday?

i hope everyone had a wonderful day.
we had a very quiet day.
we won't discuss HOW stuffing ended up on my head......
(except to say it was my own stupidity--)
we have hot water again so i was able to take a shower....YEAH!!
i really didn't want to walk around smelling like sage and turkey, (cause no matter how hard you try a sponge bath doesn't really do it as i have discovered) i had visions of every stray carnivore in 15 miles following me around.

i will admit to being lazy about our meal prior to yesterday. we'd had mashed potatoes earlier in the week so we had saved them for yesterday. we roasted sweet potatoes instead of that casserole with the marshmallows and i threw the cranberries in a pot to make sauce as i was letting the turkey rest.

here is a very fast way of making home made cranberry sauce.
i don't really measure things so i am going to give you an approximation

1 bag of fresh cranberries, usually about 12-16 oz
1 cup sugar
1 cup apple cider, or apple juice, OR orange juice
1 whole organic orange or tangerine (you're going to zest the colored part of the peel into this
3 spokes off a star anise

zest the citrus fruit into the pan, and if you didn't use orange juice as the liquid, then squeeze the juice out of the citrus fruit into the pan.
then dump all the rest into a sauce pan and bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally.....i gently boil it until things sort start to pop and the liquid is nice a red.
it will start coating the spoon....
that's it .....it is pretty much done. fish out the star anise and toss that into the compost.
chill it, and there you have it
if you want to can it, i put it in either the small (see the picture-i even made it sorta pretty for you all) 4oz jars or the 8oz jelly jars.
i use a boiling water bath canner and it's 10 minutes time.

now you can also at that point chop some apple into it
and or add some chopped nuts
one of my friends chops bananas into his.
this is fun so experiment a bit.

i was snacking on this sauce last night long after supper.
a fast note on this, i put it in the small 4oz canning jars for serving, cause it looked so cute in there, and it was just about the right amount per person (if you love cran sauce like i do)

ok, now in my painting news, i am still working on photographing my work, having discovered that thought i THOUGHT i was doing the custom white balance correctly, it turns out i wasn't! (remember the polar bear painting from the other day where i showed you what a difference a good crop makes?)
so since i discovered that youtube video on my camera's white balance i realized i needed to reshoot almost all the paintings again.
guess what i am doing today? and tomorrow most likely, and well......i guess every day until i get them all done.
i am working hard on getting them ready to offer the prints in the etsy store i in the middle of working on.
i've also started writing the stories behind how each series started, and what i was going through while painting them, which will go on the listings and also be printed and enclosed with the digital prints.
i am also beginning to plan a kickstarter for valentines day or spring/easter
so if anyone wants to give me some feedback on what they would like to see my images on....... that will become part of the set up. and yes i will blog about it
i personally would LOVE to offer garden flags, i don't know why i want to see my work on them so much, maybe because i have a few and really do like them.
i will be submitting to toland flag in a few weeks hoping to become one of their artists, but i am also going to inquire about having them do a run of a custom flag for me to maybe offer on etsy.

i will tell you folks, any imput any one of you may have for me would be invaluable.
so either post in comment or email me from the 'email me' button
(actually someone want to email me from that email button to make sure it works ok? i tweeted it a bit)

now december of 2014 marks the 10 year anniversary of this blog. yes it's true, i been blowing hot air for ten whole years on this blog! amazing huh?
i am thinking i need to celebrate, so i am planning on having a giveaway.... i am not sure what yet, or how to do it but i'm open to suggestions

so now, i am going to finish this cup of coffee, and get started on my list of chores
i hope everyone has a wonderful start to the holiday season

edited to add, since the inception of this blog, it's been a way to talk to my online friends over a cup of coffee, normally i post either after supper (and publish that in the morning) or in the morning when i drink my coffee. just so you all know.....for the most part it is just us over coffee!
someone pass the bagels now?