{The Basics} Homemade Chicken Stock

I have two Chicken Soup recipes on this site that give basic instructions on how to make homemade stock. But, recently I've decided that the process of making really good stock warrants it's own post, where it can hold a seat in the "Kitchen Basics" section of this blog. Because really, making your own chicken stock is something you should be doing...that is, if you enjoy cooking. It's worlds better than using store bought, although I have been known to cave and do just that on many an occasion. It's also nourishing, economical and makes use of parts of a chicken that would ordinarily be thrown away.
I've been making, packaging and freezing my own stock for years. But, one thing that used to really bother me was that my stock always came out muddy looking. It still tasted good, but the bits floating around in it looked unappetizing. I had tried straining it through a fine mesh sieve, even one lined with cheesecloth...but, it still never came out even mostly clear. Through research and experimentation I discovered what I had been doing wrong.

Blogshop

I know I've mentioned this several times in the past few weeks...but, I recently attended a workshop in NYC called Blogshop and now I'm finally talking about it!
I initially discovered these workshops and the idea of attending one when I read about it on a blog I read regularly, called a Cup of Jo. I was immediately intrigued. The workshop is a 2-day course in learning how to apply Photoshop techniques to your photos and blog posts...and it's specifically geared towards bloggers [although anyone would learn a ton and have a blast attending one!].
I learned a thing or two about Photoshop while in college studying Design. But, that was years ago [more years than I'd care to think about] and my major was not graphic design, so the bits of the program I did learn were purely rudimentary. Since starting a blog, I've re-taught myself several things. The problem is, the way I was previously "figuring things out" wasn't really the proper way to do things. Ultimately, I was just making things more complicated and difficult than they really needed to be...I was basically just winging it. There have also been times when I'll be browsing around the Internet, checking out other people's blogs and will wonder, how'd they do that?
For all of these above reasons I jumped at the chance to take this course.

Bozo Pic of the Week...

Roasted Cardamom Applesauce

Ahhh...FALL. My favorite season. I love the chillier weather, wearing sweaters, the smell of fires burning in fireplaces, the colored leaves...and the apples!
We went on our annual apple picking trip recently and brought home many, many pounds of apples. If I get my act together, hopefully I will have more apple recipes coming your way. But, for now, I'm starting off with homemade applesauce. There's a vintage recipe here for plain old applesauce, which is delicious as is. But, this year I was inspired to try something new.
A few weekends ago I attended a workshop in NYC. The event was catered by an amazing prepared food shop in Brooklyn, NY called Radish. On the first day, one of the lunch items served was a Cardamom Spiced Applesauce. It was hugely popular and even people who claimed to not really care for applesauce were loving it. All I could think of was how much my boys would love some! So, that was my mission...finding out how to make something similar. I didn't have Radish's exact recipe, but found something online that looked like it might fit the bill.
It's pretty much exactly how I would normally make applesauce, except instead of steaming the apples in a bit of water, these are roasted. Then, of course, there's cardamom added...which is really what gives it a unique flavor. We had ours with breaded pork chops, mashed potatoes and green peas {basically my all time favorite dinner...ever}.

RIP Steve Jobs

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

- Steve Jobs, commencement speech @ Stanford University, 2005

{photo source: Apple}