Mom's chicken stew

was really, really good. No matter how I try, I just can't seem to get the same taste I remember. It's good, I guess it just doesn't have her special touch.

I have a huge stock pot that daughter bought for me. It is stainless steel and measured in liters. I decided to make enough stew for both our families. There was a whole chicken and a package of 10 chicken legs in my freezer - so I set to work.

I stewed the chicken, seasoning the broth with leafy celery stalks, onion, sage, salt and pepper. When the chicken was done (it takes around an hour) and the joints moved easily, I removed it from the stock and set it in a large bowl to cool.

I then strained the broth into my great big pot.

To this I added 3 sliced celery stalks cut on the bias....

a whole chopped onion...

four cans of stewed tomatoes, about a cup of quick cooking barley, two drained cans of whole kernel corn, 2 drained cans of sliced carrots, 3 small cans of mushrooms, about a cup of shaved cabbage and seasonings - basil, dried parsley,salt and pepper, a little Worcestershire sauce and about a tablespoon of beef stock flavoring.

 I let this simmer the better part of the afternoon. When it tasted just about right, I added the chicken that I'd removed from the bone. As you can see, I had a large amount and left it in nice big chunks.

Since the chicken was already cooked, it just needed to heat through. I ended up with 9 liters of stew, plenty to share with daughter and her family.

It was sooooo good! Especially since there was snow and ice on the ground. To me, this is the definition of pure comfort food. Hubby likes the juice and drinks it from a mug. I made a pan of cornbread - he likes to put a big piece in the bottom of his bowl and pour stew over it. I have to agree, it's pretty good that way.

You can add anything to this....whatever you like or have a taste for. If you don't think you have enough broth just add a can or two...you can make as much or as little as you want.

It warms you down to your toes!

Have a super day!

Cheater Chicken and Dumplings

Stew a whole chicken or whatever parts you want to use in water to generously cover. Put some leafy celery stalks, onion and sage leaves in the pot. Salt and pepper to taste.

Cook until the chicken is done - when the leg joints move easily. Remove from the broth and strain the broth . I just put the cooked chicken in a bowl to cool enough to handle. I strain the broth from the cooking pot to a clean stock pot.

When the chicken has cooled enough to handle, remove the bones and gristle. Add heavy cream or half and half, or even evaporated milk, about a cup. Now the cheat part....cut flour tortillas in strips and let sit out to dry a little. (These are the dumplings).

When you are ready to eat, drop a couple of strips into boiling broth and let them cook until they disintegrate. This will thicken the broth. Add the pulled chicken. This is very important....it only takes a few minutes to cook the dumplings. If they cook too long, they just "melt". I drop them in the very hot broth and move the pot off the burner.  You are now done with the dumplings.

Now for the good part - Wilted Lettuce!

Cut up lettuce, onion and tomatoes in a good sized bowl. Sprinkle with pepper, about a tablespoon of sugar and drizzle with a little vinegar. Mix the salad up and let sit until the lettuce has wilted.

In a small skillet on the stove, put a tablespoon or so of bacon drippings and heat until it is smoking.

Pour quickly over the salad, stirring as you pour. It should sizzle and pop. This needs to be made at the very last minute and served warm. Cornbread is perfect with this meal.

We ate like little piggies!

My daughter and son-in-law graduate from college this evening. She has earned 2 degrees and he has 1. What is amazing about this - to me - is that they were married 3 days and daughter left for Iraq. She served a year, during which time she could only visit her new husband by phone or mail. When she came home, she had Little Man, then son went to Iraq for a year.

When son finally got home, they started school. Both had a full college schedule, both worked full time, and both were in the National Guard. Then came Big Guy.

With two babies, college, jobs and the Guard, I don't know how they survived. Hubby and I are so proud of them both. They have struggled and worked and tried very hard to make a good future possible for their family. They have achieved much in their time together.

Have a blessed day!



Yeah!

Good old spatchcock chicken, baked corn on the cob and fried okra...make you slap your pappy! I did lemon teriaki chicken this time...we had just picked the okra and I dredged it in seasoned corn meal and fried it. The corn was out of the freezer. The chicken was less than $4...so supper was cheap and plentiful. I have enough chicken left to make chicken salad or just re-heat. The okra bites the dust pretty quickly and I never seem to have any left to throw away. Same with the corn.

We had Little Man and Big Guy yesterday. It had turned off so nice we all went outside. Nice breeze and overcast...Little Man got a bucket and toted pea gravel all over the place - he looked like a miner when we went inside. Hubby gave him a cowboy hat and he walks around saying "Howdy Partner" and has a bandana tucked in his back pocket that he whips out and blows his nose on.

Thank Goodness for the babies...they keep us on our toes!

Have a great day!

The wisteria that ate Glenpool...

lives in my back yard. We removed a section of fencing it used to grow on, so now it has no place to go except up.

It is home to two bird families and no telling what else...I, personally, hesitate to go under it because those big old wolf spiders sometimes live there too. We live right across the street from a big field and have many, many visitors - some not so nice.

Last year I heard Hubby outside banging and beating in the garage. After about 10 minutes he yelled at me to come outside NOW....

He had been fighting this the entire time and was shaking like a leaf. From all we could find on the internet, it was a cotton mouth with a very nasty disposition. Hope we don't have any more of those this year. I'm a chicken.

Speaking of chicken, that's probably what we'll have for supper tonight. Have to put my thinking cap on.

Have a great, snakeless day.

Hobo Dinner

We did have our cheapo chicken last night and fixed "hobo dinners" out of them. Kinda like a dump cake only with meat and veggies. Lay out a piece of tinfoil for each piece of chicken you have...assembly line style.

Place the chicken in the center of the foil and slice green peppers and onions over that.

Divide a can of carrots by how many pieces of chicken you have and scatter on top.

Drizzle the top with barbecue sauce, ketchup, or anything you like...Ranch Dressing might be good.

Slice up a potato and place on top of the pile, season generously with salt, pepper and any kind of seasoning you like.

Fold two of the sides together on top, then fold up each remaining side to make a packet.

Bake in the over at 350 degrees for about an hour or cook on the grill.

No pots and pans to clean, nothing to turn or watch while cooking, and minimal dirty dishes. This is really fun to make, something kids would like to help with, and you can use anything...pork chop, hamburger patty, smoked sausage, any kind of veggies and any kind of seasoning. Hubby and I had a ball last night putting these together. You can make pot luck packets if you have lots of leftovers.

Have a great weekend!

Almost Mother's Day

And I got presents early. Hubby brought me a red rose in a pretty vase, and my daughter made me a cake at culinary school. Their project was to completely decorate a cake, which was to be presented to their respective mothers.

It's a white cake with raspberry and chocolate chip filling...buttercream icing and probably a bazillion calories. Tomorrow we're cooking ribs for everybody and will cut the cake then.

Our neighbor had a death in the family last week and we fixed dinner for them last night. Hubby cooked two spatchcock chickens on the grill and I made a big pan of scalloped potatoes and green bean casserole. Sure did look good and I'm sorry I didn't get a picture.

My green bean casserole is a little unusual but it is very good. It is supposed to be called green bean bundles but I am too lazy to make those tiny bundles. The original recipe calls for 2 or 3 cans of whole green beans. Drain the beans and wrap a bundle of 4 or 5 beans in a half piece of raw bacon. Make as many bundles as you want or need. Place each bundle in a baking dish and spoon a can of Golden Mushroom soup (very important...not Cream of Mushroom) over the bundles. Drizzle the top with any red salad dressing, Ott's, Catalina, Russian, whatever you like. Bake at 325 degrees until the bacon is cooked. It holds and reheats very well, or you can put them in a crock pot to keep warm.

Instead of making all those bundles, I simply empty 4 cans of drained, cut green beans in a baking dish. Spoon the soup over the beans, then dice raw bacon and sprinkle over the top. Drizzle with the red salad dressing and bake as above. The taste is the same, it's just not as tedious.

The laundry fairy didn't come to my house yesterday, so I've got to wash today. Maybe there will be a good movie on I can watch while I'm folding. I like those goofy Syfy movies where the woman always turns her ankle and falls and gets grabbed by the monster while she's trying to get away.

May groceries!

We didn't do too bad...I got $157.24 worth of groceries from Country Mart and Warehouse foods for $103.75...a savings of $53.49. I had $18.50 worth of coupons and by using my Country Mart card I saved an additional $31.19. We also had $3.80 worth of "Magic Coins".

We used almost all the in store coupons at Country Mart and got free Oscar Mayer Jumbo Franks, Velveeta, Miracle Whip, Kraft Ranch dressing, 2 bottles of barbecue sauce, 10 lbs of 80/20 ground beef for $1.99 a lb., packaged into 5 packs of 2, 1 lb pieces, bacon for $1.79 a pound, 3 pkgs. boneless skinless chicken breast @ $1.99 lb, 1 pkg. chicken leg quarters @ $5.90, and a whole chicken.

At Warehouse Market we got Best Choice stewed tomatoes for $.25 each (I got 8 cans), and 2 bottles of vegetable oil for $1.29 each using the coins, a large pkg. of pork steak, a boston butt roast, assorted chops, 2 pounds of breakfast sausage, 20 lbs. potatoes for $4.99 (that comes out to $.25 cents a pound), fresh mushrooms for $1.19 a pkg., and lots of other food items for which I had coupons.

All in all, we ended up with plenty of ground beef, chicken and pork to last a good while - our freezer is full.
I also got the stuff to make MORE CAKE BALLS! Onions are still outrageous...I think there's been an onion blight. And as I sit here typing would you believe I forgot to get eggs. Oh, well, as Scarlett says, "tomorrow is another day."

We ate the whole thing!

These are the bare root strawberry plants we put in last week. They have all leafed out and are looking good! Hubby and I split our first ripe berry yesterday. It tasted like the berries I remembered when I was a kid. It was just enough to make us want lots and lots more. Can't wait!

                  

This is one bed of our two for the price of one tomatoes and they too are looking amazing. I don't know if the sale is still on, but we got 5 inch pots for the price of the small pots. They were healthy and vigirous looking. Come on, salsa!

It's Official

The next full moon will be April 28, and we will finally get to plant our garden. Planting by the full moon may sound like an old wive's tale, but I'm an old wife and it really works. The garden seems to flourish a little better when we do that.

Fried chicken it was for supper last night, for less than $2.00. The chicken was $.47 lb., and the steamed veggies in sauce were $1.28 with a coupon. Pretty good for two people. We had those German chocolate cake balls for dessert. I really could have eaten the cake balls for dinner and left the chicken alone, but something about that is just not right.

Tonight, liver with bacon and onions.

There Ought To Be A Law...

against cake balls. We went through the first batch like a swarm of locusts, so I got out my handy-dandy cake mix and frosting I got with a coupon at the first of the month...German chocolate with coconut pecan frosting. I mixed it all together and added some chopped toasted pecans. We've been really busy these past few days trying to get a room in our house redone and I was really sore and tired, so I shaped the cake mixture into balls and froze them.

Today, after a visit from Little Man, I decided to dip them and indulge myself. They are really, really good. Really good. When I make them again I might add a little toasted coconut with the pecans.

Herbs

We couldn't stand it any more...the weather has been beautiful and we went ahead and planted our herbs in the front yard bed. We're a little gun shy about putting the tomatoes in - there always seems to be a cold snap that sets them back, so we won't plant them until the end of the month.

The plants are really nice right now, basil and sage are my favorites. We also put in rosemary, oregano, dill and flat leaf parsley. They will produce throughout the summer and I keep the plants picked to encourage new growth. I have a dehydrator with several racks that I use to dry them and store them in glass jars. They will last a long, long time into next winter.

We've been painting the spare bedroom and doing a litttle spring cleaning so Hubby has been grilling dinner for us. Haven't decided what to have tonight, but I'm sure we'll come up with something. Hmmmm...chicken maybe.

Finally!

What a beautiful time of the year...the trees are beautiful and in full bloom. We have a new blueberry bush and three raspberrys...hopefully if my blackberries come off like they usually do, we'll have some mixed berry jam this year.

My daughter ordered us some strawberry plants but they haven't been shipped yet. We're going to try growing them in a hanging bag because our ground space is so short.

I put a link for the 918 coupon queen on my page. I'm really looking forward to benefitting from her detective work...she has lots of good strategies and hints and manages to find tons of specials.

Last night's dinner was fried chicken legs. The cost was $.94, I used about 2 pounds of my $.47 chicken quarters. With baked potatoes and steamed veggies, the meal was well under $3.00. I raided my never-ending supply of Jello and added a pound of sliced strawberries. The Redi-Whip I got with a coupon was delicious on top.

Groceries!

I finally got to the grocery store today. My totals from 3 different stores were $47.80, $39.87, and $25.89. I got a 9 pound butt portion ham, 10 pounds of 80/20 ground beef packed in five 2 pound packs, 20 pounds of chicken leg quarters, 2 pounds of bacon, 6 large pork steaks, 2 dozen eggs, bananas, 3 bags of cheese, and other assorted grocery items. The total came to $113.56, $16.56 of which was non-food items.

My coupons totaled $20.50, and I got 6 free cans of dog food and a free bottle of "Big Red" pop valued at $4.90.

Hubby just yelled...he was bagging the chicken leg quarters for me and found a whole chicken in one bag. That was a bonus! We bought quite a few frozen steam pack vegetables - I had coupons for all of them. The bacon was $2.68 per pound, but with my $1.00 off coupon on two packs, it came to $2.18 a pound. The one store that has the magic coins had barbecue sauce for $.29 with 7 magic coins plus it had a save at the register coupon for $.25, making the barbecue sauce a grand total of $.04. The free pop came with the purchase of 2 dozen eggs. I had a coupon for 1 free can of dog food which I got at one store, and a $3.00 off coupon on 5 cans at another store. The dog food was $.58 each for a total of $2.90 so I got it free.

We got two bags each of chicken legs, two bags each of thighs, the whole chicken, and 5 leg quarters which we are cooking on the grill tonight.

When we shop for groceries, we take a calculator and keep up with everything we put in the basket. I only buy what is on sale at a specific store. The non-food items I purchase at WalMart, and I usually have coupons for them. I buy fresh fruit that is in season or on sale. When I get potatoes, I can usually find a bag with a few of baking size in them. Right now onions are terribly high, but I had some in the refrigerator so I didn't get any. Shredded cheese is usually more expensive that block cheese, but today it was on sale and was cheaper the buying the whole block.

This probably won't carry us through the entire month, but it at least got us enough meat to last. We shouldn't have to buy anything for a while but bread and milk.

Have a happy Easter weekend!

Sugar!

Wow...I found sugar at the Dollar General Store for $1.65 for a 4 lb. bag. Tonight I will sit down and make my grocery list...food stamps come out tomorrow. There are lots of specials this week, Easter is coming up and I have been reading the ads. One of our stores has 80/20 ground beef for $1.89 a pound - 10 pound roll.

We made it through the entire month without going too much over our $97, but I'm down to 3 eggs and one package of chicken legs.

Rainy Day Comfort Soup

I have a favorite soup that is good for what ails you. It used to be called Feeling Sorry for Myself Soup and I made it when I needed a hug. It's a little expensive to make but makes a good bit and reheats very well.

Fill a large stockpot with water and add any chicken pieces you desire. I used legs and breasts for this batch. Season well with salt, pepper and sage. Add some cut up onion and the leafy parts of a stalk of celery. Stew until the chicken is just done. Remove the chicken to a bowl to cool and drain the stock to remove the vegetables.

Ninja Turtle

Okay. I keep talking about these turtles I'm making. Got one nearly finished and was going to take it outside to put a coat of finish spray on it. Seems I missed one of the steps going to the back yard, the turtle flew out of my hand (I swear I heard him yell EEEEYAAAAAAHHHHH) and wedged under the patio chair.

My Achin' Back

We've been working in the yard...the leaf fairy must have visited sometime the other night. I have used muscles that I thought had disappeared a long time ago. The weather was nice though, so it was nice to get outside and do something constructive.

Dinner the other night was a real cheapo. The store where we shop offers "magic coins" to apply on items they select. If they have tuna for $.89 a can, sometimes they offer it for $.09 with 8 magic coins and there is no limit. You receive coins for every $5.00 you spend, so we always wait until something we use a lot of is on sale. The last time they offered tuna, I was able to get 12 cans for $.09 each.