Hello, Saturday

[alpharaposa]

The cub is sick. The whole family is a little under the weather, but only the cub actually has a cough and runny nose. It's a pretty rough cough.

Short-term disability was approved. I have been off work for two weeks and feel better with all the extra sleep. Also, I spent a lot of the last two weeks reading, which went a long way to restoring energy reserves I'd spent down to the last. I feel like I can think and focus again without having to set myself in crisis mode first.

I've done a lot of cooking as well. I've had to switch to a low salt diet, which is difficult because so many "quick" things are full of sodium in order to keep them ready to be eaten at any time. I can't even go pick up a box or can of broth to make soup. So, last week I made some very good chicken broth, and this week I turned it into a large amount of homemade chicken noodle soup just in time for everybody to get sick. Um, yeah. Also, the local farmer's market gets different varieties of apples in through the season (20 different types!), so we've been trying a few out. We bought Cordtlands and found that they had a lovely spicy tart taste, so we turned a bunch of them into apple butter, with a few Fuji apples for sweetness. I'm pondering making some pie crust and turning some of the remaining Fuji apples into dumplings. Maybe. Depends on energy and time, like always.

There's a big harvest fair at the farmer's market today, so in spite of feeling sick, we're going to go and see the fun. There'll be pony rides and farm animals to pet, and I'm planning on picking up some wildflower honey to help sooth a certain sore throat. No sourwood honey so far this year, which was a disappointment, but the apiary will have a booth at the fair, so maybe we'll get lucky.

Comments

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

There are low-sodium versions of chicken broth, though. Those are what I keep stocked in my pantry.

But making your own chicken broth sounds good, I've never tried it myself. You need to start with a bones-in chicken, right?

Mm, apple butter...

[stryck.livejournal.com]

You can start with either bone-in chicken or just leftover chicken bones (like from a roast chicken). You put the pieces or bones in a pot with some onion or carrot or other veggie bits and a lot of water, enough to cover everything. Adding some garlic cloves and peppercorns can be nice, too. A little vinegar (a table spoon or two to a full pot) helps to pull minerals out of the bones.

Then you get it up to a simmer and then cook at a simmer or cooler for a very long time. minimum 4 hours. Once any meat is cooked, take it off the bone and set aside, putting the bones back in the pot.

I ended up cooking bones in a slow cooker almost all week, taking out some broth a couple of times for other uses and putting more water in as it simmered. You can turn off the heat overnight, since there's enough there to keep it from cooling entirely.

When it's as strong as you want (2-3 days recommended by most folks online for a good bone broth), strain out all the solids and pour the broth into a container. You can use right away or put in the fridge to keep for about a week.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Yowp, that's a lot of cooking! But, you say you used a slow-cooker? On "low"? And why do you remove the meat?

[stryck.livejournal.com]

Because if you cook the meat more than about 10 hours, it turns into mush. I like having it around to toss into other dishes. Remember, when the stock is done, you strain everything out, so you have to pick the meat if you're keeping it anyway.

And a slow cooker on low does a good job without tying up a burner for a day or more. You can get a decent broth in 10 hours, but the longer you steep and cook, the more minerals you'll pull out of the bones. If you're lucky enough to have chicken feet available, I hear that adds even more goodness to it, but that's a rare commodity outside of an asian market.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Good to know! I'll keep that in mind if I wind up with chicken bones somehow... Or want to take a stab at it sometimes.

[anher.livejournal.com]

The 'low sodium' broths end up being about a quarter of your average daily allowance for sodium in one cup. Not a great number for when you're watching your salt intake and want to use it to make soup. By making our own broth we can control what does or doesn't go in.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

That's not very low sodium!

The nutritional facts on this box of 'freerange organic low sodium chicken broth' claims 5% per cup.