It All Starts With A Bird

Buy Chicken Stock From The Store???? Pfft!

I make a lot of soup. We decided last year to open our home to friends on Sundays after Church. We found that it was indescribably cheaper to make soup for thirty people then it is for four people to eat out. Not to mention that with varying, ridiculous allergies in our family, trying to find a restaurant that we can all eat at is close to impossible. So every fall, our house is full of friends, kids of friends and the smell of fresh, homemade soup. 

Not sure exactly how much soup has been made or consumed in this house over the last 12 months but it has been quite a bit, and with the exception of one friend who does not care for cilantro (name rhymes with Layson Morgday) I have never had any complaints.

So before I share recipes and step by steps on how I make my soup, I figured we should start with the bird. Yes I said the bird. Although chicken stock in varying varieties and sodium levels is available at your local grocer, none can replace home-made. Making your own stock allows you to control what goes in it as well as save incredible amounts of money.

There are many different ways to get to the end result, but my favorite is roasting the chicken. Since this is my blog, that is what we are going to talk about. 

So the first part of this is "how to roast a chicken"

Ingredients:

1 whole fresh or previously frozen chicken

half of a medium onion, sliced

3 ribs of celery, sliced

2 carrots, peeled and sliced (or a few handfuls of baby carrots)

2 cloves of garlic peeled

dash of marjoram, thyme, rosemary

salt/pepper and paprika to taste 

3 bay leaves

You could certainly do this in a roasting pan, but I am a HUGE fan of the crock-pot, so that is what I will share. This couldn't get much easier or tastier or cheaper... So here we go.

Step 1 - Put all that stuff in the crock pot

Step 2 - Wait 4 hours and eat

Seriously.... I'll give you a little more detail but that is about it. 

Unwrap the chicken and remove whatever goodies they added to the cavity (yes, you have to stick your hand in the bird and pull out the parts). Depending on the brand you may find sachet of parts or just an extra neck or two... Whatever it is place it in the crock-pot. I prefer to cook mine breast side down to keep it moist.

Season the bird with the salt and pepper, add the herbs on top and surround with the veggies. When it is  ready it should look something like this...

Turn it on, sit back and enjoy the aroma...

About 4 hours (Internal temp of 165 by the book). The longer you cook the more "fall off the bone" you will experience.

End of the run should look like this (or something similar)

Now again we come to preferences. You could stop right here, serve it with potatoes or rice and call it a night. I prefer to separate the bird from the rest and put them in the fridge over night. Makes it so much easier to de-bone, but it is not an option if you are hungry. No way to describe how good this smells! Either way you are going to remove the meat from the bird. You can do this dainty like with a fork and knife but I prefer to get in and get after it with my hands. Take all the meat that you want, but don't be afraid to leave a little on the bone as this will just add to the flavor of the broth. Place the carcass aside (the bones and skin and such) and any meat that you don't like. I won't judge... I am a very picky chicken eater so my broth is very meaty :)

So now onto the broth. Take the bowl of not chicken (chicken juice, veggies etc) and put it into the biggest stock pot you have. I use a 12 quart stock pot for this, but you can use whatever you have. Then put the carcass of the chicken into the pot. Add water to the top of your pot, add a few liberal shakes of salt and pepper and simmer for as long as you can stand. Keep track of the simmer part, if you bring it to a full boil you will make the broth murky, letting it simmer keeps it very clear. This is just a look thing, but I think it is important

After a few hours, or as long as you can stand then take a sieve (fine mesh strainer), cheese cloth (a fabric mesh used or making cheese) or if neither are available you can use a coffee filter (last resort). To keep the broth clear, scoop it out with a ladle or a large measuring cup and pour it slowly through the sieve into a bowl, and empty the sieve as often as necessary into a separate bowl. 

Keep this up until you have it all strained and collected. Tonight I used my 12 qt stock pot to simmer the stock. When it was all said and done I ended up with 9 qts of beautiful broth. Considering a 1qt container of quality stock is around 2.99, then this is 27.00 worth of stock. Shopping for sales (i.e. .88/lb for chicken) can land you savings north of 20.00 per batch. Not to mention the fact that you saw everything that went in there.

Let the stock cool overnight in the fridge, and remove or skim the fat layer off if you wish. Then prepare for storage. We pour 4 cup portions into gallon size freezer bags for use later.

So that's it. Homemade, Gluten, Dairy, and Soy free chicken stock with no added anything. You can do this too. 

Next will be Dairy free Creamy Baked Potato Soup and or Clam Chowder. 

Hit me with any questions and let me know how your chicken stock turned out. Would love to hear what you tried or changed.

Stay Hungry 

Dessert First - Double Chocolate-Peanut Butter Pudding Pie

My friend Courtney sent me this recipe and thought I might like it, and I might like to bring her a piece, to quote her message. The recipe was sponsored by Chex Cereal and uses Gluten Free Chex Cereal for the crust. It was published in Everyday with Rachael Ray and can be found here.

I will go over some of the issues I had putting this one together, but first I wanted to encourage you by saying if you are a woman and or you LOVE rich chocolate then you will really enjoy the final result. I have to be honest and say that I am not a huge dessert fan, or better said, I am not a sweet dessert fan, so this was a bit over the top, but Triann and Courtney both said it was incredible... I thought they were just being kind, but some of the faces they made almost made me uncomfortable so I think they were sincere.

For those of you who don't like to follow links, here is the recipe as it was written in the magazine, immediately followed by how we think it should be done :)

Double Chocolate-Peanut Butter Pudding Pie
By: Silvana Nardone
Sponsored by Chex Cereal

Ingredients:
3 cups Chocolate Chex cereal, finely crushed
5 tablespoons butter, melted
12oz semisweet baking chocolate, chopped, plus more for chocolate shavings
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa, sifted
2 cups half and half
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg plus 2 egg yolks
6 tablespoons whipping cream, plus 1 cup whipping cream whipped
1/2 cup white vanilla baking chips
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Directions:
1. In small bowl, stir together cereal and melted butter. Press in bottom and up side of ungreased 9 inch pie pan. Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes. Heat oven to 350F. Bake crust 15 minutes. Sprinkle with one-third of the chopped chocolate
2. In a large heatproof bowl, mix cocoa and remaining chopped chocolate; reserve. In 1-quart heavy saucepan, heat half-and-half over medium-high heat until almost boiling. In medium heatproof bowl, beat sugar, egg and egg yolks with whisk until pale yellow. Slowly beat in half of the hot half-and-half, then pour egg mixture into saucepan. Reduce heat to medium. Heat mixture just to boiling. Cook, beating with whisk, about 1 minute or until thickened. Pour through sieve into reserved cocoa mixture; beat with whisk until smooth. Pour into crust; refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Wipe out saucepan. Add 6 tablespoons cream. Heat to boiling over medium-high heat. Place vanilla baking chips and peanut butter in medium heatproof bowl. Pour hot cream on top and let stand until chocolate is melted, about 2 minutes; beat with whisk until smooth. Spread evenly over chilled pie. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 1/2 hours.
4. To serve, top servings of pie with whipped cream and chocolate shavings


OK, so we had trouble right off the bat. We are known for our collection of small appliances and kitchen gadgets, but we could not for the life of us find our sieve. I ended up making a run to Fred Meyers (where I found a buy 2 kitchen gadgets, get one free coupon) and came home with a sieve, a fridge thermometer and a new ice cube tray, but I digress.

Step 1.
We have not unpacked all of our kitchen boxes yet so instead of using a Cuisinart on the Chex cereal, I used a Daniel...

Daniel did a great job but I would recommend the Cuisinart. The finer you can get the cereal the better the crust will be. It was fairly easy to mix the crushed cereal with the melted butter. I started by putting a bit at a time into the glass pie plate, but eventually poured it all in and pressed it from the middle of the pie plate out to and up the sides. Into the fridge it went for the 30 minute chill, and then into the oven. The recipe calls for 1/3 of the chocolate, would be easier just to say 2/3 cup. Again the Cuisinart would have been nice here but I used the food chopper instead (way too much work). I was able to sprinkle the "shaved" chocolate fairly evenly on the hot crust, and it was satisfying to watch it melt and Triann said the chocolate in the crust was awesome... A very nice touch.

Step 2.
First advice is to skip the first word "meanwhile". I tried doing step 1 and 2 at the same time, too tough to get the timing right. Finish step 1, then start 2. This step was a bit of work, but quite a bit of fun. I had never used any of these techniques before and the instructions were well written and easy to understand. The only trouble I had here was with the ingredients. Triann bought a pint of half and half, and neither of us could remember if  that was close to 2 cups, if only we had a pee-chee with its magic conversion charts.
 
I found out that a pint equals 1 3/4 cups. Or at least it does if your wife uses it for her coffee first. After you pour the filling into the crust make sure you let it sit in the fridge until it is fairly solid.

Step 3.
It seemed a bit strange to boil six tablespoons of whipping cream, but it all worked out fine. The only suggestions I have here would be to double the ingredients in this step (whipping cream, white chocolate chips, peanut butter), and make sure the filling from step 2 is set hard enough that this will not sink in like it did for us. I am assuming this would allow the white chocolate/peanut butter topping to spread itself. As you can see from our pictures below this didn't work so well for us.

Step 4.

Whip Cream. I would recommend adding 2-3 tablespoons of sugar and a touch of vanilla. We used a lemon zester to shave the chocolate, but you could use a grater or butter knife and get the same results.

So there it is. An impressive dessert when everything is said and done. Some neat techniques and a satisfying experience overall. And, as everything that you will find on this blog, Gluten Free.

Thanks again to Courtney for the recommendation.

Please let us know if you try this and your impressions, and let us know if you have a certain dish you would like us to look for. We are thinking about Muffins... hmm


Enjoy

Eric and Triann
Scrambled Eggs and Brisket

What the heck is Gluten Free?

I suppose we ought to talk a bit before we get too far. What is Gluten, why do you need to set it free, who needs to do this and what's in it for me?

Anyone who has not seen me since 2006 might not recognize me. I am almost 100 pounds lighter today than I was back than. When I run into folks I have not seen for a while they inevitably ask me how I lost all the weight. I laugh a bit and explain that I have no idea. The doctors at the time told me it was stress (I was on the road for the better part of the year traveling for work) so I bought that. In 2008 I was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis (info here). It is not uncommon for folks with AS to also have Crohn's disease so that was the assumption at that time. In 2009 testing showed that I did not have Crohn's, but I still had pretty extreme stomach issues. After about 8 months of trying different medications with very little results my doctor recommended that I try removing Gluten from my diet. I thought he was nuts and did nothing with his suggestion. After we moved back to Washington, we were invited to a BBQ at a good friends house. During the meal it came up that my friend was observing a Gluten Free diet, Triann remembered that my doctor had recommended that for me and after about an hour of conversation about how easy it was I agreed to try it for 6 weeks. It didn't take 6 weeks to figure out that this was an obvious piece of my puzzle, I felt better within 2 days. That happened in August of 2010, and I have been eating/cooking Gluten Free since then, and I feel amazing. I am actually enjoying food again. My current doctors do not think that there is a reason to avoid Gluten as I do not test positive for Celiac Disease (the most likely reason for a Gluten Free life), the issue is that you cannot accurately test for Celiac unless you are currently consuming Gluten and I am not willing to do that, so here I am, self diagnosed, but OK with that.

So that is how I got here, lets talk for a minute about where here is. Gluten is found in wheat, barley, rye and almost anything made from these grains. So life is now about eating things that don't contain Gluten. Obvious things to avoid would be breads, flour tortillas, crackers, pastries, deserts etc. Not so obvious things would be licorice, soy sauce, seasonings, sausage, egg noodles, etc. There are a million (this number has not been verified) websites that have been created with to assist folks with identifying Gluten Free (GF) foods, and restaurants. Google Gluten Free and see what you get.

Now back to the blog, and my intentions. What Triann and I want to do is take our love of cooking, our sense of adventure and our gift of gab, put them all together and create a blog that will record our adventures in GF cooking. For example we may have a craving for cornbread and find 20 different GF recipes... which is the best, which is the easiest, are there tricks along the way? We will try them all and report our results... we have even talked about taking some video of the process. We will just have to see where it ends up.

At the end of the day this is for us, a chance to work on something together as a couple, explore and chronicle our adventures and enjoy the feedback of our friends.

If you have a specific GF dish you are looking for, or just want to challenge us, send us a message through the comments and we will give it a shot.

Eric

p.s. I have been racking my brain to think of an appropriate tag line to sign off on each of these... if you have any good ideas please share.

A New Idea

Well, almost a year since my last post...

I started Scrambled Eggs and Brisket (emsdaddy.blogspot.com) when we found out that Triann had cancer. It was a way for me to think stuff through by writing it out. Reading back through the posts I can see a very interesting journey but it came to a stop last February. I don't know that all was better then, but apparently I didn't need to write about it anymore.

So here we are, starting 2011 and back on the blog again, why? Well, once again I will blame it on Triann. She suggested that we start writing about our adventures working through my new gluten free life. Triann and I have always enjoyed cooking and now it is even more of an adventure as we look for replacements for all the gluten filled goodies we love. So the plan is to document the recipes we try, give our honest opinion (and the opinion of the folks that taste it) and as many pictures as we can.

So stay tuned, read the posts on the site (http://emsdaddy.blogspot.com) or as notes on my facebook page. Give us feedback and send us suggestions for gluten free foods you think we should try, or something you have been looking for and we will have some fun with it.

(still thinking of the catchy tagline)

Eric

One More Thing

Triann has changed her blog to a caring bridge site. So if you haven't checked that out yet, please take a minute to visit her site and leave her a comment. She really gets a thrill from reading the comments on her guestbook and it keeps her going when she is having a tough day.

E

Vacation - Benson Style

Had all but abandoned this blog... keep thinking about things to write but never take the time to sit and do it. You will never believe what inspired me to sit down today... You ready for this? The girls made me watch Julie and Julia. It was a cute movie about a gal who decided to take Julia Child's book and make every recipe in a year and blog about it. Go figure...

Anyway, here we are at MD Anderson again. One year after our first visit. Remember that one? Filled with fear, confusion. We didn't know what was going on, which way was up and who was in charge. I can remember walking through the halls of the campus from appointment to appointment, lost half the time, and seeing all the other patients. That is the unique thing about a specific hospital like MD Anderson. They only see cancer patients, so everyone here has either just found out they have cancer, is in the process of treatment, or checking to make sure it hasn't come back. Can you imagine the various emotions on the faces of the people you see in the halls? Terror, resolve, relief. And that is on the patients faces... then you have the others. The husbands, wives, children, siblings, friends etc. I am an other. We are the ones who occupy the waiting rooms while our loved ones are back in the bowels of the hospital going through the various tests. 3 hours for a CT scan... 20 minutes for labs and an x-ray... 2 hours for an MRI. Different looks on their faces also. You can almost tell by looking at them what the status is of their loved one. Anxious or fearful face, on the phone or with tissue in hand for the newbies. The roller bag with a laptop, a bag of snacks and headphones in for those that have been here more than once. I am in that group now. I know what to take out of the bag depending on the appointment. CT scan is time for a movie, Labs and X-ray, just enough time for a game on the iphone. MRI means some music while I read. It's all routine.

This has been a very unique trip for us. First off we don't have the kids with us. You read right, for the first time since our unemployment cruise we have spent a few nights away from our kids. My mom flew in on Monday and is staying in Tyler with the Browns and the kids. Can I take a moment to say how proud I am of Triann? Those of you who really know us are probably just now pulling yourself up off the ground. This is a HUGE deal for Triann and I can tell you honestly that she has not been stressing about it at all. We decided this time to stay at the Rotary House. It is a hotel run by Marriott that is attached to MD Anderson. In the past we have used points given to us by gracious friends to stay at nearby hotels and driven in each day. That has worked fine, we pack all we need for the day, get there first thing in the morning and just hang out. This time, in between appointments we have been able to head back to the room for a nap, or to watch a movie or just sit and snuggle.

With all our hospital time with Emily, Triann and I have learned to use this kind of time for a warped kind of a date. We don't get a lot of alone time so you take it where you can. This has been like a vacation for us. No kids, a hotel room, dinners out. Pretty crazy life we live, but can say without reservation that I wouldn't change it. I've said that before, and I know some of you think I am insane but I stand by it. If not for the crazy things we have seen and experienced in our lives we would not be the couple or the people that we are today.

Lots more to share, about our almost immediate move back to the NW, my new job and where we will be living, but this will encourage me to get back on here soon. For now let me share the results from our meeting with Triann's doctor.

CLEAR SCANS! Everything looks great. The doctor said that he would like Triann to stay on the chemo through the summer (boo). That will take her to 2 years on the chemo and will make him comfortable with taking her off. After that we will check in with him every 6 months. So, not quite done, but always exciting to be able to see the end. CLEAR SCANS! Just wanted to say it again.

Alright, all done for now. Time to go celebrate with Triann and take a nice drive back up to Tyler. More alone time to talk and share and just love each other.

E

Triann is on Chemo?

Good Grief! Almost 3 months since the last post. Plenty of stuff has gone on, I just haven't taken the time to write about it... Why? I said in the beginning that this was for my own therapy, so does this mean I am all better and don't need to write any more? Ha.... you'll see...

So why did I come back now?

I have to work this out and this is always the best place to do it.

We got great news yesterday. Triann's scans all came back clear. We have seen this every time we have gone down to Houston. A whole day of MRI's, CT scans, blood work and X-rays. Followed by a meeting with Dr Habra to tell us what they saw. Always clear. The surgery site, where they removed the tumor is clear, the other adrenal gland is clear, her lungs are clear, her guts are clear, her lymph nodes are clear. It is all clear.

The reward for this? More chemo. and here is my issue. It's not the "real" chemo, you know the kind where your hair falls out and you wear a wig or a head wrap and everyone you see knows you have cancer. What a stupid thing to say right? Is it?

I have watched my wife melt down for almost a year now. Getting her butt kicked by this poison that is helping her (maybe). She feels nauseous 24 hours a day. She can't eat much due to the nausea, that and the medication itself keeps her in a constant state of exhaustion and fatigue. Her mind is hit and miss at best, forgetting big things that we have done together all the way down to repeating the same conversation over and over, with no clue that she is doing it. Between the surgery that removed one adrenal gland (with tumor) and the chemo that is killing off the other she is now taking 3 or 4 different hormone pills to try and keep her body in some sort of hormonal balance. I don't have to tell you what unbalanced hormones are like right? She spends days in and out of bed, so dizzy that she doesn't feel comfortable driving and can barely walk, which leads to massive headaches. But when she is up and around, visiting friends, going to church, running errands or taking the kids to events she looks normal. NORMAL. So she looks normal, but asks for help, and says silly things, and makes silly mistakes and to the rest of the world it looks like she is a ditz or just lazy or incapable of doing things on her own. They don't know that her entire life is currently jacked up because of this random combination of rouge cells that decided to blow up her adrenal gland and now she has to eat 15 doses of rat poison daily. All because her hair didn't fall out. I am tempted to sneak into her bedroom and shave her head just to give her a break from the looks and the comments that she tells me about, I can't even imagine the one that she doesn't. Or the arguments she has to have with herself to justify the way she feels now, vs the person that she was not even a year ago.

It KILLS me. Triann is not herself. I know it, she knows it, her close friends and family know it, but the rest of the world doesn't know what is going on, they don't know the kind of person that she really is. Triann would never ask anyone for help, she would be the one helping, but now she has to beg to help get Emily to appointments when she can't stand up. She has to beg to have someone come over to the house for a few hours so she can get a nap in the middle of the day, or just curl up in her bed so she doesn't hurl. She had to beg for financial help because her husband can't make enough money to support the major medical needs of 3 members of the family. Would she have to do that if she didn't have hair?

Please don't write back and tell me I am out of line. I know I am being an A-hole here. I get it. I know that both of us are gaining invaluable wisdom out of this entire process, and God willing this part of it may be over in 6 months. I also feel that every SECOND I have with her is a gift directly from God in whatever shape she is in. But she is my wife and my best friend and it just rips me apart to see her going through all this.

The Dr told us that if we come back in 6 months and everything is still clear we can talk about stopping the chemo. That is a miracle. It would mean that they truly removed all the cancer from her body and they are not concerned about it returning any time soon. When she stops the pills, the effects and the chemo will hang out in her body for around a year. I imagine she will start improving through that year but it will still be another year before she is back to what could be normal. But that will mean that she beat it. By Gods Will, she will have survived this.

Did God need the Chemo? Was his miracle having Daniel jump on her and detect this undetectable cancer before it had a chance to wreck it's havoc? Or was all of that so we could experience this and grow from it and learn from it.

I know this is where I am supposed to tie in a great lesson that inspires people and makes them want to write my mother and tell them what a great son she has raised, or how great it is to see God in our lives through our faith. That is still there, I know what He has done for us, but I don't have it right now. I am mad at some of Triann's friends, and people in the store, and people at the park and all the folks that look at her and see a "normal" person and have no idea just how strong she is to be standing there at all, or what she has fought through to even be moving. To know that she does not get all the sympathy or empathy that she deserves drives me crazy.

I have done what I needed to do. I have written out all of my feelings about this and fought the urge to correct them as they came. I have let some raw emotions hit the screen and I will now walk away and let it be. There will be a time to come back and talk about how this fits, and where I see Gods hand in all of this. I hope it is soon.

e