Cooking in Pajamas

Ahhhh...there is nothing better than the smell of a pot of simmering chicken soup!!!!

You know how you read a recipe, and it calls for homemade stock?  You immediately dismiss that idea, and reach for your box of Swanson's Chicken Broth?  I know...that used to be me too!  Making homemade stock could be a pain in the neck.  Who has the time?  Well folks...get out your slow cooker, and get ready to make the easiest and most flavorful stock you have ever tasted!

There are certain recipes, where canned broth works just fine, but if you are making soup, risotto or a sauce, the difference between canned and homemade is HUGE!  Let's put aside the immense flavor difference, and I'll give you a three more reasons why you should make homemade, and throw away your cans and boxes:

1 - Homemade stock costs much less than canned stock

2 - Homemade stock is healthier than canned stock. It’s full of nourishment; the slow simmering process extracts the goodness from the bones and vegetables and creates a delicious mineral rich broth, full of bio-available calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals. If you don’t think the bones give up their minerals then try squeezing a chicken bone from a stockpot that’s been simmering over a two day period. You’ll find the bone crumbles away in your hand.

3 - Stock requires no attention.  Once the ingredients are in the pot...your work is just about done.

I have made my own stock before, but it never took TWO DAYS!!!.  Phil and I were at a Soup Workshop last week, and our instructor told us that the secret of an amazing homemade stock, is to cook it in your slow cooker for two days.  She didn't believe it, until she did a side by side tasting of stock cooked for five hours versus stock cooked for two days, and she said she will never use a chicken stock that is not cooked in the slow cooker for two days.  Of course, I had to do a side by side taste as well.  I made a traditional pot of stock on the stovetop, and a batch in the crockpot.  The stovetop version cooked for 4 hours, and the crockpot version for two days.  There definitely is a big difference.  If I am making soup, I will most certainly go for the two day version.  I used it in a Roasted Tomato Soup, and the soup was awesome!  Even the kids ate the soup, and I have never seen them eat tomato soup before!  It was the addition of the homemade stock versus canned stock that made all the difference.

The key is to plan ahead, and always keep some of this stock in your freezer, or refrigerator.  It will keep in your refrigerator for a week, or in the freezer for 4 to 5 months.  If you don't want to spend the money on an entire chicken, ask the butcher for necks and backs only.  I use the entire chicken, and save the meat for my dogs (the meats is a little dried out after being simmered for two days, but the dogs don't seem to mind).  Whenever I see chicken on sale, I stock up (no pun intended).   I either make my stock that week, or stick the chicken in the freezer until I am ready to use it.

The photo on the left is my stovetop stock, and the photo on the right is the stock in my crockpot.

When you make the slow cooker version, the smell of chicken soup will be wafting throughout your house for two days.  When I woke up on the second morning that the soup was simmering, I had momentarily forgotten about it.  Phil was up before me, and came into the bedroom with my morning cup of coffee (yes..he brings me a cup of coffee in bed on the mornings he doesn't work!), and said, "Gwenn, the house smells AMAZING!".  I jumped out of bed, and ran into the hallway.  OMG....you would die, it smelled so good in the house!  I ran to check on the soup, and it was happily simmering away.  The stock was a deep gold, but much had evaporated away.  Normally, not a problem, it would just be super concentrated, but since it had another day to cook, I added more water to keep the chicken and vegetables covered.

Everyone in New York loves crumb cake.  When I came to Atlanta in 1986, I was shocked to find out that the rest of the country was not craving crumb cake like I was.  In fact, my friends from the West coast, had no idea what a crumb cake was!  I told them it was like a Drake's Mini Coffee Cake, and I was met with blank stares.  I had many culture shocks when I moved to Atlanta, from New York, but this one through me for a loop.  Unless they were from New York, or New Jersey,  my new friends in Atlanta had no idea what they were missing!  A moist, light cake with heaps and heaps of crunchy, brown sugar topping.  I would even venture to say that when you cut your crumb cake, there should be equal amounts of crumb and cake!

This is a version of Martha Stewart's Crumb Cake recipe.  It has been changed a bit as it has been passed around, but I think the cake is as authentic as it gets.  Any Brooklyn bakery would be proud to have this cake in their display case. Serve it for breakfast, snack or dessert.....if you have never had New York style Crumb Cake before, you will definitely fall in love.

I have become slightly obsessed with these fritters.  I wish I had discovered them over the summer, when zucchini was in season, but no worries....zucchini is easy to find, and not expensive.  For some reason, when I made the recipe for the first time, I thought the recipe only made 4 fritters, so I doubled the recipe.  I did not read the recipe correctly, because it says the recipes makes 4 servings!   I ended up with about 20 + fritters (I stopped counting after 15).   Needless to say, we were eating zucchini fritters for a long time.  They reheat very well (in the regular oven, not the microwave).  They make a nice side dish, or, my favorite way, a nice, light supper.  Serve with a bowl of hearty bean soup, and crusty sourdough bread.  You can easily serve a family of four for about $12, with leftovers!

What is better than a bowl of chili when the weather starts to get cold (you thought I was going to say when the weather gets "chilly", right)?  It is hearty, filling, inexpensive and makes the house smell really good while it cooks.  It is very difficult to ruin a pot of chili.  The only time I remember an inedible pot of chili, was when a nameless member of my family, heard that some prize winning chili recipe had a secret ingredient.  The secret ingredient was chocolate.  Somehow, the proportion of the secret ingredient was completely wrong, and the chili tasted like chocolate flavored chili!  It was gross!  When I later saw the chili competition on Food Network, I saw the winning chili recipe get prepared.  The cook added one Hershey chocolate kiss, to a pot large enough to feed about 150 people!  Every once in a while I see a chili recipe call for unsweetened cocoa powder.  I always bypass that recipe.

Although I have about five different chili recipes that I make (a vegetarian version, a turkey chili, a white chili, a chicken chili, etc.), this is a great basic starter chili from Jamie Deen (Paula's son).  I say it is a starter recipe, because chili can be adjusted for your own personal taste.  If you like it meatier, add more meat.  If you like it spicier, add more heat. For a vegetarian version, leave out the meat, and add some sauteed eggplant and chopped portobello mushrooms, etc.  You can throw practically any leftover into a pot of chili.   This recipe made a huge pot, so I served half, and froze half for another meal.  It requires 4 hours of simmering time.  I left it simmering on the stovetop, while I was home doing laundry on a stormy, rainy day.  Chili tastes great when it is made a day or two in advance, so plan ahead for the 4 hours of simmering.