Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

I have always been raised around Cows, Pigs, and Chickens. So most of our life we have eaten our own beef  but not really pork or chicken. A couple years ago my dad sent one of our pigs to be processed and OH MY LANDS. It was great. Then we went to a different processing plant with our next hog to be butchered and it was 10x better than the last. So we are hooked on butchering our own.

My sister and I are really getting in deep with all the additives in our food and she ordered a video called FOOD INC. from Amazon. This video blew our minds and really made us think twice. It is so hard buying food in the grocery store now because we know how sickening this mess is that we are eating.Do I sound a bit extreme?? Maybe so, but you check out the video for yourself- you will have the same issues we do.

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Inc-Eric-Schlosser/dp/B0027BOL4G

After watching this movie we decided to process a few of our own chickens. Here are some pictures we took during the process.

In fact, my goal for this spring is to raise 20-25 Ranger Reds and butcher after 10-12 weeks. I can store them in my freezer and have a hormone free chicken any time I want! These are a meatier bird and perfect for butchering.

Now I know buying an $8 3lb bag of boneless skinless chicken breast is super easy for fast meals but if you pre plan your meals and take just a few extra minutes you can save so much more by doing a little extra work. When I was growing up my mom always bought whole chickens because it saved money. She literally threw the chicken in a pot with seasonings and boiled away. After it cooled, the chicken meat was shredded off the bone and Mexican Chicken Casserole or Chicken n Dumplings were made in no time! 

Even buying chicken in bone but separated is so much cheaper than buying boneless. So if you want to save money on your groceries try buying in bone meats. 

With my in bone chicken I thaw out in the refrigerator and place each piece in a 9x13 baking pan and season with a lot of salt & pepper (or my favorite seasoning Cavendars ) and I add minced garlic along with a sprig or two of Rosemary. (My sister taught me this- she uses fresh herbs in just about everything! And I normally pick my own garlic BUT I waited to late and the ground was to hard, at the time I was 7/8 months pregnant and didn't want to tug on them to much but later I will do a post about harvesting garlic.)

Then fill the pan half way with water. You don't want to cover the chicken, just get the water half way to the top. This will keep the meat very moist. 

Place the chicken in the oven uncovered at 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes. The skin will brown nicely on the top. 

To know the chicken is finished cooking you can look at the meat and press down with the fork. If the liquid is clear, your meat is cooked thoroughly. 

Once your chicken is cooled shred all the meat off the bone. Save your scraps! You can make chicken stock out of those later...

With my shredded meat I made Chicken Fettucini Alfredo for dinner and Mexican Chicken Casserole (shown below) for another night. I even had enough chicken leftover for Chicken Salad Sandwiches for lunch the next day.

Mexican Chicken Casserole

1/2 or 1 onion choppped

2 Tbsp. Butter

1 can cream of chicken

1 can cream of mushroom

1/2-1 block of velveeta cheese

1 can Rotel

1 whole chicken

Heat oven to 350 degrees and spray your 9x13 baking pan. In a sauce pan place 2 Tbsp. butter and half diced onion. Let the onion sweat. Then add half of a block of Velveeta cheese and 1 can of cream of chicken, 1 can cream of mushroom, 1 can of Rotel. Stir until cheese is melted. Throw in shredded chicken and stir. Take a bag of tortilla chips or Doritos Chips and crush contents. Place half the bag of crushed chips on bottom of pan. Pour cheese and chicken mixture over chips and then add the rest if chips over the top. Place in oven at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Chicken Fettucini Alfredo 

This has to be one of my kids favorite dishes. It is so easy and fast to make too. If your buying your Alfredo sauce in the jar, Shame on you! This taste a million times better.

Alfredo Sauce: 

1 pint Heavy Cream

1 stick of Butter

2 Tbsp. Cream Cheese

1/2-3/4 C. Parmesan Cheese

1tsp. Garlic Powder. 

Combine butter heavy cream & butter in a sauce pot. Simmer until all is melted and mixed well. Add Parmesan cheese and Garlic Powder. Simmer for 15-20 minutes on low. Season with Salt & Pepper.  Add Chicken and noodles.

(I almost never use the cream cheese, and I use Garlic Salt instead if powder and also season with a little Paprika. - you can add some fresh or dried parsley to fancy it up) 

Chicken Stock from Scraps! 

In a large pot throw all your chicken scraps in with an onion quartered, celery, carrots, peppercorns, garlic clove, and add water to cover all ingredients. Heat until it comes to a boil then simmer for 3-4 hours. Once cooled, strain liquids and freeze for use later. 

Blue Berry Muffins

We have been getting together with a group of friends to play cards (mostly phase 10) it seems like every other weekend. For the record, I don't play cards...Marc can't live a day without playing phase 10 on his cell phone so anytime any one invites us over to play a game he is ALL IN. I just sit and listen to conversation. I know, I'm boring. Anyway, at one of the game nights there were two bowls of mini blueberry muffins and chocolate chip muffins. I didn't think I cared for blueberry muffins that much but after eating almost the whole bowl myself... I knew I'd be eating more in the future! So I found a recipe and  bought a box of blueberries! And once again...I have just about devoured half of them. This recipe makes 15 so I set out 7 and placed 7 in the freezer for something sweet later!

 

 

First prepare your muffin pans and set your oven temperature to 400 degrees. 

Set out all your dry ingredients and mix together in a Medium sized bowl.

 

 

I do want to point out to always make sure your dry ingredients are the exact amount the recipe calls for. So take a knife and level out your top of measuring cups.

 

In a separate smaller bowl beat an egg and add your wet ingredients. And stir into your dry ingredients. You can just use a wooden spoon- mixer isn't really needed for Muffin mix.

 

Then fold in 1 cup of blueberries.

 

Fill each muffin 3/4 full and sprinkle generously with sugar. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 400'.

 

Very yummy warm with a big dollop of butter! (Freshly made salted butter in fact!)

 

 

Buttermilk Blue Berry Muffins

 

2 Cups flour

1/2 Cup Sugar

2 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

 

1 Cup buttermilk

1 egg, beaten

1/2 Cup oil

1 Cup blueberries

Sugar to sprinkle

From Scratch Biscuits

I had decided no matter what I am going to start making things from Scratch. And biscuits were first on my list! However, every recipe I tried was awful. I vented my frustration with my biscuit making on Facebook and added these photos of each batch. 

One was just nasty, 2nd batch was so hard and heavy I thought my pan weighed 5 lbs. pulling it out of the oven and the third batch tasted great but they were flat!! Not to mention...they looked horrible!!!  So I was determined to try again the next morning! My sister sent me a recipe for biscuits & pancakes which by the way, the pancakes are soooo good. I actually crave the pancakes all the time and we eat them every week just about. But we aren't talking about those awesome pancakes... Back to the biscuits-I finally found redemption in my biscuit making! They turned out beautiful and taste great too. So to help you all out, here's how I make From Scratch Biscuits. 

Basically every recipe you follow you always separate your dry ingredients from your wet ingredients. So begin by first heating your oven to 475 degrees and lay out a sheet pan for baking. This recipe makes 9 biscuits so I'm using a half sheet pan. I like to coat my pans with butter instead of oil for hot rolls & biscuits. Biscuits need help with adding flavor (or so I think) and the more butter the better! 

In a bowl mix together your flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, & baking soda. Add 3 Tbsp. of shortening or butter. Now here is where it's really opinion.... Usually biscuits are made with shortening. And any old biscuit recipe calls for shortening but I like the butter flavoring so I use butter. Use whatever you have on hand or whatever you like.

Take your fingers and squeeze the butter into the dry mix really well. 

It's okay if it's lumpy and creates pea size balls. 

Next add your buttermilk and mix well. After you have mixed in all the ingredients let it sit 2-3 minutes. 

While your waiting you can throw down some flour on your counter top to get ready to cut your dough. Make sure your hands are good and floured as well. 

Place the dough in the flour and roll it a couple times to coat in the flour but don't knead. You want light and fluffy biscuits so the less kneading is better.

With your hands spread the dough out to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick and cut with a cookie cutter starting at edge and then continue to cut out really close together. Most likely the last two biscuits will be made by the "extra" dough from the cookie cutter. 

Place each biscuit close together on your sheet pan. 

Bake at 475 degrees for 16-18 minutes. Once pulled from the oven, don't be afraid to smear on the butter! 

I had to have honey on mine since I was just snacking around! 

But you can't have breakfast with out Biscuits & Chocolate Gravy!!! 

I know- I could eat it everyday! I'ts so good!!!

Here's the recipes for both- Now fix your husbands breakfast for supper one cold day and a side of Chocolate Gravy...and maybe he will do the dishes!

From Scratch Biscuits

1 1/2 cups flour

1 Tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. baking soda

3 Tbsp butter or shortening

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 cup flour for shaping your biscuits

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, & baking soda. Cut in butter or shortening and add milk. Mix well and let sit 2-3 minutes. Cut and shape out 9 biscuits and lay on a well buttered sheet pan. Bake at 475 degrees for 16-18 minutes. 

Chocolate Gravy

4 Tbsp. cocoa

1 cup sugar

2 Tbsp. flour

1 cup milk

1 stick of butter 

Dash of salt 

Mix cocoa, sugar, & flour in a bowl and set to the side. 

In a sauce pan over medium heat add milk, butter, salt and stir until butter is melted. Add dry ingredients and stir. Let boil to thicken. Once thickened remove from heat and pour over warm biscuits. 

Butter Butter Butter!

For the longest time I have wanted a Jersey Cow or even a goat to milk. I fully understand the responsibility this is and how inconvenient milking could be BUT the positives of doing the hard labor would be so worth it in the end!

Although I am not a milk drinker, Marc and Maddie are! I absolutely hate it that milk is almost $5 a gallon and the cheaper off brands have hormones and additives that are ruining our health. With milk you also have cream and butter. And we buy a ton of butter and quit a bit of cream too! 

One of our good friends had posted on fb she was making butter and cheese from some raw milk she had bought in Ft. Smith so I met up with her a few weeks later to get some of my own. I am currently buying my milk in Belleville which is an hour in a half away but the pantry I buy from has a few more items I like to purchase at great prices so the drive isn't to awful. This last trip I bought 6 gallons worth. I brought back three for other families and then we will use three in 2 weeks for sure. 

Here is how I make my butter off the milk I buy. 

When we bring home the milk I transfer it over to a gallon size clear pitcher. I let it stand in the refrigerator for atleast 4 hours to allow the cream to rise and make an obvious cream line to skim. 

If I had a stand mixer, I would simply laddle it into the mixer and turn it on to do its own thing but until then, I use a wide mouth Mason Jar with a lid. I laddle ONLY the cream into the jar. It's very important to not get any milk into your mix. So I end up leaving a very small line of cream in the milk and that's fine too... Just adds some more flavor to our milk. 

Next, we put a lid on it and I or Marc or both of us take turns and shake it for about 30-45 minutes until it all the sudden forms curds of yellow butter!

Strain the milk off the butter into another Mason jar and set to the side because this is your non cultured buttermilk! You definitely want to save this! (And hopefully I will do another post about how to culture your buttermilk-Super Easy!) In the mean time use your buttermilk in all recipes like pancakes, biscuits, & ranch dressing, etc. 

Once your butter has been strained place it in a bowl of cold water and knead the butter in the water and rinse a few times until the butter is free from milk. This extra milk on your butter can sour it so clean it really well.

I then pat my butter dry with a napkin and place in a plastic tub or wax paper and then in a ziplock bag. You can add 1/4 tsp of salt to your butter if you like salted butter and I do this if I'm going to eat it on cornbread, hot rolls, or toast but if I'm using it to cook with, I normally don't salt my butter. 

And that my friends is non cultured homemade butter with no additives or hormones!! So easy and so worth it. For $4 I have butter, buttermilk, & almost a gallon of milk!