Beef Stock Success!

I'm not sure if I shared by past beef broth failures.  I wasn't aware that beef broth was not made the same way that chicken broth was.  Oops.  

Our apartment smelled like decomposing animals for about a week after that.  

Nasty. 

This time, however, I was armed with the frozen scraps of my dad's rib roast, a thick marrow bone, and Kelly the Kitchen Kop.  Well, not in person, but still, she helped... by writing a post....

Anyway.  I started by defrosting my dad's frozen bones.  

RIB bones.... 

from a cow...  You know what I mean. 

I roasted the marrow bone at 400 until it started to smell really good.  After discarding the grease and choppping off the extra fatty parts, I added it to the crock pot with a sliced up carrot, some celery, an onion, and some potato bits (from a future post).  Then, it was seasoned with roasted garlic, sea salt, oregano, and too much parsley.

I somehow always forget that the parsley jar doesn't have a shaker top.  I shake it as if it's going to come out slowly and lose about 1/4 of the jar before I realize that is it POURING out.  Good thing I like parsley.

The ingredients were then covered in water and cooked overnight.  In the morning I strained it and froze it into 2 cup baggies.  The house smells good, like beef stew!!! Whoo hoo!!!

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Chicken and Beans

Lunch was awesome yesterday!  It was just leftovers, but somehow it was incredibly delicious!

 

It was some leftover garlicky black beans, some leftover lemony chick peas, some plain black beans, and some leftover tiny chicken pieces, the kind I usually use in soups.  

WOWZA!

For dinner, I roasted a chicken.  I know I do this a lot, but I just love roasting a chicken in the crock pot.  I don't think it gets better than that.  I haven't posted a photo of this with my new camera yet, so I thought I would treat you!

 

That is simply a chicken, adobo, parsley, and about 6 cloves of garlic shoved in the cavity.  All that juice is produced while it is cooking!  I just can't get over it!  

 

I am, of course, making broth again.  

I haven't told you about making broth in the crock pot?  Oh my.  It is so easy.  After you cook the chicken, cut off the breasts (I save them for another meal), legs, thighs, and wings.  I add in the bones and skin that we don't eat back into the pot.  I also add a splash of apple cider vinegar.  I let that sit for a while to help draw the minerals out of the bones.  It then gets covered in water and the crock pot goes on low overnight.  

The next morning it is strained twice.  

  

The first time, I pick through the leftover meat and save it for making soup at a later date.  

 

The second time I am just trying to get the broth as free from debris as possible.  The liquid gets popped into the fridge to get the fat to float to the top.  

 

Now I know, most people who make bone broth just leave the fat in for the health benefits.  I am not quite there yet in my whole food journey.  Maybe someday, but not right now.  

The extra fat gets scooped off and then the broth is frozen in baggies and in ice cubes. 

That's it!  Easy, right?!

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