How to Tuesday - homemade chicken stock and more

I love to cook, it's no secret. I'm also quite good at it, no reason to hide that fact.

On Sunday I made 2 stockpots full of homemade chicken stock.  Any recipe that calls for chicken stock is made a bajillion times better if homemade stock is used instead of canned or boxed broth.  Here are some step by steps of how I do it. Ina Garten's recipe is a good one. It makes an enormous quantity, which you freeze in small containers, and retrieve from your icebox when I say icebox I mean freezer whenever you need.   I change her recipe around a bit, but if you follow her instructions, you can't go wrong.

Vegetables for the stock. I favor organic.
I also add a couple bay leaves which is not in the recipe link above.

You'll need a huge stockpot. This one is a 12 quart stockpot. I use this along with another 8 quart stockpot and divide the ingredients between the two.

Organic chicken.  Rinse the chicken, stick it in the pot, sanitize your counter tops and wash your hands with hot soapy water when you're done handling the raw chicken. The recipe link above calls for 3 whole chickens. I ask the butcher at Whole Foods for 15 pounds of chicken parts (backs and necks). They're more economical. 

I bring the chicken and water to a boil for 30 minutes before I add the vegetables...

...because it's easier to skim off the foam and scum that the chicken will release at the beginning, without the vegetables and herbs getting in the way of the skimming.

Toss in the vegetables, herbs, and seasonings.

Skim a bit more of the foam off.  Then turn the heat to medium-low and walk away.  It will simmer and do its business over the next 4 hours.  So easy.

When the 4 hours are up, turn the heat off.  Let the stockpot cool a bit.  Pull out all the solids (chicken parts, vegetables, herbs, etc.) and throw them away.

Strain the liquid through a sieve.

Put the stockpot with the strained stock in the refrigerator overnight.  The fat will rise to the surface and harden, making it easier for you to remove it from the stock.

Divide your stock up between full quart and half quart containers.

Beautimous organic homemade chicken stock.  You know you did it right when the texture is wiggly and gelatinous out of the fridge. 

Mmm, delicious.

If you have any tips or tricks on homemade stocks (chicken or otherwise), I'd love to hear allllll about it.

And also....unrelated to cooking

I've been treating myself to many a birthday present in honor of my upcoming 35th. Yesterday I had a cleaning lady do a  top-to-bottom deep clean of our lovely abode. Everybody needs one of these once or twice a year. I like gifts from me to me, because I always know exactly what to get myself.

 And today I took myself over to my favorite hair salon for a hair cut.  I love it. I can wear it about 6 different ways, straight or curly, bangs or no bangs. 

When I push my bangs to side like in this picture, I call it my Susie Derkins look.   

When I wear the full bangs, it reminds me of silent film star Louise Brooks. 

 
"Hmmm, Susie Derkins or Louise Brooks...?"

 Something else for you, lest we forget that I actually make jewelry...

These are all brand new stones I've acquired in the last couple weeks. You know I'm just mad about poppies. Check out those colorful jaspers to the left, don't they just look like a poppy field?  Can't wait to turn them into something.  

I'll see you back here tomorrow for my Work in Progress Wednesday post.  Not quite sure yet what I'll be making, but it will be interesting for sure.