After 11 days of work in a row, I got to take a day for myself today! Day off= day to refresh. I heard a great sermon a couple months back that really hit home w/ me. The main point of emphasis that I took away was thinking about what you do on your "days off". Long story short, the speaker voiced the opinion that you (we) should spend our time off recharging our batteries, so to speak. I took this to heart, and have started planning, running my errands, and catching up on my to-do list on days when I'm actually scheduled to work. Yes, it does make for a busier schedule. However, it does allow me to focus on taking some "me time" on my off days. Since you're reading this it's probably pretty obvious how I spend most of my free time.
Today was no different, I had my first foray(sp?) into making my own chicken stock. I'm doing this in preparation for making a white chili this week! I also made my first strombolis from scratch. DELICIOUS.
I used a beautiful free-range whole chicken from Stonewall Farms, which is only about 15-20 min or so from Evansville. I've bought eggs and pork from them before, but this was the first time I have purchased a whole bird. I cut up an entire white onion, 4 decent-sized carrots, and 4 stalks of celery, into 1" chunks. I then put the back, wings, and legs into the pot w/ the veggies, along w/ some rosemary, oregano, bay leaves, kosher salt, and black pepper. I covered the entire mixture w/ water and brought it to a boil, then reduced the heat and simmered the mixture for about an hour (FYI for this batch i'm using a basic 8qt stock pot). once the chicken was cooked I removed it and peeled the meat from the bones. I reinserted the bones into the stock and reduced it for another hour. This yielded me around 3 quarts of stock after I strained everything out.
Best part of making stock... smells like fall!!! Was reminiscent even of thanksgiving w/ the family. nice overcast 65 degree day, cool breeze, football on the tv... PERFECT start to the day.
Once the Colts game was on, I was starting to get hungry (IMAGINE THAT?!?!). I decided on homemade stroms for our halftime food, and they certainly didn't disappoint! I used a full pound of sausage (Grogan's has no added MSG), a full pound of local ground beef, and about half a jar of organic tomato-basil pasta sauce. I browned the meat with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic (add the sauce after the meat browns). While the meat mixture was browning, I sauteed 2 red bell peppers and 1/2 of a white onion, both sliced into petal-sized pieces, with a drizzle of vegetable oil.
Funny side note/joke... What's Snoop Dogg's favorite kind of weather? Drizzle. HAHAHA love corny jokes like that...
Once the beef was mostly cooked, I tossed in a couple diced local chilis for some heat. I spooned the meat mixture onto one half of an artisan loaf bought from my local bakery, use an elongated loaf, but not a baguette, too crispy. Meat mixture on one side, mozzarella, parmigiana, asiago, and romano on the other, topped with the onions and peppers. Toasted in the oven for about 10 min on 350, this sandwich was HUGE and delicious!
I had plenty of leftover meat mix after making 2 sandwiches to easily make 2 more, so make sure you invite your friends if you choose to duplicate this delicious sandwich!
Successful recharging of said batteries, complete w/ a Colts win and a great day w/ friends!
Soundtrack for the day: Silence, and bone-crunching NFL hits:-)
No comments:
Post a Comment