yummy monday number eight...

i made chicken stock! this is a big deal. i never thought i would bother making my own stock. i had a chicken carcass leftover from when i made arroz con pollo the other day and i happened to have all the veggies i needed so i went for it.
here's my recipe.

chicken stock a la bunnybum

chicken carcass with a little meat on it, raw
2 carrots, chopped into big pieces
4 celery ribs with leaves, chopped into big pieces
1 big yellow onion, chopped into big pieces
4 garlic cloves, halved
2 bay leaves
fifteen black peppercorns

put everything into a crockpot, add as much boiling water as will fit, cook on low for 10-15 hours or so. strain it and throw the veg and bones away. put it in the fridge and wait for the fat to separate, scoop off the fat and freeze some, eat some, enjoy.





i have been doing that oamc thing and loving it, but i am running out of space in the freezer and i am always scrounging around my drawers and pantry looking for containers. i don't mind using plastic bags but i avoid it if i can. it just seems so wasteful, not to mention expensive. so on a recent trip to our local ikea i picked up a set of new plastic storage containers. so far so good. they are easy to open and close, they are super stackable and the boys had a ball building towers with them before mama busted that party. me likey.





the arroz con pollo i mentioned earlier turned out great. i made lots and lots of changes to the original recipe. here are my changes, this is mostly for my own reference:
no cloves (i live with a couple men who would not be happy to bite into a clove)
remove chicken before adding veg
add onion and pepper, saute 5 minutes or so
add garlic, saute another minute or so
add 1/2 cup white wine (no sherry), simmer a couple minutes
add tomatoes, 2 bay leaves, saffron, 2x paprika, + 1/2 teaspoon salt and lots of pepper, stir well
add 2 cups rice and 3 cups water, stir well
add chicken, cover tightly and cook 45 minutes or until rice is done.
it was super tasty, the boys loved it and it made a ton. the leftovers have been lunch for a couple days and none of us are sick of it at all. i will be making this one again soon.

oh, martha.

first of all, my love of martha is no secret, right? well i fell harder yesterday when i watched her devote an entire show to blogging. matt, from mattbites was on. meg frost of cuteoverload was on. even a couple of old school craft ladies were there. it was a great show. i had to wait a day to see it because i live down under but it was worth the wait and then some. i couldn't help but fill with pride when i heard matt's voice. sounds dorky, i know, but i have been following his images on flickr forever and i've been reading his blog since word uno. love him. love martha.

and on to some other stuff, my image archive is full of crappy images and for some reason i thought i needed to save 200 megabyte scans of those crappy images. sorting them has been a long, slow, boring process. i have found some that i think might look nice on your kitchen wall though.

here are a couple of the keepers. check out some more over on flickr.

lately...

i have been busy getting nothing done. you know when you feel like you have been working hard but really you have not accomplished a thing? yep, that's me. at the end of the day i am so tired, ready for sleep by nine. then i can't sleep for shit from about two in the morning until the boys wake up at seven. it is a load of bologna. the boys have been great. i don't know what my problem is. perhaps a day of me stuff is in my near future? i certainly hope so.

on a very positive note, i made some new friends. you know how when you meet someone you just know that you will know them for a very long time. that's how i feel about these two. it is so rare that i like both people in a couple. so rare. usually i am a big fan of one and can't stand the other.* that is so not the case with nicole and son. love them. and, the best thing about my new friends? they bring me handmade gifts! thanks, nicole. you know i love little things. this is about the sweetest little thing ever.




the light has been amazing lately. even my half ass lunch looked pretty today.




one more thing, i am considering opening another etsy shop to sell some prints and note cards. i have received many requests and inquiries about my photos. in anticipation of perhaps selling prints i have been re-editing and uploading some old work from school and immediately after. it is a long process but i love every minute of it. photography is the only job i could ever imagine doing. well, photography and being a mama to two very demanding little men.



*another aussie couple and a very special couple in seattle who might be reading this also fall into this category of keepers. i am a dork, but i don't want my lovely friends to wonder if i am talking about them. :)

yummy monday number seven...

i bought a cookbook while we were in kansas city in july. it is called a collection of the very finest recipes ever assembled into one cookbook. isn't that hilarious?

this is what it says on the back cover:

"we have spent many years producing fund-raising cookbooks - the kind where people send in their favorite recipe to help some church, school or other group.
we have typed and printed hundreds of thousands of different recipes, most of which are very good, a few of which are excellent. however, occasionally a recipe is outstanding, the kind about which our typesetters, proofreaders, or other personnel say, 'i must take this one home and try it out.'
this book is filled with these outstanding recipes. we honestly believe this is a collection of the very finest recipes ever assembled into one cookbook."

then they add:

"p.s. like any publisher, we could have used full-page pictures as fillers throughout the book, but we decided to use every allotted page to bring you all these outstanding recipes."

first of all, "hundreds of thousands" is a big number. really? hundreds of thousands? ok, whatever. and they certainly were not kidding when they say they filled every page with recipes. all two hundred and sixty of them. most with three or four recipes per page. there are recipes like crisp-coated ham balls, connecticut supper for 6, new england tomato soup cake, zucchini chow chow, and hot curried fruit. uh, i don't think i'll be trying those. what i will try is this super simple recipe for arroz con pollo (chicken with rice) and this dreamy halushke (a czechoslovakian potato dumpling and cabbage dish). yum. i am so ready to cook something new.


arroz con pollo
(chicken and rice)

1 frying chicken, (2 1/2 lbs.) cut-up
salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 (19 oz) can tomatoes
1/3 cup sherry
1/4 teaspoon pepper
pinch saffron
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
1 1/4 cups uncooked long grain rice
1 cup cooked peas
1 pimiento, cut-up

season chicken with salt. brown in oil. add onion, garlic and green pepper. brown about five minutes. add next seven ingredients and one cup of water. cover and simmer about 30 minutes. garnish with peas and pimento.

*my changes: a few more cloves of garlic, red bell pepper instead of green, fresh tomatoes with a little extra water instead of canned toms, instead of sherry i will use whatever white wine we have in the fridge, there is no way in hell i am adding peas (yuck) and i don't even know where to find a pimento. are they pickled? i know about pimento spread but a whole pimento? i have no clue. if i can find jalapenos i will add a couple all chopped up when i add the red pepper. i'll probably just garnish with some fried onions and fresh tomatoes instead of the peas and pimento. ooh, and cilantro. and maybe some tortilla chips. it'll be good.

and then...


halushke (czechoslovakian dish)
(potato dumplings & cabbage)

5 potatoes, grated
1 tablespoon salt
3 eggs, beaten
3 cups flour
2 onions, sliced
1 head cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup butter

add 3 cups flour to grated potatoes, enough to make a soft dough. have a pot of water boiling as for spaghetti. dip spoon into boiling water and drop dough by small spoonfuls into the water. if spoon is dipped the dough will not stick to the spoon. cook ten minutes, drain and rinse with hot water. saute two sliced onions in 1/2 cup butter until golden brown. add shredded cabbage and cook until tender, about 1/2 hour. add salt to halushke (the dumplings, i presume), then mix cabbage and halushke together and serve hot. heat any leftovers in a frying pan for next meal.

*my changes: less salt, olive oil instead of butter and i might add some garlic when the cabbage is almost done. i like garlic.

hopefully by this time next week i can report on the tastiness of one of these recipes. or maybe i will try the crisp-coated ham balls. this girl is full of surprises.