Homemade chicken stock

Today more than ever wise grocery shopping is a must.

One of the best values I have found is using 100% of a Costco rotisserie chicken.  After you have eaten all you enjoy why not make chicken stock?  The below is what I do and you can do it too!  One of the many ways to save your money.

Enjoy!  

 I clean the chicken of almost all the fat.  We don’t eat the legs so I leave the legs and wings on it.  (You can still use the carcass if you clean it better than I do).  It’s those ribs and bones that make an awesome stock.

My recipe in my words.

Note: after refrigerating overnight you will notice the stock will be gelled slightly.

Immerse the chicken in a pot of cold water.  I add lots of celery tops and some celery stalks too, maybe two carrots some salt and dried parsley (if fresh I would add it).  When it comes to a boil and turn it down and let it cook for 2 hours or more.  I keep push ing the chicken down and turning it over. I leave a lid tilted on it. 

When it is room temperature I remove the carcass and There is usually enough chicken on the carcass to pull off and add to the soup. I strain the broth. 

I allow it to cool completely before I refrigerate it.

I haven’t used a bay leave to it but since reading Barbara’s post I would consider adding g a bay leaf to the original recipe I mentioned.  Hope this helps😘

I recently used a larger pot and used two carcasses.  After I strained it I allowed it to stay in refrigerator overnight.

  I’ve made two pots of vegetable soup with it and it was delicious.  Below is vegetable soup.

I also froze 2 quarts so when I want to make soup again. If needed after frozen I wouldn’t  hesitate to add some canned chicken broth or better than bouillon to the frozen one if it needed it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheese tortellini with chicken and broccoli in a red and white sauce

Our Sunday meal today!

Playing with food I had in my freezer.

I’m love using what I have in my freezer to make an easy casserole type meal.

1 quart red sauce

1- 16 to 20oz. Refrigerated cheese tortellini 

1/2 package frozen broccoli florets cooked 

11/2 to 2 cups rotisserie chicken shredded or sliced 

1 cup ***Béchamel sauce

Shredded mozzarella or Italian grated for garnish 

Recipe link below for

Bechamel sauce

https://iliketobakeandcook.blogspot.com/2023/11/homemade-bechamel-sauce.html

Bring tortellini to a boil in slightly salted water. Drain saving some water and boil broccoli in same water for a few minutes. Drain.

In a 13” x 9” baking dish place a few spoons of red sauce (about 1/4 cup) or more depending on how much sauce you enjoy.

Place drained tortellini in casserole evenly. Layer chicken and broccoli and top with more sauce and drizzle with Bechamel and some grated cheese or some shredded mozzarella.

Bake 350° uncovered for approximately 30minutes or until cheese has melted.

Serve with a basic salad with Italian dressing 

Delicious !

Homemade Bechamel sauce

I decided to try another recipe using what I had handy.

I also wanted to add a heavy drizzle of Bechamel sauce to the recipe.

Below is the white creamy sauce recipe.

• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 2 cups milk
• sea salt to taste
• 
  
  
  

Once butter melts, sprinkle flour over the butter and cook for 3-5 minutes until a roux forms. You want a light roux, so don't let it brown. It should have a nutty smell. 

Reduce the heat to low – this is important, don't skip this! – and slowly add in your milk. Whisk well.

Whisk occasionally as your sauce thickens. When it's ready, it will be thick enough to cling to your whisk or the back of your spoon. This should take about 20 minutes.

Sprinkle with salt to taste, and your sauce is ready!

Cannoli ricotta cake

I decided to be a bit adventurous and topped it with freshly whipped cream.  

****Note:  for the 9” x 13” pan recipe for a thicker layer of ricotta filling DOUBLE the amount of ricotta FILLING.

Home made butter cake topped with fresh ricotta that  I added vanilla, powdered sugar and mini semi sweet morsels.

Note:  I had this last week at a restaurant and we both really enjoyed it so I used my moms butter cake recipe and my cannoli filling recipe to put on top.  I taste tested yumm!

Recipe link below:

Moms Butter cake

I had been to a local restaurant where they served a cake similar to this so I decided to use my moms recipe for butter cake and my ricotta filling to top it.

Note:  you can top with finely chopped colored nuts for the holidays.

I’ll link the recipes below.

Ricotta filling

https://iliketobakeandcook.blogspot.com/2018/12/cannoli-ricotta-or-custard-filled-you.html

 

Chewy pineapple cherry cookies

WHEN I SAW THIS RECIPE I WAS DRAWN TO MAKE THIS COOKIE…

Next batch 11/21/23

I decided that my curiosity of a fruit cookie that had candied fruit in it drew me to making this recipe.  I thought what a nice cookie for Christmas!

Side Note:  I don’t like fruitcake so my fear was I might not like this cookie…,

After trying several (2) lol they’ll be on my CHRISTMAS COOKIE List.

  

They are a chewier cookie (next day)and I followed the recipe although I was short on nuts so some baked flatter that I would have liked. I also used all Glacé fruit because I could find dried cherries. When I make them for Christmas I will hopefully find the dried cherries.  If not I will substitute another dried fruit.  Maybe raisins, cranberries or dates…

Substituting Fruit Cake Mix for the glace cherries and glace pineapple is NOT recommended. Fruit cake mix contains citron, which is a lemony and VERY STRONGLY FLAVORED candied fruit peel. Its flavor will absolutely overpower these cookies. 

****Note:  use enough nuts.  And I only used (1) cup of glacé fruit.

The first day the cookies were slightly crispy and a bit chewy and second day they were chewier.  

 Yum to both ways…

• 1 cup glace cherries red or green or gold or a combination, chopped
• ▢ 1 cup glace pineapple chopped
• ▢ ¾ cup dried cherries chopped
• ▢ ½ cup pecans chopped
• ▢ ¼ cup walnuts chopped
• ▢ ½ cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
• ▢ 1 cup granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 large egg
• ▢ ¼ cup buttermilk
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 teaspoon almond extract
• ▢ 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flourdivided
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt

• In the bowl of a stand mixer (or using a handheld electric mixer with a large mixing bowl), cream the softened butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg, buttermilk, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Beat on medium speed until well combined, light, and very, very creamy, about 2 minutes. 
  After tossing gently the fruit and nutmeats mixture with the remaining flour ,baking soda, and salt add to creamed mixture.  Mix with wooden spoon until combined.
• Use a 1 tablespoon measure cookie scoop to drop the dough approximately dough 21/2-inches apart onto each baking sheet.( I used a meatball scooper). Bake at 350℉ for 12-14 minutes until the edges and centers are baked and slightly golden. Do not underbake!
  Cool on baking sheet for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes remove to cooling rack.
  ****Recommended storage.  Store loosely in a cool area.  I would not make these cookies too far ahead of when you are serving them.
  Enjoy!

***Adapted from Not Entirely average