Flyer's diary

shopping trip report... eggs... yay!, finally. luckily it still looks like nobody wants to touch the fresh vegetables. scored some beautiful mushrooms. i fear i will never see another paper towel... still empty shelves there. oh yeah... and after 31 days now inside, i was scolded for not having a mask on.

Happy Easter Eve.
 
Happy bunny day to you as well :) Congratulations on the mushrooms; here all I could find were leathery, somewhat moist specimens. So... no mushrooms for me.
 
it's my roof... a known problem, but this is the worst it's ever gotten to find its way to the ceiling. our condos are in the middle of a re-roofing project, but unfortunately my building is in the 3rd phase and should start this summer... though now... who knows. on the upside, we typically only get a two week stretch every winter when it rains. this is the latest i've ever seen it happen, but hopefully that'll be it... at least hard rainstorms like we had the past two days, will have run the course for this season.
 
I hope that means repairs to your ceiling will be paid for by building management, too. I can´t imagine what it would be like to live in a place with so little rain :eek:
 
it might look like a big deal, but it's really not. i have a weird ceiling, too. it was originally designed to be the radiant heat for the condo, but it turns out heating the ceiling in a room is just about the dumbest idea there is. when it did originally work, you could feel chilly sitting down and when you got up, your head would feel the heat. i did a mod years ago so i now have a few baseboard heaters and use some portable oil filled radiators occasionally, but frankly it never gets much below 50 degrees on the coldest days (it's 58 this morning).

so my ceiling isn't plaster wallboard, its more like Wonderboard and i actually put that hole in it. long story, but if i hadn't it would have leaked in more than one place. i just hope the roof repair happens this year... pretty sure nobody know for sure how this summer is going to go. when it dries out, plugging up the hole and a light coat of plaster is an easy fix, though i might wait on that until i'm sure the roof project is going to happen or they at least make a temporary fix to keep water away from that corner of my roof.

i heard somewhere once that the technical definition of a desert is a place where more water evaporates than rain falls, so in that respect, we're an odd coastal desert. i can probably count on one hand the number of days in the year i can't drive with the top down... :cool:
 
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I think San Diego qualifies as desert, but along the coast, where you are, it is bit greener. Maybe the humidity.

We get more precipitation than you do, but most falls in the winter when its too cold for any vegetation. Our summers are hot and dry, so pretty much desert, high desert.
 
decided to do a little cost analysis for eating healthy...

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the soup mixes i purchased online... not because i wanted to, but due to the insanity going on, the soup aisle is typically empty now. at $6/ pack, a bit more than when they are on sale in the store. add to that, a month ago i was getting 2 for 1 chicken deals which are no more, this is probably a worst case shopping trip. with the soup mixes...

$31 + $24 = $55

i'll roast and shred most of the two chickens, probably eat the wings and legs, but save all the bones along with vegetables, make the chicken stock used in the soup mixes.

my anticipation ... > 20+ x 2cup bowls of soup... Chicken Tortilla x2, Chicken Noodle, White Chicken Chili

under non-Covid-19 conditions, the cost could be as low as 50% less.
 
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if you've never cooked a whole chicken here is the deal in just a few words...

wash it off and do a cavity search to pull out this stuff.
the neck, gizzard (look it up), heart and liver. i couldn't find one of the hearts. ...it happens.

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put this in the fridge and i'll use it later in the stock.

i trim off some of the really heavy fat around the opening. sometimes i'll de-skin the whole chicken, but when i'm making stock, it works out better to leave it on. salt, pepper, paprika (yes, i use it and i'm not Hungarian). i coarsely cut up one of the onions and add about a cup of water to the roasting pan...

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cover very loosely with Al foil... 375° for ~90 minutes.

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165° on a meat thermometer.
these took closer to 2 hours, but they were ~6 pounders (in the package).

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not really necessary with soup chicken, but to make the wings and legs a bit more crispy, for the last 15-20 minutes, i uncover them and crank up the temp to 425°

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i have a glass range top, but i turn over a few plates to avoid scratching and it gives a little more cooling surface. take a break and let them rest 20-30 minutes. just a little more prep work to go.
 
it's well into the afternoon and i'm glad i've yet to eat breakfast.
nutritionally speaking, yesterday wasn't a stellar day... :)

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chicken stock...

after things have cooled a bit, i use a pancake flipper to get the chicken out in one piece. using glass pans, the bird gets stuck but with a little coaxing, it comes out easily. but then i also use this utensil to really scrape all the drips from the pan. i microwave a few cups of water and throw that into the pan to help get all those tasty bits.

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now tear into the chicken.
legs, thighs, wings...
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4 half breasts...
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scraps... leave some meat on... mostly the fatty pieces and joints...

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everything goes in the stock pot... the wing, leg and thigh bones, the scraps, the giblets (that cavity stuff), the pan drippings, and about half the vegetables i bought this morning (~8 stalks of celery, 6-8 whole carrots, two of the large onions very coarsely cut), salt, pepper....spices? ... i put oregano in almost everything. some people will re-roast the scraps for a bit ... i do sometimes, not today. it makes the broth a little darker.

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now top it up with water. i use a 9 qt pot. for this much chicken and vegs, it will make a VERY rich stock. if a recipe calls for 4 cups, with mine, i will take two cups and dilute it down with another two cups of water when i use it. bring this up to just under a boil and let it cook for 4 - 6 hours. every few hours i'll microwave a cup or two of water adding to keep it topped up.
 
well after the Pizza Hut encounter a few days ago, this was a nice surprise...

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can't say i'm not getting a little assist these days as long as the bagel store and the bars remain closed... :beerchug:
 
Loved seeing your chicken photos! I've gone vegetarian in the last few months but do miss chicken! I've found the closure of favourite food haunts helpful too - glad the scales gave you a nice surprise!
 
That chicken looks delicious. I will be the first to put my hand up to admitting to just buying it pre-cooked at the supermarket, so will use your journal as a reference a point!
 
Sunflower_ said:
Loved seeing your chicken photos! I've gone vegetarian in the last few months but do miss chicken!...
Click to expand...
if you eliminate the chicken/ bones, ...carrots, onions & celery are the base of most vegetable broths. it is handy to keep a container in the freezer so when you cut up other vegetables, you can save the scraps... carrot/ celery tops, etc. there are some vegetables to avoid, starchy or strong aromatics. add some thyme, a few bay leafs. once you make some stock, unless you pressed for time, i'll bet you'll rarely open up another can of soup.
 
one thing i should mention about making any stock or even soup... whenever you heat up a lot of liquid that will naturally retain the heat for hours. if you watch videos about making stock or bone broth, they go a little over the top when it comes to leaving hot pot out to cool off by itself. up until recently i never gave it much thought, but now i have found a method i like that also gives me a little better feeling about leaving a warm liquid out to attract the microscopic sort of bugs...

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i already stored the stock from yesterday, but as a visual here's the method i use. i have a few of these sealable containers and after a short time to cool just a bit from the simmer temp, i ladle the stock into them ... then you can take the stock pot (i have a spare so it's ready to go at once), filled with ice water and plunge the container of stock into it. stir up the stock to spread out the heat and you can bring a container down to refrigerator temperature in just a few minutes.

after an evening in the fridge, for a meat stock, you can break up and remove the fat, then freeze it for weeks of storage if needed.

one thing i didn't mention... the fantastic aroma in store for your senses.
 
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