Homemade Stock and Broth

I've been making homemade stock and broth for years and freezing it for later use. Homemade stock is so easy to make and tastes so much better, plus has less salt than the box or canned type from the grocery store.  I've pretty much used the terms stock and broth interchangeable but they are actually two different things.  I looked up online the difference so here's a little lesson on the difference. 

Stock is made by simmering a combination of animal bones, a mixture of vegetable scraps of onions, carrots, celery and garlic in water.  Stock always involves bones and is cooked anywhere from 2 to 6 hours on the stovetop. Stock is always left unseasoned. Broth is any liquid that has had meat cooked in it.. It is made by simmering meat and celery, onions and carrots in water for a relatively short amount of time, usually under 2 hours, where the meat and vegetables can be eaten or used for dishes such as soup or a casserole. Unlike stock, broth is typically seasoned. They both are used for sauces, gravies, stews and soups.

The general consensus is stock is made with bones and broth is made with meat. Vegetable stock is made with vegetable scraps that are discarded after cooking and broth is the leftover liquid when cooking vegetables. I mostly make stock but I season mine like broth. I've made lamb, beef, chicken, turkey and vegetable stock.  I just keep a gallon size Ziploc baggie in the freezer and add vegetable scraps to it when I'm cutting stuff up from what I've bought at the farmers market and when I have a full bag, I make stock with whatever I have.  I also have kept bones in the freezer, turkey carcass  left over from Thanksgiving, T bone steak bones and lamb bones I got from the farmers market until I had time and enough vegetable scraps to make stock.  I've also just made vegetable stock, especially if I have an abundance of vegetable scraps especially greens from turnips and beets. I put bones and vegetable scraps in my large pot with cold water, bay leaves, a little seasoned salt and pepper or pepper corns, sometimes a little dried herbs or fresh herbs from my garden.  I cook it on the stove top for at least 2 hours, cool then strain out the bones and vegetables and put stock in a crock pitcher or large canning jars to cool completely in the refrigerator.

lamb bones

The next day or a couple of days later, skim off fat on top, stir stock and I put mine in quart freezer bags, double bagged and freeze. It can also be frozen in ice cube trays. The bones and vegetable scraps can also be roasted for richer flavor.  I usually just throw everything in frozen and cook it for several hours until the stock is dark and tasty. Here's the recipe:
Basic Stock Recipe
lamb, beef, chicken or turkey bones
1 onion, quartered or onion scraps
any type of vegetable scraps, such as celery leaves, potato or carrot peelings, turnip, beet greens, cabbage leaves or core
2 or 3 bay leaves
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
4 whole black peppercorns or 1 t. pepper
1 t. seasoned salt
1 to 2 t of any fresh or dried herb such as parsley, sage, basil, rosemary or thyme
cold water


In large stock pot, add bones, vegetable scraps, seasonings and cover with cold water, (start with COLD water to extract the most flavor from the bones and vegetables). Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2 to 3 hours.  Let cool for awhile. Lift out bones with a slotted spoon and remove any meat for another use and discard bones.  Strain the stock through a mesh strainer into a glass pitcher or container and chill in refrigerator, discard vegetables.  Lift off solidified fat and store in refrigerator for a few days or freeze in containers, freezer bags or ice cube trays for up to 6 months.

Enjoy,
Bamah

Baggie of vegetable scraps

before cooking

finished broth

An Original Farmers Market Fan Girl

This past Saturday my husband and I went to Oklahoma City to spend the day with our oldest daughter, Tabitha.  The plan was to go to several farmers market, see a movie and go out to eat. It really was a day of farmer's markets.  Before leaving town, we went to our local Lawton farmer's market to get breakfast, produce and visit friends, farmer's market #1. I had worked last Saturday so missed the farmer's market and it's peak season so I wanted to check ours out first before heading to OKC.  I tried to contain myself and not buy too much but it was really hard, so many fresh produce to select from especially tomatoes.  Tomatoes are one of my absolute favorite summer fruit to preserve and cook with.  I'm a tomato snob and only like fresh tomatoes and don't buy them from grocery stores.  I'm growing my own tomatoes as well and this is the best year I've had so far. We dropped our dog, Clapton, and our purchases off at the house and headed out of town.  Clapton loves the farmer's market as much as I do and is a big hit there getting lots of pets from his friends.  We met Tabitha at the OSU OKC farmers market,  on 400 N Portland Ave, farmers market #2.  This is a year round indoor market on Saturdays from 8am to 1 pm. I've been here before and it's a great market with all kinds of local products, plants, meat, baked goods, dried teas and herbs, live music and more.  Tabitha shops here frequently and has her favorite vendors she buys from so it was fun her sharing that with me. I've passed on my love of farmers market, eating local and cooking from scratch to both of my girls. Tabitha calls me a farmers market tourist and this weekend she posted that I'm the original farmers market fan girl since I've been taking them to farmers markets and fruit stands their whole lives. I bought fresh corn, dried tea, spices, dried beans, fruit and more. I got really excited about the dried beans and Tabitha laughed at me and said I was cute but when I can replace something that I normally buy from the grocery store with a local option, that's exciting to me. We took our purchases back to her apartment and my husband stayed there while Tabitha and I checked out  farmers market #3 in the OKC farmers market district. Located in the historic OKC farmers public market building this is an indoor, year round market open on Saturdays from 9 to 2.  It's on 311 S Klein Ave off of Reno. It has produce, meat, handmade goods, honey, baked goods and more.  We got baked goods, cantaloupe, some amazing chicken and goat sausage, cabbage and more. Tabitha shops here but I had never been before so it was fun checking out a new place. We saw plants and produce around the corner on 211 S Ellison Ave so checked out Pam's Plants and Produce as well, open daily from 8:30 to 5:30, market #4. I had not bought plants at any of the other markets but they had a rose moss with really pretty flowers that's a different variety than what I have so I bought 2 to put on my porch. I also got green beans and watermelon.  The watermelon was from Texas since it's too early for ours yet but I've been really wanting watermelon so figured that was local enough. We were hot and tired so headed back to her apartment.  Another great place in that area is the Urban Agrarian on 1235 SW 2nd St.  We've shopped there before but didn't this last time since we had so much stuff already. They work directly with farmers and offer local produce, eggs, dairy, meat and locally prepared foods.  They are open on weekends and sell at various farmers markets including Norman, Edmond and across from St Anthony's  Hospital.  We had a great day with Tabitha, farmers market shopping, going to a movie and out to eat for dinner then headed home. Sunday afternoon I started cutting up my produce and made a big pot of green beans and new potatoes with ham, all products of farmers markets and one of my favorite summertime meals. My recipe is on another blog post. So that's a day with a  farmers market addict, tourist, fan girl, and a very happy woman.

Enjoy,

Bamah

OSU OKC farmers market

Tabitha said this is me in my natural habitat

Pam's plants and produce

Pam's plants and produce

OKC farmers public market

Green beans and new potatoes with ham

OKC farmers public market

Beet butter

I'm a lifelong lover of beets.  Fresh beets are now in season at the farmer's market and I have a hard time resisting buying them.  Unfortunately, none of my family like beets, they refuse to eat them and unlike other vegetables like eggplant, I can't hide them in dishes I make because of their bright red color.  I do use the beet greens in sofrito, soups, pesto or added to other greens in a recipe I'm making for my family.  Usually, I roast beets and eat them on the side of whatever I'm making or on top of a salad.  I found a recipe for beet relish and have made that for several years, processing them in a water bath canner, but again I have to find people who like beets to share the many jars I make.  This year I found a recipe for beet butter, a sandwich spread or dip, and made it this week.  I had bought beets at the farmer's market for several weeks and had cut them up and put them in a container in the refrigerator and kept adding to the container until it was full, about 4 cups of chopped beets.  The beet butter is really yummy, and easy to make especially with a food processor to puree it all together.  The recipe called for

macadamia nuts but I had shelled sunflower seeds so used those instead.  Since the sunflower seeds are so salty, I did not add additional salt.  I put the finished beet butter in a container in the refrigerator for myself, shared some with a coworker that's also a beet lover and put the rest in the freezer in serving side bags. I also made a yummy wrap for dinner with beet butter, ham, cheese, lettuce and spouts. Here's the recipe:

BEET BUTTER RECIPE

4 c chopped beets
2 c sunflower seeds or macadamia nuts

4 T vegetable oil, or grapeseed, any natural tasting oil

4 T maple syrup

3 to 4 T honey
dash of pepper and parsley


In a medium pot, cook beets in lightly salted water until fork tender, 15 to 20 minutes.  Drain beets and set aside to cool for a few minutes.  In a food processor combine nuts/seeds, oil, syrup, honey, vanilla and seasonings. Process until smooth.  Add cooked beets and continue to process until beet butter is completely smooth, scraping down the sides of the food processor as needed. Taste and adjust seasonings and texture (adding more oil or syrup) as needed.  Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature before serving. Enjoy it with crackers, toast, as a sandwich spread, or as a dip for vegetables.  Can be stored in airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week.  Makes about 3 to 4 cups.  I froze the extra in 1 cup servings in freezer bags.


Enjoy,
Bamah

A family tradtion of sewing

This month I'm adding family memories to my blog posts.  Several things that I've read and heard recently have impressed upon me the importance of writing down memories and stories, especially those concerning family members that have passed away.  My mother has dementia so her memory is not reliable anymore and we don't really have a good documented family history.  For many of my deceased relatives, I'm the last one to remember them, their stories and to write them down. One of my goals this year is to write these family stories down in a journal for my daughters and I'll also be sharing some of them here in my blog.  I come from a long line of women who sewed for their family and taught the next generation how to sew as well.  My maternal great-grandmother, Bamah Masters, called Mammaw, who I was named after, sewed clothes for her 4 children and my mother, who she helped raise when my grandfather passed away. She had a stoke when I was young so I have no memories of her speaking or being active but heard stories about her from my mother and grandmother. She was an accomplished seamstress, making suits for her daughters and a winter coat for my mother. My mother once asked her if she loved sewing since she did it so well and her answer was not really.  She saw it more as a chore that needed to be done. She taught her 2 daughters, my grandmother and Aunt Dorothy how to sew and they both sewed their whole lives including sewing clothes for me. Grandma also taught me how to sew.  She felt similar to her mother about sewing.  She didn't really love doing it but saw it more as a necessity. My mother was also taught how to sew but she never could manage a sewing machine very well so didn't really make clothes.  She could hand sew and did beautiful work that way.  Aunt Dorothy loved to sew and was the best seamstress of them all. She could just look at a picture and copy it to make a dress without a pattern. My mother told stories of how if she loved one of her paper doll outfits, Aunt Dorothy would make a dress like it for her.  One of my favorite memories of Aunt Dorothy was when she made me dresses for school.  My family was living in California when I was really young and before school started for my kindergarten and first grade years (maybe second grade as well, I don't remember) a box would come for me from Oklahoma.  Inside the box would be 6 dresses, 5 for school and 1 for Sunday.  I got so excited and immediately tried them all on, my own little fashion show. They were all a basic A-line pattern, sleeveless, cotton dresses in various colors, all decorated with ribbon, rick rack or buttons, with or without pockets. I'm pretty sure a least one had a collar making it a sailor dress, I always had at least 1 sailor dress for school growing up. The Sunday dress was always a little different, making it special.  It was still an A-line pattern but with a waist and a belt or sash, usually a wide ribbon, most of the time velvet ribbon. I remember wearing one of those Sunday dresses that was a lavender floral print with a lavender velvet ribbon sash.  After church we went out to eat and the waitress spilled something all over me and it ruined the velvet ribbon.  I was so upset that Aunt Dorothy sent me another ribbon sash to replace it.  I also got a Christmas dress sent the first part of December.  I was always excited to receive those boxes of dresses, handmade just for me.  I was so proud to wear them and told anybody who'd listen that my Aunt Dorothy from Oklahoma made them for me.  It was just like Christmas. I love to sew and have taught both of my daughters how to sew.  I believe my youngest, Aubree, has taken after Aunt Dorothy for she is an excellent seamstress and has surpassed her sister and I. We have an extensive fabric collection including pieces inherited from Grandma and Aunt Dorothy.  I'm so thankful for these wonderful women in my life and the legacy they have left behind of sewing and so much more. 

Aunt Dorothy and Mom (Dorcas)

Memories are meant to be shared. And speaking of memories, another one of my goals is to go through and organize  many, many years of family photographs.  My daughter, Tabitha, is helping me with that so I'm sharing some of my mother's pictures from the mid 40's and 50's that we recently went through. The pictures of my mother in the little white winter coat is the one her grandmother, Mammaw, made for her.  The top picture is of Grandma, Mom and Aunt Dorothy sitting on the front porch of their home in Marietta, OK.  I'm pretty sure they made the clothes themselves since I recognize the fabric from Grandma's blouse. The picture of Mom and Grandma taken in the 50's is one of my favorites. It's in pretty bad shape but Tabitha manage to scan it and clean it up. I also recently found my baby book and had to put the pictures back in that had come out.  I have a photo of my great-grandma, Bamah, holding me when I was a year old. Bamah holding Bamah, priceless.

Enjoy,

Bamah



Little Dorcas and her homemade coat

Another shot of coat to include hat

One of my favorite pictures of Mom and Grandma

My great-grandmother, Bamah, holding me

Chicken salad full of veggies

I love making salads when the weather gets warm and of course I fill them with a lot of fresh vegetables from the farmers market.  I take my lunch to work everyday so either make salads or take leftovers.  My husband is not a big fan of my salads and very seldom eats them except maybe pasta salad.  Recently his doctors have told him that he needs to reduce his carbohydrates so I'm trying to make healthy options for him to eat that he likes.  This past weekend I made an untraditional chicken salad with all sorts of fresh vegetables and a vinaigrette dressing instead of just mayonnaise. It was very good and my husband really liked it so now it will be my go to chicken salad recipe.  I cooked 2 large chicken breasts in a skillet with about a cup of water and seasonings until done, cooled,  then cut up into bite size pieces.  I finely chopped radishes, kale, cauliflower, and green onions plus chopped cucumber, snow peas and a green apple. Any type of fresh vegetables would work. In a large bowl I mixed mayonnaise, spicy mustard, balsamic vinegar, seasoned salt, pepper and parsley for the dressing then added the chicken, vegetables, plus chopped pickles and dried cranberries and mixed together. I served it over leafy lettuce and topped with cherry tomatoes. 

Here's the recipe:


2 chicken breasts, cooked, cooled and chopped up, about 3 to 4 cups of chicken
1/2 to 1 cup each chopped vegetables, kale, cucumber, radishes, green onions, cauliflower, snow peas or any desired combination of vegetables
1 chopped apple
1/2 c dried cranberries
1/2 c chopped pickles
1/2 t each of seasoned salt and pepper


Dressing
3 to 4 T mayonnaise
1 to 2 T spicy mustard
3 to 4 T balsamic vinegar
1/2 t each seasoned salt, pepper and parsley


Mix dressing in bottom of large bowl, add cut chicken, chopped vegetables, pickles, seasonings, apple and dried cranberries until blended. Serve over leafy lettuce.  Can also add chopped nuts or sunflower seeds.


Enjoy,
Bamah

Spicy Cheeseburger Soup

I have quite a collection of cookbooks, most of them have been given to me by family or friends.  I have several that are my favorites and cook out of all the time but needless to say there are recipes that I haven't tried yet even out of my favorite books.  I am really good about marking recipes that I have made with how I changed them or sometimes I write the date and/or occasion in the margins.  This helps me track what I've made and if we liked it or not.  I've also given several of my cookbooks to my daughters and they can see the how I made something by my notes I've made on the recipe.  This Spicy Cheeseburger Soup is one of those recipes that is in one of my favorite books and I have never tried it before this past February.  I love making soup and was looking through my cookbooks for something to make for dinner with supplies that I already had in my refrigerator and freezer and this one fit the bill plus sounded good.  It was so yummy, my husband said it's now one of his favorite soups that I've made.  At my house, I'm known as the "Soup Queen".  I make a lot of yummy soups with a wide variety of ingredients but especially lots of vegetables and my homemade broth. This soup was really easy and the leftovers were great for lunches, it heats up well in the microwave.  The recipe called for a chopped jalapeno pepper and cayenne pepper to make it spicy but I just used sweet peppers and some red chili flakes instead so mine was only a little spicy. I added my go to vegetables of chopped zucchini and yellow squash to the recipe.  The more veggies the better is my motto.

Here's the recipe:

Spicy Cheeseburger Soup

2 lbs. ground hamburger meat, browned and drained

2 c water

2 c cubed peeled potatoes

1/2 to 1 c chopped carrots

1 chopped onion

1 clove minced garlic

1/2 c chopped sweet peppers or 1 jalapeno

2 T sofrito (recipe in earlier blog post)

1 chopped zucchini

1 chopped yellow squash

1/2 t red chili flakes

1/2 to 1 t each seasoned salt and pepper

1 beef bouillon

2 T yellow mustard

3 T flour

2 c milk

2 c shredded cheddar cheese

optional, top with crumbled cooked bacon

In large pot, add a little water, about 1/4 c, flour, onion, garlic, peppers, sofrito and red chili flakes and cook until tender and flour combined.  Add rest of water and vegetables plus salt, pepper and bouillon and cook until veggies are tender, about 20 minutes.  Add cooked meat, milk, cheese and yellow mustard, cook until heated through and bubbly.  Can top servings with crumbled cooked bacon if desired.

Enjoy 

Bamah

Tabitha Homemade Granola Bars

This year my daughter, Tabitha, decided to make her own granola bars after noticing how much trash  the individually wrapped boxed granola bars accumulated.  She looked up recipes online and experimented with several batches until she found ones she liked. She thought that this was a small way she could reduce waste plus eat healthier by reducing how much proceeded food she ate. Homemade granola bars taste so much better than the boxed kind and by playing with the recipe adding different dried fruits, nuts and other types of nut butter the options are endless. They are sweetened with honey but other options are maple syrup or any flavor of jam/jelly or a combination. It's a great way to use up the last bit of jam in a jar. She shared them with me and I loved them so much I decided to make my own as well.  I love homemade food and we try to eat as little proceeded food as possible.  I made 2 different batches using dried cherries, dried cranberries, peanut butter, sunflower seeds, dried coconut and a new sunflower butter that I bought at the farmers market.  They keep in the refrigerator for several weeks so no more boxed granola bars for us. We both have silicone bakeware which worked great, after cooling completely, at least 30 minutes, the bars pop right out. Another option would be any kind of baking pan lined with parchment paper to be able to lift out and cut into bars.

liquid mixture combined with oat mixture

Here's the recipe:

2/3 c. honey or maple syrup or jam/jelly (or combination)

4 T butter



4 T peanut or nut butter

3 T brown sugar

1 t vanilla

1/8 t salt

3 c oats

3/4 c chopped nuts, or sunflower seeds

2 c or 1 pkg. of dried cranberries, cherries or any kind of dried fruit combination



In a large bowl, combine oats, dried fruit and nuts, set aside. In a small saucepan over low/medium heat melt butter, peanut butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla and salt until all combined and brown sugar is dissolved.  Pour liquid over oat mixture and stir to combine. Spoon into silicone baking bar pan or parchment line baking pan and bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.  Let cool completely in pan for at least 30 minutes so bars can set, if take out too soon, bars will crumble. Store in refrigerator in Ziploc bag or airtight container.  Will keep 2 to 3 weeks in refrigerator. Recipe makes about 24 bars.

Enjoy,

Bamah




my silicone pan and bars



Tabitha's granola bars and silicone pan



granola yummy goodness