Easy Homemade Chicken Stock

Making your own chicken stock is actually pretty easy and far more delicious than store bought stock.

I like to make the most of a Costco rotisserie chicken. I can stretch it for three meals.

1. Chicken with stuffing and glazed carrots

2. Chicken pesto lasagna roll-ups

3. Chicken noodle soup

The secret to tasty chicken stock is in the bones. By crushing the chicken bones you release all the marrow and yummy goodness into the stock. You know you have a good stock when it's like Jell-o in the fridge -- that means the bones really got into the stock. I do cheat a little bit by adding a can of store bought stock just to boost the flavor, but it's not necessary.

Ingredients:
1 leftover rotisserie chicken
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
handful of fresh parsley
2 fresh rosemary sprigs
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 bay leaf
6 cups water
1 can chicken stock (optional)
salt and pepper

Directions:
Remove all the edible meat left on the chicken and store in the fridge (in case you'd like to use it for chicken noodle soup later).
Using a mallet or the bottom of a wine bottle, crush that carcass so that all the bones are broken up.
Heat the oil over medium high in a large soup pot. Add the onion, celery and carrots and cook for about five minutes. Add the chicken, parsley, rosemary, thyme and bay leaf and cook till onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Add pepper to taste. Add the liquid, cover and simmer for about three hours. Salt to taste.

Set a fine-mesh strainer over a large liquid measuring cup and carefully strain the stock to remove bones, veggies and other flavor enhancers. You may need to do this in batches. Toss the solid ingredients. Store stock in jars. You can freeze the jars but make sure not to fill them all the way to the top to allow stock to expand when freezing (science!)

If you're making chicken noodle soup, add the chicken meat back to the stock. Add egg noodles to boiling soup and cook till al dente. Yum!

Cranberry Cornbread Stuffing

My sister just cleared out her garden and gave me a gallon bag of fresh sage. In my pursuit to use some of it before drying it I found a great recipe on Foodnetwork.com for Stuffed Pork Chops.

I decided I didn't feel much like pork chops for dinner, but that cornbread stuffing sounded pretty good. Plus, I have three gallons of cranberries I need to figure out how to use.

I picked up a Costco rotisserie chicken, made some glazed carrots and I had a mini-Thanksgiving in no time at all.

I reheated the chicken in the oven 20 minutes before taking out the stuffing (or dressing in this case) and it made enough juice for some tasty gravy.

Ingredients:
2.5 cups crumbled cornbread
2 slices of bacon, chopped
1 Tbs. butter
2 celery ribs, chopped fine
1/2 onion, chopped fine
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 Tbs. chopped parsley
1 Tbs. chopped sage
1 Tbs. chopped rosemary
1/4 cup dried or fresh cranberries
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a heavy skillet, start browning the bacon. Add the celery, onion, garlic and mushrooms and cook till bacon is fully cooked, about 10 minutes. Add the parsley, sage, rosemary (sorry, no thyme) and cook another couple of minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

In a bowl, toss together the cornbread, cranberries and raisins. Add the rest of the ingredients including the chicken stock and gently toss to combine.

Transfer to a casserole dish and top with little bits of butter.

Cover and bake for 50 minutes.

Pumpkin Rosemary Bagels

When I told my best friend I was making bagels today, she first asked if they were hard to make and then asked if they were fried. The answer to both is no, and I'll clear up this bagel mystery by saying they aren't too difficult to make, it's a fun process and if you've made bread and boiled water, you can make bagels.

Today was pumpkin cooking day with my friend Kelly, so naturally I needed to make a pumpkin bagel. I'm not one for sweet flavored bagels so I thought adding rosemary to the dough and sprinkling them with kosher salt would please me. And it did.

I based my recipe off this fine one at SweetSpatulas.com.

I did not have any wheat flour so I used only white and I really like the texture.

Ingredients:
4 cups white flour
4 tsp. yeast
1 cup warm (not hot!) water
1.5 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. chopped fresh rosemary, extra for sprinkling on top if you like
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp. ground allspice
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 egg

Directions:
Combine the yeast, rosemary and two cups of flour in a large mixing bowl or the bowl to your KitchenAid mixer. In another mixing bowl combine the water, salt, sugar, pumpkin and spices. Add the wet to the dry and thoroughly combine. Slowly start incorporating the remaining flour. I switched to the KitchenAid hook and let the machine go for about 3 minutes.

Remove the dough and knead on a floured surface till you have an elastic, smooth ball. Place in a bowl and cover for 15 minutes.

Divide the dough into eight equal balls. Make them as round and smooth as you can and punch a hole in the center of each ball. Dust each hole with a little flour. Use your thumbs and fingers to shape the hole evenly so it's two inches in diameter. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Cover with a towel and let sit for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, turn on your broiler and set two big pots of water on the stove to boil.

Why boil bagels, you ask?

Well...according to thekitchn.com, boiling them is what gives them that signature crust and also helps with the classic chewiness.

Now you know! Let's continue with the bageling.

Place your bagels under the broiler for 1.5 minutes. You could turn them and broil the other side, but I didn't do that and they turned out fine. Next, place two or three bagels at a time into the boiling water. Let them boil on each side for one minute. While this is going on, whisk your egg in a bowl and set aside.

Using tongs, gently place your boiled bagels back on the cookie sheet. Brush with the egg and sprinkle with chopped rosemary and kosher salt.

When all the bagels are boiled, egged and sprinkled, bake them for 25 minutes or until the tops are nicely brown.

Let cool on a rack. Serve with cream cheese and revel in the fact that you just made bagels.

Roasted Carrots in a Honey Dijon Rosemary Glaze

Recently I've been poking around online newspapers from the little villages around Alaska. Something I've noticed is that they frequently feature recipes sent in from the locals.

I came across a glazed carrots recipe from a radio station in Petersburg, Alaska (population 3,000). I really want to give the station all the credit, but upon closer inspection, I discovered it was lifted from The Healthy Foodie blog.

My dad was roasting a leg of lamb and had first dibs on the oven, which was set at 350 degrees. So I opted to use the gas grill as an oven. The temperature wasn't consistent, but the carrots turned out perfectly caramelized, garlicky, mustardy and a delicious side dish for lamb.

Here's the link to the original blog post, since I'd like to give credit where it's due. Also, her photos are a heck of a lot better.

Ingredients:

 1 pound medium sized carrots

 2 Tbs. olive oil

 2 Tbs. honey

 1 Tbs. Dijon mustard

 1 Tbs. fresh rosemary, finely chopped

 2 cloves garlic, minced

 salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Brush the carrots under running water. Cut them in half lengthwise and crosswise and set them aside.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the olive oil, honey, mustard, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper. Add the reserved carrots. Toss to coat evenly and spread in a single layer in a shallow baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, turning once or twice, until the carrots are tender and golden.