Chicken Stock..ready for soup season!

I had been keeping a couple chicken carcasses in the freezer the last few weeks - any time I do anything with chicken, I'll wrap and save the bones until I've got enough to make a batch of chicken stock. I supplement the bones with chicken hind quarters I buy from the deli counter at the grocery store. After the meat has cooked through, I'll strip it from the bones, keeping the meat and returning the bones to the pot to finish simmering. All-in-all, it's about a three or four hour process, but it's so incredibly worth it.
In the pot I've got my chickens, three heads of garlic chopped cross-wise, three yellow onions chopped into quarters, a handful of carrots and celery stalks, a couple bunches of parsley and thyme from the garden, whole black peppercorns, and kosher salt to bring out the flavor.
I brown my ingredients before covering them with water - it adds a little more flavor to the stock and lends a deep brown color. Homemade for sure! :)

Because I use a large pot designed for canning/jarring to make my stock, I end up with SEVERAL quarts for the freezer. The last time or two I've made it, though, I've taken the added step of simmering the stock after pouring it off of the other ingredients but before packing it up for the freezer. It seems to concentrate the flavor that much more...plus, it ensures I'll actually have room for all of it ;)
And not a minute too soon! After I finished this, I gathered up the leaves from the yard and burned them in my vegetable garden. I had used up everything in it for this year, so was ready to clear and prep it for a new season next year. And wouldn't you know it, only a few hours after the fire died out, we had our first snow of the season!

Veg

I had big plans for my vegetable garden this year, but not enough time (and not enough rainless, sunny days to work on it, either!) So, I'm gardening with the garden I have, not the garden I want...either way, it's working out well!
Across the top of the picture, I have several broccoli plants growing nicely - after having fresh broccoli last year, I decided I needed A LOT more of it this year! At the front I have several onions, garlic, two good-sized tomato plants, a couple varieties of lettuce, and some herbs. Not as much as I'd like...but certainly as much as I can handle right now :)
Check back for updates - it's changing every day!

Goat Cheese, etc.

In getting my backyard vegetable garden together, I knew I wanted to mulch the area between the rows with something to keep the weeds down, but also something that would give me something to stand on so I wasn’t wallowing in the mud back there. I’ve seen lots of people do crushed stone or mulch, but I was hesitant to do that because 1. A lot of work, 2. A lot of money, 3. Seems like a pain to undo if I don’t want a garden in the future..or if my seedlings crap out and I’m stuck with nothing this year.

So I started contacting some of our local farmers looking for straw. Our area is really lucky to have a pretty vibrant artisan farm population. Many of these farms are operated by families and are either organic or at least less reliant on chemicals than the larger agribusiness operations. One such farmer is my friend Lois. Lois raises goats, feeds and milks each of them by hand, and turns their milk into nationally recognized, award-winning cheeses that she sells to restaurants and vendors around the country. It’s hard work, but she loves it..and the cheese is ridiculously good.

Anyway, Lois hooked me up with a few (too many) bales of oat straw which will work for my mulch and hopefully not drop a bunch of seed into the plots. As much as I’d like to sew my own oats…I’d actually rather not.

Greeeeeen Acres!

While I was there, I bought a couple ounces of chevre from her and planned to make a recipe I’d seen a year or more ago that I’ve always wanted to try: goat cheese and caramelized onion pizza.

I was not disappointed.

I had a leftover hunk of pizza dough in the freezer from earlier in the week, so I rolled that out after my onions had browned and become super tender and sweet. I added a little garlic, salt, and pepper to the onions for more flavor. I spread a basic béchamel (butter, flour, milk, salt, pepper, parmesan) over the crust, spread my onions over that, and crumbled the goat cheese over top of everything. I baked it at 420F until the toppings were melted and slightly brown and the crust sounded hollow when tapped.

The picture is a little blurry because I was in a hurry to eat the rest :)

So freaking good. My white sauce probably could’ve used more flavor, but otherwise this was way good. I thought later about adding a few leaves of thyme to the mix for next time. And there will be a next time! (If nothing else, I'll make the onions again. While the pizza baked, I was standing over the pan eating them by the spoonful. They were like candy!)

Last night was unproductive on the home front as I was called out to meet with a local guy about a fundraising project we’re working on. But I did have time to make a big batch of fettuccine for dinner (and lunch and dinner and lunch and dinner) with some asparagus I picked up at the grocery store. Not a bad day!

The pasta needed more Parmesan...but that's always the case :)

Let the hippie gardening begin!

Spring has sprung in Iowa! Actually, from what I’m reading, spring has sprung a little early everywhere this year. Temperatures have already been in the 90s, which – for us – is pretty unusual. But, combined with the mild winter, we’ve had it pretty easy so far in 2012.

That said, the farmers are worried about the lack of moisture we’ve had (no snow is not always a good thing) and people are waiting to see what the rest of the spring and summer hold. All I know is: if a warmer winter means a warmer summer, I’m toast. Humidity and I don’t get along.

Anyway, I’ve talked for quite a while about turning the enclosed front porch into my greenhouse and I’ve finally done it. For real. I ordered my seeds through a company called Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (www.rareseeds.com), bought some trays so I at least look like I know what I’m doing, and raked up some soil from the backyard to get everything started. I sprinkled a little bone meal into the soil mixture to assist the plants in establishing strong roots and I check for proper moisture every morning before work. The soil should be moist but not water logged.. check it with your finger to see. If it feels dry, water it; if not, no worries. It’s also important that your trays/pots have proper drainage because the plants will rot if allowed to sit in sopping wet soil.

My greenhouse :)

So I’ve been watching these seeds like I’m going to see something. Standing there waiting for something to pop up out of the dirt. Obviously I haven’t seen anything. However, over the weekend while we were building and painting kitchen cabinets..BOOM!



I borrowed a pair of grow lights from a friend at work who isn't starting her garden from seed this year.

Nearly all of my tomato seeds have sprouted! I’m still waiting on a couple herbs to show signs of progress, but so far I’ve got all kinds of tomatoes (about 6 different varieties, actually. Would you like any tomato plants? J) carrots, basil, thyme, oregano, and a bunch of different medicinal type herbs that I’m going to play around with. I bought a book quite a while ago that talks a lot about holistic remedies for stomach aches, sore throats, acne, you name it and I’m going to give it a shot. Of course, the backyard might be so thick with tomatoes that it chokes everything else out.

A Grappoli D'Inverno - an Italian varietal cherry tomato. I chose to grow mostly cherry tomatoes in the garden because - in my experience - larger tomatoes are more prone to rot, disease, pests, etc.

I was in Des Moines yesterday for an appointment when I remembered I had a Lowe’s gift card saved back from Christmas (it’s been so long, it was like getting a new gift!) After my appointment ended, I had lunch at a little French place and stopped off at Lowe’s to see what I needed to spend free money on. I couldn’t think of anything hardware-wise that I needed immediately, so I wandered around the landscaping side for a while. I ended up with a giganto bag of mulch, a blueberry bush, and a stick that promises to one day be a Concord grape vine.

A little mulch cleaned up this corner by the side door. I pulled out some of the old daylillies and planted them elsewhere. Otherwise, I've got a couple hostas, some oregano and pineapple mint for ground cover (and kitchen use) a mystery plant, and a peony that has yet to decide if it wants to live. With the exception of the daylilly, all of these were gifts from a friend - thanks!

So while dad finished up spraying panels for the kitchen cabinets, I mulched, dug in some new plants, and used up a pile of bricks left over from the old west chimney.

There's no reason my composter can't look good on the back of the garage!

This is my backyard - all staked out and ready for planting once the seeds have gotten a little bigger. I plan to mulch the middle row and every other plot with straw so I've got room to move around in here once the tomatoes have taken over. :)