I still want chickens. Sort of.

I keep telling Steve I want to raise chickens, and he keeps telling me I can't have any.

I think the reasons have changed over the years, but they have all been valid. When I asked him recently to tell me again why I can't have chickens he said, "for the same reason you're not planting a garden this year."

Ouch.

He also reminded me that we have all sorts of wild critters around here, including raccoons and coyotes, that would love to eat chickens. And it would be pretty easy for the wild critters to get at them because I would want our chickens to be free range. Laugh if you must, but I would love to be able to sit with my coffee in the morning and watch the chickens cluck and peck their way around the yard. I think it would be relaxing. They eat bugs, too, which would be quite helpful.

Oh well. Raising chickens just isn't meant to be in this season of our lives.

It's all good, though, because I get to live vicariously through our neighbors who do have chickens.

And bonus! They give us fresh eggs.

Beautiful, aren't they?

I should note that originally we (read: Steve) struck a deal with the neighbors to trade something fresh from the kitchen for eggs, and I have been pretty lax in keeping up our end of the bargain while Steve is gone. I willingly admit Steve is the better (read: more adventurous) cook in this house, and he likes to share the wealth with others. I? Can cook well enough to keep us alive. I can't shop in the pantry and throw things together like Steve can. But since I'd like the steady stream of fresh eggs to continue, and since my dear sweet husband keeps telling me I can't have hens of my own, I think I'll whip up some granola today and have it ready for the next time Mr. Neighbor stops by with a dozen eggs.

Granola I can do. Because I have a recipe.

Maybe I'll share the recipe tomorrow.

With pictures! Because that's about as adventurous as I get in the kitchen.

Happy Monday!

Chicken, Day Two: Stock.

I haven't always been a fan of chicken.

We ate a lot of chicken in our house when I was a kid. Too many of my younger years spent trimming, cutting, cooking and eating boneless/skinless chicken breasts. Chicken salads, chicken stir fry, chicken fajitas. Lord have mercy.

*shudder*

I'm over it, though. I really like chicken now. It's so versatile. Buy a whole roasting chicken at the market and you can make several meals out of it - or at least two meals - depending on the size of your family and the size of the chicken. This is a great way to stretch a budget.

Meal #1: Roasted chicken. There are about 30 million recipes for roasted chicken if you do a search on-line. When I am cooking I have two requirements: easy and quick. Those requirements probably eliminate half of the recipes. When I roasted a chicken the other night I just stuffed it in the roasting pan, drizzled olive oil on it, then sprinkled it with a mixture of salt, black pepper, oregano, basil, paprika and cayenne pepper, then rubbed all that into the skin. I baked it at 400 degrees for about a half hour, then turned the heat down to 350 and baked it maybe another hour, until the internal temp was 180 degrees. It smelled amazing, the skin was a beautiful crispy brown, and those spices made their way into the meat just enough to give it a great flavor and just a hint of kick. It was GOOD.

Meals #2 and #3: Chicken noodle soup and chicken salad for sandwiches. These are my favorites at this point because my kids will eat homemade chicken noodle soup (particularly if I make biscuits to go with it), and I like to have the chicken salad in the fridge for myself for lunches. It's also great to have some leftover chicken stock in the freezer for yet another meal later. You could make more soup, add it to your mashed potatoes for some flavor, cook your rice in it, or any number of other possibilities.

So here is how I made my easy and (relatively) quick chicken stock. With pictures. Because I take pictures of everything. Which makes my family laugh.

Anyway. Chicken stock!

I saved everything that was left in the roasting pan after the roasted chicken dinner and after I pulled the leftover meat off the bones. Olive oil. Salt and pepper. Onions and carrots I had in the fridge. The carrots I didn't bother peeling, just washed them really good and chopped them up. Easy, remember? Celery I begged off the neighbors because I didn't have any and I didn't want the carrots and onions getting lonely. Plus they take nice pictures together, don't they?

In the pot with all of you! I turn on the heat and pour some extra virgin olive oil in there first. I go a little crazy with the olive oil because I love the sound of the sizzling veggies. And it tastes good. And I don't like my onions sticking to the bottom of the pot. I ground some sea salt and black pepper into the pot, too. It doesn't have to be fancy schmancy salt and pepper. It doesn't even have to be salt and pepper. I just thought they'd make a nice addition to all the spices that were already on the chicken.

When the onions looked limp and the veggies weren't sizzling so much anymore, I added the chicken carcass and all the spicy, ooey gooey goodness that was left in the roasting pan. It all adds flavor - all the bones and the leftover tidbits of meat. Cover it with water. I think this took about eight cups. Then turn up the heat 'til she boils!

This is the part when my younger child comes in from playing outside and says, "It smells like chicken nuggets in here!" and I say, "Oh, but it's much better than chicken nuggets, baby."
I let it boil for maybe 15 minutes, then turned the heat down and tried to forget about it for a couple of hours while it simmered. But I'm a checker and stirrer, so I can never forget about it. It's OK, you can't really ruin chicken stock with too much checking and stirring.

Mmmmm. Look at all that golden goodness. Turn off the heat and let it cool. Do you hear me? Let. It. Cool. At least a little.

When it's cool enough that I can pick up the pot and pour out the ingredients into a strainer without scalding myself, I do so. I should note here that my goal is not to have a clear broth. My goal is to create some sort of yummy, flavorful liquid with which to do some future cooking, so I don't get too cranked up if a few pieces of onion slip through the strainer. I'd probably fish out any errant celery, but that's just me. The carcass and whatever ends up in the strainer gets tossed. Goodbye, carrots. You served me well.

Yum! I ended up with six cups of stock to put in the freezer, plus a little extra to ... I don't know ... maybe make some soup for lunch today. I put it all in the refrigerator to let any fat settle, and I'll scoop that off the top before the container goes in the freezer. 

See how easy that was? It might not seem like much, but I get a lot out of this whole process. I get the joy of feeding my family good, wholesome meals for a very small investment of time and money. I get the pleasure of a house that smells of those home-cooked meals. If I do little extras like making chicken stock regularly, I get a freezer full of meal basics and bases that I can pull out at a moment's notice or when I'm too tired to start from scratch.

It sure beats ordering pizza. And I never thought I'd say this, but it beats having cereal for dinner, too.

It started with just one chicken.

Or was it an egg?

Chicken?

Egg?

OK, OK.

This post definitely started with a whole chicken in my refrigerator. Well, the edible parts of the chicken anyway. Because I bought it at the grocery store where you find chickens wrapped in plastic, all de-feathered and de-clawed and with the insides all cleaned out.

Perhaps there's a reason I'm not a food blogger, eh? I'm not making chicken sound very sexy right now, am I?

But there's a reason for that. Chicken isn't sexy.

Oh sure, serving a juicy chicken breast over pasta and drowning it all in a creamy sauce is pretty nice, but chicken itself is not inherently sexy.

On that note, a protip: If you are at all squeamish about knowing where your food comes from and the process by which it gets from the grower to your plate, do not watch the documentary Food, Inc. before preparing (and eating) a big meal. They're not kidding when they say you'll never look at dinner the same way after you've seen this film.

While my chicken was sitting in the fridge waiting to be roasted, I watched Food, Inc.

Then I waited a couple more days before I could face the chicken. Not because the movie grossed me out. Not because I suddenly thought the chicken had feelings. Rather, because the movie is incredibly thought-provoking and I just ... I don't know ... wanted to think more about the chicken, I guess.

When I finally got around to it, I used the mix of spices in this recipe for Spicy Rapid Roast Chicken from allrecipes.com, and I extended the cooking time a little because my chicken was bigger than three pounds.

Can I just say? YUM. This has now become my go-to recipe for roasted chicken.

I knew I should have taken a picture when I took it out of the oven. (See? A real food blogger would never forget to capture a shot of the finished product. Phooey.) It was tasty and beautiful. Don't despair, though. Tomorrow I'll show you (with pictures!) what I have learned about Chicken, Day Two. Hint: it's budget friendly.

That's right, dear readers, it's Chicken Week here in the Pipe Life household. Or Chicken Days, at least, until it's all gone. Stretching one small chicken to two or three meals - now that's what I call excitement!

And if you're still with me after all of that, first: thank you, and second: You should watch Food, Inc. Everyone should. Seriously.