'Free' Wing Night!

That's right.  Free wing night.  In our (or your!) very own home.

How is it possible to have free wing night?

I can't take credit for this trick; my wing-loving husband came up with it.

Buy a whole chicken. (Buying a whole chicken is quite economical, especially if you can squeeze two or three meals out of it plus make broth with the bones.)

Cut off the wings when you use the chicken, however you use it.  But, cut off the wings. Cut them into their two separate pieces and cut off the wing tip. Save the wing tip to throw in with the carcass when you make broth. Throw the wings into the bag in your freezer that is designated for wings.

Now comes the hard part: wait until you have accumulated enough wings to throw yourself a free wing night. When the day comes, it's a party!  Chris and I look forward to eating wings after the kids go to bed. (Not every night..., although some weeks we want to!) Chris loves wings, and I craved them when I was pregnant with John. Chris loved that.  :-)

Tonight, we party!

This is the best way to eat wings!  The chickens I buy are organic, but when you order wings from a restaurant, they are far from it.  Not only are we saving ourselves the exposure to the anti-biotic GMO chicken that is served at restaurants, but we also are saving ourselves some money.  Do we still order wings from restaurants sometimes? Yes, occasionally.  But we appreciate it so much more-- the wings are tastier, the homemade blue cheese dressing is killer... when we save them up in the freezer.

So if you like wings, and you like to eat organic, or even if you just want to save yourselves some money, try this trick!  It is awesome! :-)

ps. be aware that wings off a chicken you buy at the store are smaller than the ones you get from a restaurant, so plan to make more than you would normally eat.

I Love Canning

Here is just one more reason I love canning. 

The other day, I had no idea what to make for dinner.  I was already four o'clock and I couldn't thaw anything.  I needed something quick! 

First I peeked at my food log calendar-- the calendar that hangs in my kitchen and on which I write what we eat for dinner every day.  I'm not a great plan-a-menu ahead person-- you all may have figured that out by now-- but I do like to have a record of what we ate.  This helps so much on days just like this day when I was unprepared and needed to think of something but couldn't think.  I just used a meal that I made before.  (I usually try to make something that I made more than two weeks ago, so my family isn't grumbling at me--- Lentil Shepard's Pie AGAIN??!?)...

I found it-- butternut squash soup, biscuits, applesauce.  Perfect.  Then, I went to my cabinet and grabbed:

Canned chicken stock, canned crookneck squash and canned applesauce! While the soup was cooking, my little helper and I made some quick baking powder biscuits (using sprouted wheat flour!) and I even used my cast iron griddle for a cookie sheet-- no clean up!  Yes!

ps. two cooking tips are hidden in this post!  Get a food log calendar!  And use cast iron cookware for quick, easy (sometimes little or no) clean-up.

pps. Here is my butternut squash soup recipe (more or less) in case you are interested.  I used to look up recipes for this soup but by now it has kind of morphed into it's own thing.


Butternut Squash Soup
about 4 cups butternut squash
about 4 cups chicken (or beef or turkey) stock
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp kelp powder (Salty, also has iodine, since our salt doesn't)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
two shakes or less red pepper flakes
1/2 cup of milk, or cream (if using cream, it will come out creamy using less, too-- one time I only had about 3TBS cream and it was still delicious!)

place all ingredients except cream/milk in stock pot.  heat to boil. reduce to simmer. use immersion blender to make smooth.  taste and adjust seasonings.  add cream.  serve. 

Cooking Tip #4

Well, folks, I can't really qualify this as a cooking tip.  More like a "cooking/heating" tip...

I have recently jumped head-first into the soaking/sprouting world of preparing grains, legumes, seeds and nuts.  I hope to share my new resolutions (of sorts, I guess that's appropriate, since it's the new year!) with you soon.  :-)  But for now, let's just say my (FIL's) dehydrator has made a reappearance in my kitchen!

Today I soaked almonds.  Soaking helps to make the almonds more easily digestible.  I don't know a whole lot about it at this point, but I kind of see it as giving my tummy and intestines a bit of a break.  :-)

So, after I soaked the almonds (8-12 hours), I put them in the dehydrator at about 145* for 12-24 hours, or until they are crispy.  Well, I set up the dehydrator in its usual spot-- the dining room. 

Chris walked by the dehydrator, and pointed out I had placed it in the wrong place.  I agreed, and we moved it-- to our bedroom!  It's the coldest room in the house, and the dehydrator is set at 145*!  So I'm looking forward to my room possibly being warm-ish tonight.  :-)

Please excuse the mess all around... but I just had to show you! 

 My tip for today-- use your dehydrator to heat your house!

Cooking Tip #3

Chris and I were making tomato sauce this weekend.  We blanched the tomatoes, and put the skins in a different pile.  At the end of blanching, Chris suggested, "What if we put the skins in the food mill?"  I thought it couldn't hurt anything.  Guess what?  We milled the skins on the finest screen.  The skins will not go through the screen.  But we got about a cup of tomato juice out of them. (5-8lbs of tomatoes)

So, the next time you blanch tomatoes to peel and make sauce, mill the skins before you discard them to get all you can out of the tomato. 

Cooking Tip #2

As I mentioned earlier this week, we like to eat Indian food around here.  And, I like to make it!  Indian food always calls for fresh ginger (or, it should! and if your recipe doesn't call for fresh ginger, look for another one!). 

Ginger root keeps for awhile in the fridge.  But, most times, I would buy it and end up throwing more than half of it away, because I just don't use that much ginger. 

The last time I bought ginger root, I threw it in the freezer.  Now, when I want some fresh grated ginger root, I get one out of the freezer and use my microplaner. I grate the peel into the sink and then the root into my recipe.  Then, I put the root back into the freezer, where it stays until next time. 

Now, I don't have to buy ginger and feel badly throwing it out if I don't use it for awhile.  I am saving money! 

I even have found that it's easier to grate when it's frozen, because it doesn't have all the tough strings that don't grate very well when fresh. 

Cooking tip #1

Coconut milk curdles when you add white wine.

Just in case you didn't know.



But, it didn't matter in the recipe I was using-- I used it anyway and it was fine!

ps.  Thanks, Aunt Joanne, for the recipe suggestion!  We had it tonight and it was great!