Chicken Stock...

I've been a crazy woman making chicken stock recently. I'm hoping that one of these days I can start buying organic chicken and making organic stock! I've been buying whole chickens lately and I'm getting pretty good at cutting them into parts even if I do say so myself. ;-) I cut off the wings to make chicken wings sometime - my new favorite is parmesan garlic wings so I want to find a recipe for that soon. I cut off the thighs and legs and we're going to grill a bunch of legs tomorrow. The thighs, I've been deboning and cutting up to use in our tacos - since Patch doesn't like the refried beans/chorizo that the rest of us like, we've been making the chicken w/ seasoning for him. Then I cut off the boneless, skinless breasts so we can use them for pretty much everything else! I cook up the gizzards, etc. for Hermione and the rest goes into a bag in the freezer to make stock.   I use the parts from two chickens to make the stock...

I boil then simmer the chicken, celery, carrots, onion, bay leaf, peppercorns, garlic and about six cups of water for about  two hours. After it cools, I strain it though paper towels and get this...

I let that sit in the fridge over night and skim off all the fat, warm it back up so it pours easily and put it into one cup containers that I freeze over night...

After it's frozen, I pop the stock out of containers and put them all (usually 7 or 8 cups of stock) in a gallon ziplock bag and it's ready to use!

I know I use to use the stock in a box from the store fairly often. I don't think I've made one recipe since making this stock that's called for stock! :( So, I've given 8 cups away already and STILL have 30 cups in the freezer! I think I'm throwing the other 6 bags of chicken parts out because I'm thinking I'd be the crazy chicken stock lady if I had 40+ MORE cups of stock in my freezer. ;-) 

I started to buy (okay bought half of it) the meat the recipes call for to make beef stock - I am NOT cutting up a cow to get those cow parts! But, can't find the other cut they use. I'd like to make beef and vegetable stock sometime though. 

So, yes, I'm getting more homemade in the kitchen. I love making desserts - the problem there is that I (and sometimes, Franklin) am the only one that eats most of it! I'm making the vanilla - and I'll share pics, etc. when I get it bottled. I made chocolate pudding and I'm planning banana pudding for Father's Day tomorrow. I'm not sure what will come next but the boys will be getting more involved. :)