How to make chicken stock

It sounds hard but its really easy. And it really needs to be for me to do it.

Take a chicken carcass that has been picked clean.

Stick it in your crock pot or large pot.

Add an acid like apple cider vinegar, whey or lemon juice.

Add an onion if you like but not necessary.

Add lots and lots of water.

Simmer for up to 24 hours.

Voila!

If the liquid is getting low just add more water.

After its done I use a fat separator and pour it into jars and freeze it. It is free people and sooo healthy. Stock in the store always has "natural flavors" in it which usually means MSG, even the organic/free range stuff. It is so nice to have stock ready for anything I need. One chicken carcass will yield about 8 cups of stock depending on the size. It is so golden in color...I love to see the finished product.

Easy as pie right? Well maybe not pie because making pie is quite difficult and has never ever been done by this lady. Unless it is egg pie which is quite easy. Or if its a pie that uses a store bought crust....

Vegan (or not) Red Lentil Soup

Love this recipe Via Debbie Passey via online somewheres. As usual I will put my modifications in parenthesis.

1 TBS peanut oil (or EVOO or anything you have except veggie or canola oil ;) but you only need it if you do it the non lazy way)

1 Onion

1 TBS fresh ginger root (or powdered ginger)

1 Clove garlic

1 pinch fenugreek seeds (or powdered)

1 cup dry red lentils ( I soak overnight with an acid like whey, apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. Don't forget to rinse and drain after soaking...duh!)

1 Cup cubed butternut squash ( I always use 1/2 cup more)

1/3 Cup cilantro (I didn't have any yesterday and it still tasted good)

2 Cups water (this is where the vegan part becomes the or not part. I use chicken stock, it tastes much better. Especially when you make it from scratch which is SOO easy. I will do another post on it.)

1/2 (14 oz) can coconut milk

2 TBS tomato paste

1 tsp curry powder

1 pinch cayenne pepper

1 pinch ground nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

If you are lazy like me you can just throw it all in the crock pot for a few hours or follow the directions below:

1. heat oil in a large pot over medium heat and cook the onion, ginger, garlic, and fenugreek until onion is tender

2. Mix the lentils, squash, and cilantro in to the pot. Stir in the water, coconut milk, and tomato paste. Season with curry, cayenne, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Bring to a bolil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 30 min or until lentils and squash are tender.

I like my throw it all in way better as it is much less time consuming.

Enjoy!!

Gus Gus

We have had a crazy week because of this little guy. Meet Gus. He is our new baby. He is a 13 week old Malti Poo...or so we think. Really all I care about is that he is small and hypo allergenic and freaking adorable. Although a lot of the time I am asking myself "Self, what the H were you thinking?"

But, the kids love him and after 2 days Can was smitten with him. And PS my hubby is the bom.com. I came home and all the dishes were done and dinner food put away. Gratzi baby. And sorry about the poopy carpet Kdawg.....

Running

This is the NYC marathon, but isn't it a cool picture?

I am running my first half marathon on the 3rd. Wish me luck and please pass on any advice. My friend Eden and I decided about a week and a half ago to do it, so Saturdays are our running days. I am seriously loving it. Whenever I would run before I would start out so fast and then just exhaust myself. We are just taking it easy and it is really nice. My goal is to do it in 2 hours, 2:5 max. OK, maybe 2:15 tops. You heard it here first, my goal is 2:15.

Lost Book

Does anyone have my copy of Sit up and Take Notice by Pauline Scott??

If I have loaned it to you please please return it to me!!

First day of school!

School started today, (followed by 2 days off for Rosh Hashanah) I can't believe I have a 3rd grader! I remember 3rd grade like it was yesterday! Heather Menzer and I were best friends and we had a mixed 2nd/3rd grade class and of course I can't think of my teacher's name but she was older. OK so maybe I remember it like it was 20 years ago but still, I have a lot of memories from that year.

This year, because of the economy, everyone has decided to pull their kids out of private school so there is major overcrowding going on in our school. There are 30, yes 30 kids in E's class! One 4th grade class has 32! Sheesh.

It was so fun to see her go in, because this is her 5th year at the school there was no apprehension at all. She got the teacher she was hoping for so all is right with this 8 year olds life. Well except for Owen who sits at her table (because "our school doesn't have enough room for desks" sad, she will never get to accumulate friendship bracelets and troll dolls and then have to clean out her desk during free time) Apparently Owen likes to say swearwords, oh dear, hopefully he doesn't rub off on her :)

We have our first piano lesson tomorrow. She is really excited. I'm not disillusioned, I know that getting her to practice will be a struggle but for now we are excited.

Our annual first day of school manicure. She loves to be pampered :)

Little Leavers

As I was getting up from laying on the couch one day (as a stay at home mom there is a lot of lazing around and chocolate eating, in case you were wondering what we do all day.) I got a head rush.

"Woah I'm dizzy" I said

To this L replied, "Are you dizzy from your spinning class?"

You can't make that stuff up.

Summer: Installment 2

Little Leavers and cute cousin Dylan. This was as happy as we could get him. He is really sweet and this was the first time I met him.

Our good NYC friend Charissa (who moved...lame!) was in UT at the same time as us. She took us with her on her sister's boat. It was super fun.

E finally got the courage to go on the little raft boat and sort of had a good time. She wouldn't crack a smile for the longest!

24th of July

Summer

I am going to do our summer in installments.

a

I love this picture. It is just real. Parents in the foreground laughing and carrying on. Kids in the background getting beat up and crying.

This is Papa's race car. We went out to see him race, the kids were so excited about it and to sit in his car.

A lovely Saturday in the city

I just realized that this post posted further down, so I am reposting it so no one misses a single beat! I just want to add that these are the days that we are just so glad we live here, it is a great city.

The (sort of) new Union Square playground. Even the teenagers had fun. The one with the tank totally ate it on this little ride. It was funny.

Summer streets. They blocked off Park Ave for a few miles and everyone rode or biked or ran. Or in our case mosied.

They had some jump ropers. E joined in the fun and was doing so well the guy had to tell her to get out because she was taking too long!

Something new that they added to Summer Streets this year was the dumpster pool. Its a dumpster. Filled with water. Sweet.