Whole Chicken Value Cooking

My Husband and I have been trying to keep food costs relatively low as well as getting the most bang for our buck and being able to experiment a little in the kitchen. I've talked about how much we love to make an easy dinner put of a pack of chicken wings or thighs, but I have recently discovered how much fun it is to cook a whole chicken. You can get many great meals out of it, up to five (or more!) depending on the size of the bird, not to mention some rich chicken stock to last for many more meals.

We purchased a medium sized bird from one of our local farms. A little pricey, but the quality is better than a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's chicken, although they can be good deals as well. Pastured chicken is much more flavorful and can even be slightly gamey. I like to cook it for a long time so that it has a fall off the bone texture. That takes about an hour and a half at 375 degrees. We cover it with lots of spices; sea salt, black pepper, thyme, oregano, parsley, cayenne...just to name a few. We love the skin when it is crispy and very flavorful.

We got 4 full dinners out of this one little bird. We could have been more stingy and gotten more out of it, or we could have filled up a little more at once and gotten less. Regardless, we had very good eating for almost a whole week...

The first two nights, we typically get to enjoy full pieces on the bone. Afterwards we make stews or sautes out of the meat we can pick off. And by the last night, I bake whatever is left of the bird at 350 again for 20 minutes or so and we pick every last bit we can off. And as always, we save every bone for stock making.

Dinner One:

Not sure what cut this is but it includes the wing and surrounding areas, served over veggies that were prepared in the slow cooker for two hours while the bird was cooking as well.

Dinner Two:

Thighs for each of us, served over sauteed rise and black beans (soaked and prepared in advance) with some frozen broccoli thrown in. Nice easy meal...

 Dinner Three

White meat stew, we don't love the white meat so the easiest thing to do is to chop it up and slow cook it with some veggies so it gets really soft. We had some cabbage in there that complemented things nicely. And yes, those are jalapenos in there, we like things spicy around here. Also while not local, Whole Foods has been carrying a lot of organic hot peppers recently which I have never seen before and am super excited about. We also buy some local ones here, although I doubt they are organic.

Dinner Four:

Like I said, Picked whatever we could off the bones and made a saute with the leftover black beans and some frozen broccoli and peas. This was the end of the week and we were running out of fresh veggies. I keep frozen organic veggies on hand to supplement with in a pinch. There was actually a lot of meat left over and it was so tender and delicious from the long cooking. We probably could have stretched it into two meals or had it for lunch the next day.

And nourishing stock!

Not sure why it is so dark (I don't bother to filter it that well). I actually got a mason jar and a half and froze the whole one. I even had bones left over that couldn't fit in the slow cooker and I double stewed this round of bones and plan to use the weaker stock to cook rice and beans with. So even though the whole bird was more expensive, it really gave us a lot more nutrition than buying parts separately.

I should also mention that cooking the whole bird is the only time I have ever seen any visible gelatin form. I had never seen the clear big pieces, either in finished stock or as a by-product of cooking before. The bird ends up stewing a little in its own juices and when I take it out of the fridge the next day (I just store it in the glass bowl I cooked it in) it has a nice big layer of gelatine on the bottom which I take out and add to the bones for stock making. Maybe that is why the stock is so much more cloudy?

One day it would be great to do the whole process with a whole stewing bird and get to use the liver to make a nice dinner also. I definitely could have been more creative, but we tend to keep things simple and I eat dinner after getting off of work late most nights so these meals were perfect and easy for us. Do you enjoy cooking whole birds? Any suggestions for better, easy dinners?

Lifestyle Changes Part 1: Clothing Concerns

I have been eating organic food for really as long as I have been shopping for myself. It took me a little longer to catch on to the "local" scene, but it has been already a few years since I went to my first farmer's market and never looked back. However, all these years I never really gave that much though to the clothing that I was buying and wearing. To be honest, I did give it thought, and some guilt at times; I always assumed it would be something that I would change eventually in my life and in my own time. One of the great reasons to go local is to support the local community and to ensure that farmers receive a good wage for their hard work. It makes sense that this philosophy should natural extend to other purchases one would make. However, most clothing is full of toxic materials and made in factories far away by abused worker's hands. Aside from the occasionally organic shirt from companies like H and M and American Apparel, I have pretty much worn whatever I wanted and tended to stick to big, known companies for most of my clothing.

About a year ago, I decided I would slowly start to change the way I saw clothes and how I shopped. I would not say that clothing and appearance are a huge part of my life, but I can say that I do like to feel good about the way I look every day and enjoy getting "dolled up" once in a while. I started giving myself 3 month, seasonal increments where I would not allow myself to buy any clothing. I also started shopping more for used apparel, mostly on ebay, that I could obtain for a much lower cost. I started to change the way I saw clothes. I tried to get out of the "more is better" mentality and focus on finding used clothes that I really liked and felt reflected my personal style and taste. I started going to thrift stores and trying on many different things, focusing on the way they fit me instead of whether they were the current style or color. Before long, I discovered that I really enjoyed myself and found joy in searching for hidden treasures or items that I could make work but other people may have passed over (before I would mostly purchase things online and hated shopping in stores).

By nature I am a bit of an extremist (probably no shock, as I have noticed a lot of people concerned with food issues are), so at first there was a little of a "yay! now that I am buying used clothes I can buy as much as I want!", but that waivered over time and now I am actually more frugal than ever. I should also mention that I was living in NYC at this time, which is pure thrift store heaven and it is a lot harder to control oneself while shopping there.

In addition to buying used, I also have started buying from small organic shops as well, trying to have an attitude that it is okay to buy new if it is either from an organic or "sweat shop free" company. One that I really like is Alternative Apparel (similar in style to American Apparel) that sells Alternative Earth which makes very cute organic basic tees. Also, Whole Foods recently started carrying a line called Threads for Thought which has cute inexpensive basics as well. Workout clothes tend to be the hardest because quality and fabric really matter, but I did find a company called Green Apple Active that I have been generally happy with, although they don't seem to have a lot of "high intensity" workout gear.  Things like sports bras and sneakers really should be bought new, but I tend to take really good care of them and make them last a long time so I feel less guilty about that. 

So generally that is my plan so far. It could obviously be improved tremendously. I greatly admire people who do things like make their own clothes or people who generally don't care about clothes and are okay with throwing on whatever covers them (I don't mean to sound sarcastic, I really think that is a good way to go and makes a lot of sense). I have a lot of nice clothes that I really don't wear that much as they are no good for homesteading and we don't generally go out too often, AND I wear a uniform to work, so I expect over the next few years the amount of clothes I buy will drop dramatically still. I even have a few basic tees with a couple tiny holes in them that I keep wearing. I even like it a little because I feel like I am really "wearing" my clothes and they are really my own (this is one of those "if my old self met my new self shock type of things"). I do have a little guilt over fueling the whole cycle of people buying from large companies. For example, I have a Kate Spade purse that was a great thrift store find, but by buying it am I encouraging the consignment store to keep buying them, and in turn encourage consumers to keep buying them? Maybe a little.As far as I know, there is not a lot of "local" clothing companies really getting started around here and buying domestic is probably as close to "cottage" as one can get in terms of that. But for now, I think as long as I also support some other companies who are doing good, and support thrift stores in general because they reduce waste, I think I am good with this plan for now. What about you? Did it take you a while, like it took me, to improve your outlook on clothing? What is your general plan? 

Easy Cottage Project: Baby Herb Garden

 As we do not own the house that we live in and do not know how long we are going to stay here, I have been very limited in my ability start a garden even though I yearn to. Planting in pots has been a decent alternative, so I have been starting a few little plants lately. One project I did was to start a mini-herb garden in the backyard and it has truly been a lot of fun watching the little plants sprout and grow everyday!

I purchased the seeds from Amazon, organic and only for about 5 dollars. Not my first choice of course, but I have been having trouble finding independent nurseries that sell seeds; most of them are outdoors and have no temperature control. I have heard of really good heirloom seed stores online, but I figured I would just start with something inexpensive and easy and move up from there.

I also found the pots in the shed, so really the 5 dollars and the soil that I had purchased previously was the only start-up cost I had. I really have not done much gardening so I need all the (small scale) practice I can get. I did not soak the seeds as the package suggested, partly out of laziness and partly because it is pretty humid here and I did have some good organic planting soil on hand so I figured they would be okay. Most of the seed packets say they should be about 1/4 inch into the soil so most of them I placed right on top and just lightly dusted some soil on top with my fingers. I have them tucked to the side of a fish pond that is in our backyard so they are somewhat protected by the elements. I have been watering almost everyday and waiting a day or so if we have heavy rain, which has been happening a lot here. I also protect them with an old shower curtain if the rain gets to be too much during a storm. I also have a good organic fertilizer tea that is made locally that I splash into the watering can every few days. Right on schedule, the little seeds started budding and then growing into beautiful little plants. The mustard greens started first and have continued to be the most anxious. The sweet basil also looks very lively and the cilantro and dill are catching up.

My poor sage toppled over the second day or so and some of the seeds got knocked out. They sprouted on the ground at the same time they lone survivors did in the pot. I was going to replant them but I think I will just wait and see how they little guys on the ground do.

It has actually been a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I am going to bring them into our side porch once it gets cold outside and hopefully be able to keep some going throughout

the winter. I have harvested the bigger ones a little bit; my

culinary uses may be limited  on this scale.I should have used much bigger pots to be able to cook with them every day. But it is therapeutic, if not a little bit of a pain, to trim to little baby leaves and they are fragrant enough to add a little something to stocks and dishes.

In addition to my little herbacious ones, I also am trying to keep alive two blueberry bushes that are heading into hibernation. We plan on growing some more pot-plants soon and maybe even some cold weather veggies during the winter.  What are your experiences with small scale gardening? Any advice for very limited space?