Homemade Chicken Stock (Broth?!)

Is it stock or broth?! I may never figure out the difference. And apparently, there's a big ol' debate on the interwebs amongst the foodies. I just don't care that much. I DO wish, however, that I had one of those beautiful photos of my stock in mason jars. But how would you store that?! WHERE would you store it?! So, I don't have one of those pictures. My way is better anyway, dontcha think? It stores really conveniently, and is super easy to only thaw the amount I need*.

*About a cup. Each "patty" is approximately 1/3c.

I make mine with the leftovers from my roasted chicken. If you wanna make your own stock (broth?!) you should know two important things: it's insanely time consuming...about 5 hours + overnight (but REALLY easy, actually) and don't add salt! This may be the only time you ever here me tell you to hold the salt, BUT this advice came straight from my poppop (whose alfredo recipe, admittedly, will result in you having a heart attack, but he does know his stuff!). And he has good reason for this advice! This way, you can use it in any recipe without worrying about having too much salt in the end product. Ok, so let's get started!

Grab the biggest pot you have. I use my 11-qt Ikea 365+ Stock pot that I got FREE. I had to get there before noon and stand in the longest line EVER, but it was totally worth it. Stick your leftover chicken/chicken pieces in it and cover with an inch or so of water. Note: wings float ;) Bring this to a boil. Icky stuff will rise, skim this off. (Not pictured: icky stuff)

In the meantime, you're going to need to grab some veggies and herbs. Whatever you have on hand should probably do, unless all you have in the fridge is mustard. Mustard most likely won't cut it, but I've never tried it, so don't let me stop you! My standards are carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and bay leaves. On this day, I happened to have some rosemary and parsley, so I added those, as well. There's no hard and fast rule about how many or how much (or at least not one I care about! I'm just a rebel! Livin' on the edge!!!), but I wouldn't use fewer than two carrots/stalks of celery/, three if you have them. I used quite a few bay leaves because mine were tiny, but I'd use at least two of those and onions as well. I KNOW I didn't "measure" the rosemary and parsley.

Chop your veggies up fairly large. An inch/inchandahalf oughta do it. I toss everything in a bowl with the herbs and garlic (confession: I use the garlic in the jar that's already diced) as I go.

Pictured: prettier than icky stuff

Once your water has boiled (and you've removed the aforementioned icky stuff), toss your veggies in, reduce to a simmer, and walk away. Just walk away. Come back every so often to stir and make sure it hasn't heated to above a simmer, but you might as well throw in some laundry, watch some SVU, write a blog post. Whatev. Point is, it's gonna be there, on your stove, for about four hours.

After your entire afternoon has passed, strain the big stuff outta your stock. Kinda icky, but less icky than the floaters from earlier.

And then again through a mesh strainer for the smaller bits. And then refrigerate overnight. All the fat will rise and it'll be a lot easier to skim off. I suppose you don't HAVE to refrigerate it, but like I said, easier. And I'm anal about removing ALL of it (not because I care about fat, but because I'm just insane).

After the fat's been skimmed, one way or another, pull out your muffin tins. Fill each cup with your stock and pop in the freezer. I have a side-by-side, so I'm stuck using 6-cup tins. I flash freeze one tin at a time, then stack the next tin on top with a layer of waxed paper between.

Once they're frozen I pop them out and toss them into a gallon-size freezer bag. I also spray my tins with Pam. I'm fully convinced it takes less prying to get the "patties" out once they're frozen. Martha Stewart claims each one is approximately 1/3 cup. And she's Martha Stewart, so I believe her. This knowledge will come in hand later when you're using a recipe that calls for "1 cup of broth."

When you want to use it, just thaw as many "patties" as needed for your recipe. I've never had any issues with not knowing exactly how much each cup holds. You may need to add a bit more salt to your recipe if your recipe assumes you're starting with canned broth or bouillon cubes.

Ingredients:

Chicken carcass (including wings and whatever pieces you don't plan to use for another recipe)

3 Carrots, peeled and chopped in 1ish inch pieces

3 Stalks of celery, chopped in 1ish inch pieces

2 Onions, chopped in big ol' chunks

2-3 Large bay leaves

2 Tbsp chopped garlic

Fresh herbs on hand

Directions:

Cover leftover chicken/chicken pieces with 1-3 inches of water in large pot. Bring to a boil, skimming fat from surface. While waiting for the water to boil, prepare vegetables by cutting into 1-inch pieces. Reduce heat to low simmer and add vegetables and herbs. Allow to simmer four hours, stirring occasionally. Thoroughly strain solids from broth and throw away. Refrigerate 6-8 hours. Skim fat from top. Refrigerate or, for long-term storage, freeze or can. Makes about 4 quarts.

Freezing suggestion: Use muffin tins to measure out and freeze 1/3 cup portions. Freeze in the tins and move portions to a freezer storage bag.

Soon-to-be-famous Cherry-Peach Crisp

Because it's that good. And I don't even LIKE cherries OR peaches! I mean, I don't hate them, but I don't love them either. *shrug* BUT...

Ok, back story. 'Cause if I don't love these two fruits, WHY did I make this dessert?

So My Fella's mom came by the other day with a gift:

Lookit! Seriously, don't you love those colors?!

And that's not all! There was corn on the cob, and string beans (which were promptly served up in Agent-S-fried-green-bean fashion), and asparagus, and banana bread, and an apple pie! My Fella says she over does it. I say all I need is an excuse to bake, so hush!

Anyway, for some reason, despite my indifference to both cherries and peaches, the idea of them combined appealed to me. So I called up Agent W and after some deliberation (mostly about which was a crisp vs. a crumb vs. a cobbler vs....), it was decided that I should make a cherry-peach crisp...because who wants to fuss with preparing a crust for a summer dessert?! Not I! But I didn't have such a recipe on hand (fascinating considering the amount of cookbooks, especially those devoted to desserts, that I own!). So we discussed it some more and decided on the basic ingredients it must have: sugar (both brown and white) and cinnamon and "toss together in a bowl. Taste. If it tastes good, top it and pop it in the oven." That's how we roll. I prepared this while making dinner at the same time, so I don't have as many pictures as I'd like...but I DID have the foresight to write down my recipe for future use:

This is, sadly, NOT the only recipe I have with no name, and only half the indredients

In my defense, I didn't know how it would turn out, so, ya know. In the end, I realized flour was missing in the early stages of our recipe. The question mark was my first "check-in time" and I'd add more if needed.

Using farm-fresh fruits requires some pretty messy work for this. You'll need to peel your peaches and pit your cherries. The easiest way to peel peaches is to cut an X across the bottom of each peach, immerse them in simmering water for about 30 seconds to a minute (you'll know it's been long enough when the skin starts to peel away from where you cut the X). From there, drop them immediately into ice water for about a minute to cool. Once cool, use a paring knife to lift the edges at the X and peel the skin away.

Here's where it gets messy...pitting cherries. Everyone's favorite, right? Well, like I said, I don't love cherries, so I do NOT have a pitting tool. So I Googled. And I found this at theKitchn. They suggest using a pastry tip. Oh, and I've most certainly got pastry tips! AAAAAAND IT WORKS! See?

Insert joke about the blood of the cherries being on my hands.

After all that was done, I did, in fact, toss it together in a bowl, taste it, top it

This is where I realized I hadn't taken a single picture. And the topping was already half on. Sorry, guys!

and pop it in the oven

Out of the oven and NOT marked with a B

So you know you want the recipe ;) Well, here it is:

Ingredients:

Filling:

4 peaches, peeled and sliced
1 pint of cherries, pitted
1/3 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. white sugar
1/4 c. flour
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Topping:

1 c. brown sugar
1 c. flour
1 c. oats
1/2-1/4 tsp. salt, optional (I use salted butter, so omitted the salt from my topping)
1 stick butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients for your filling. Add your fruit and stir gently until coated. Turn into casserole dish (or your favorite cast iron skillet). Set aside. Topping: While your butter is melting, combine dry ingredients. Pour melted butter over and mix until combined. Pour (or shake, really) topping evenly over fruit. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until topping is browned and fruit is soft. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Or, ya know, both.

Agent W mentioned a dislike for oatmeal. Sigh. But I imagine this could be made with a crumb topping and still be just as good!

After you make this (because you really, REALLY should make this), let me know how it turned out!