A Stock Making Week

We arrived home from our vacation home to realize my stock supply with the exception of tomato stock that I guard like gold was at rock bottom.  I had to scrounge through the freezer to find enough chicken stock for the comfort meal I wanted to make!  There are two reasons why my stock supply was low.  First our house has been on the market since March of 2010 meaning I've been reducing canning where I can to allow the house to be shown more often.  Second, I took a total of a case down to our vacation home over the last two trips.  I'm used to cooking with my home canned stocks so wanted a taste of home there as well.

I had no choice but to get busy making stocks.  Stock making is always a two day event here.  I prefer making stocks in the dead cold of winter because the stock can sit in the sunporch over night for defatting rather than take up refrigerator space.  First on the agenda was beef stock (far left) with a yield of 12 - 500 ml jars.  Next on the agenda was chicken stock (right) with a yield of 14 - 400 ml jars.  Within 4 days total but nowhere near that time length in work 26 - 500 ml jars were stored safely in my pantry.

That very weekend we were having our belated Christmas celebrations complete with a 22 lb turkey.  I knew I would be canning turkey stock the start of the week.  There is absolutely no reason to let a perfectly good turkey carcass go to waste!

My turkey stock is never nice and clear even if I strain it.  One reason for this is the turkey carcass has bits and pieces of meat and stuffing which affects the clarity of the stock.  I always make stuffing (in the bird) rather than dressing (outside the bird).  Another reason is the turkey carcass has a higher percentage of collagen that causes gelatin to be released so the stock gels somewhat that gives a cloudy appearance when cooled.  My yield for the turkey stock was 16 - 500 ml jars.

As far as cost effectiveness goes, homemade stock is always a frugal choice.  I ended up with 42 - 500 ml jars that if bought in the grocery store at $1.49 each would have cost me $62.48.  My costs for 3 batches cooking for 3 hours each (total time 9 hours),  processing time at 20 minutes each (total time of 1 hour),  24 metal snap 2 - piece lids (18 were Tattler reusable lids) and miscellaneous supporting ingredients (onions, carrots, celery, peppercorns, bay leaves, and etc) came out to a total of $3.40 for a grand savings of $59.08.  Now the beauty of making homemade stocks aside of the huge cost saving is you can freeze them if you don't want to can them.  I can mine because it is then ready to use so more of a convenience product.  I use a lot of stock in everything from soups and stews to bread and muffins!

If you notice on each batch of stock I have used the Tattler reusable lids for some of the jars.  At the moment I have 2 dozen vintage glass inserts,  6 dozen Tattlers and about 70 dozen metal snap lids.  I am reusing my Tattler lids as soon as I empty enough jars to get another canner load.  I plan to buy several more dozen Tattler lids this spring in preparation for the busy canning season.  Eliminating the single use metal lids will reduce my canning costs by 8¢ to 12¢ per jar.  At an average of 1,2,00 to 1,400 jars per year that alone will be a nice savings!

Kitchen Quick Tips - Taming the Heat in Hot Peppers

Most of the heat from capsaicin in hot peppers is found in the seeds and ribs.  Remove both to reduce the heat of a hot pepper.

Our Christmas Dinner 2011

We spent this past holiday season at our vacation home in the sunny south.  It was a very different Christmas not being surrounded by family and friends.  We have only been away from our home on Christmas day on one other occasion when we took the kids south one year.  It was hard then and it was hard for use to be away this past year.  Prior to leaving we knew a couple of our kids would join us for the holidays but we had arranged to have our big Christmas celebration on January 22, 2011. 

My husband and I were up bright and early full of anticipation.  We sipped on our coffee while getting the turkey ready for the oven.  Then we moved on to making the many appetizers we would enjoy throughout the afternoon (eg. kibbeh, crabmeat dip, hummus, crudites, and etc.) First to arrive were parents of oldest and youngest grandkids.  The kids were extremely excited to see us so there were a lot of hugs and kisses.  Next to arrive were parents of middle grandkid who was excited to see Grandma and Papa as well as cousins.  It is so cute to see these three little ones interact!  We chit chatted enjoying an abundance of snacks while waiting for one of our kids with significant other to arrive for the magic present opening time.  We were all saddened a bit that one of our kids with spouse could not make it.  We had stopped by their place to stay a couple of days before returning home so brough well wishes for the sibs home with us.

I kept the dinner quite traditional this year.  We had turkey with stuffing (not dressing, stuffing), gravy, peas, corn, and home canned cranberry sauce.  I put out freezer pickles and pickled beets in Depression glass pickle dishes.  We had fully planned on making Swedish potatoes, a family favourite but we were enjoying simply being with the family so much that my husband decided to put potatoes in to bake during the last hour of the turkey roasting.  We brought down the large fold-up table to adjoin the dining table so we could all sit together.  In total there were 12 of us.   It was a wonderful dinner filled will lots of laughter and good memories!  That is what it's all about :)

Hummus

One thing I've learned over the decades of entertaining is to listen to our guests especially the little chit chat that goes on during entertaining.  A few years ago I started hearing little tid bits about vegetarian dishes.  At one time I think all of our guests were omnivores but over time some have for whatever reason given up meat entirely or stopped eating one type of meat.  Others have developed a food insensitivity.  As an hostess in tuned to the needs of her guests I try to offer a variety of dishes that all can enjoy.

Most of my dip recipes are mayonnaise and sour cream or yogurt based.  I wanted a vegetarian dip to add to my offerings for those who want a dip other than dairy based.  Hummus is a vegetarian type dip made from chickpeas that satisfies what I was looking for.  It is a versatile dip that can be used with breads, crackers and raw vegetables as well as a spread on sandwiches. 

I served the hummus with whole wheat sandwich thins that had been cut into 1 - inch wide strips.  This is a new style of sandwich bread that is quite similar to Greek style pita bread only oblong in shape.  The hummus went over well.  Even the grandkids were eating it!

Hummus
By Garden Gnome

2 garlic cloves, minced and then mashed
16 oz cooked chickpeas
⅓ c tahini
1 tbsp  freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ c water
1/8 c olive oil
pinch of sea salt
toasted pine nuts and parsley (optional for garnish)


Combine all ingredients in food processor.  Process until smooth   Smooth into dipping bowl.  Garnish if desired. Serve with pita bread or raw vegetables.