Use your leftovers, $$CHEAP$$

Leftovers are a touchy subject for me. Some stuff I simply will not eat reheated. I do not like warmed over pastas. I don't mean to be picky, I just don't like it, that's all. The best leftovers are soups and soup-style dishes. Chili gets better every time you reheat it. We all have our likes and dislike, and certain leftovers I just won't eat. That's where its handy to have a German Shepherd that doesn't seem to mind one bit what I throw in front of her!

I ate and shared most of the beef stew. I had about a quart or two leftover and got a good idea on what to do with it other than nuke it and gobble it down. On my way home from work I stopped at the store and got an already-made double pie crust. Cheating? Yeah, a little but I was hungry and making a pie crust didn't appeal to me in any way. It was $2.12 and made life real easy. They come rolled up, so you simply unroll it into your favorite pie pan. Mine happens to be a Pyrex. They heat evenly, in my opinion definitely the way to go. Pour the beef stew in, roll on the top crust. Trim and crimp the edges, and cut some vent-slits in the top. I baked it for a little over an hour, or until golden and flaky in a 350 degree oven.


Here's the mostly eaten finished product.

Beef Stew in a Dutch Oven

Recently I was able to score a 5 qt. cast iron Dutch Oven from a little adventure to the local Goodwill store. For $4 and some time seasoning, I now have a very useful tool for my kitchen. Cast iron pans are slow to heat up, retain heat for a long time and work best when used at lower temperatures except when frying, which makes it perfect for slow-stewing a pan of delicious beef stew. Another bonus to using a dutch oven is it's a one-dish meal. Self loves to cook but hates to clean. Well seasoned cast iron is virtually non-stick which makes clean up a breeze.





I started out with a few slices of thick bacon. Not only does this add flavor to the dish but renders some fat to sear the bits of beef. Here I grabbed 5 slices from Northside Market for $1.44. The Chianti was on sale too. It added great flavor to my wine glass.





Chop the bacon into little bits. Sometimes it helps to throw it in the freezer for a few to firm up the bacon for easier cutting. A good knife helps too, I use ONLY Forschner cutlery. I'm not a snob, it's just what I like.








Put you bacon bits into the pan and cook on the stovetop until nice and crisp, but not smokey and burned. I cooked it on medium low heat with patience. If you over heat the oil thats rendering now it won't work as well later.


While your bacon's cooking, trim and cube your beef. Being the dollar and cent kinda guy I am, I grabbed some chuck steak that was on sale. It was $1.39 a pound if I remember right, but it totaled to a little over three bucks for the whole slab. Remember, this will only be 5qts total so alot of meat isn't necessary. In fact the amount I used was enough and even a little extra, which is great because meat is delicious.








Once its trimmed and cubed, salt and pepper it and set it aside, let the salt and pepper soak in for a miniute while you prep your veggies. Don't worry about the raw meat on the "wooden" board. It's not wood. It's bamboo which to my understanding won't harbor bacteria like old wooden cutting boards, and bamboo is harder than maple wood, lighter in weight than oak. It is actually a grass. Some species grow up to 2 feet per day. After harvesting, bamboo does not require replanting, it continually sends up new shoots naturally replenishing itself making it one of the most renewable resources known which is way better than chopping up trees. I have to thank my Uncle Danny for that one.





Keeping things simple and low cost I used some cubed red potatoes, 3 carrots peeled and chopped, a half of red onion finely diced, and an 8oz package of mushrooms. The carrots, onion, and potatoes were in the fridge, and the mushrooms were on sale for $1.19











Don't forget to keep an eye on your bacon. Once it finished, remove it and drain it a little on a paper plate. Be sure not to thow out the bacon fat, heat it up on the stove, just until it starts to gently smoke. While you're heating the oil, shake flour over your beef cubes. Coat well and evenly, then shake off the excess or it will just burn in the hot oil and make a bad mess.








This is what I used to shake off the excess flour. It's a frying basket, but hey it worked.








Now sear your beef cubes in the hot oil. Stir to cover and brown all sides. The flour on the outside of the meat will mix with the oil and make a rioux which will help to thicken the broth. After all side are browned and cooked add your beef stock while continiously stiring.








Add the veggies and the crispy bacon. Bring to a boil. Rioux won't thicken until its all boiling. but keep in mind it will thicken a little as the veggies cook as it stews in the oven.




Season with 1tsp tyme, 1tsp black pepper, and 1TBSP of minced garlic. Stir it up and taste the broth. If needed throw in a few shakes of salt to taste.





Now put the lid on and put into a pre-heated 250 degree oven for two hours. After two hours take it out and stir. If the flour didn't do the trick for thickining you can cheat a little by adding about 2 TBSP of corn starch mixed with 8oz warm water, bump the oven temp to 350 for 30 more miniutes. Take from the oven, stir and let stand for a bit. I waited for about 15 miniutes.




Dish up and enjoy! For less than $10 this is a great meal to feed several for a day or two.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Well as mentioned earlier, leftover chickens make great chicken soup. I ended up having two "carcasses" an a whole uncut roasted chicken, and all the drippings from the roasting. Boiling all these for a couple hours made some really good stock. Chicken stock is made more from bony parts, whereas chicken broth is made more out of meat. Chicken stock has a fuller mouth feel and richer flavor, because of the gelatin released by long-simmering bones. Much better for route for chicken noodle soup.





This is as simple as it gets. Take the pile of bones and meat, throw it in a pot, add water and bring to a boil.








While your waiting for that to simmer, make your noodles. This too is a very simple thing to do. Flour, eggs, salt and pepper.





2C. of all-purpose flour








1tsp. Salt





1tsp. Black Pepper





Mix it together





Add 3 eggs





Mix it up to form a doughball. Sprinkle more flour on both sides. If it seems a little moist its ok because it's necessary to add a little flour as you roll it flat.








Roll to desired thickness, and keep in mind they will puff up a little when you cook them. I used a pizza cutter to cut thin strips of noodles.


Now that your noodle are cut just let them sit and dry a little. They don't have to dry completely, but it wont hurt them to sit until you usee them.





Now that the stock has simmered for a couple hours, remove all the meat and bones. Cool it off in the fridge and then pick through it removing all the meat bits and discarding the bones and skin.








Strain the stock. Because of the long simmer, there are lots of little bones floating around. Once the stock has strained through, make sure to pick through what's in the strainer for delicious meat bits.





Return the stock to the pot and add desired veggies. I threw in a couple carrots and potatoes, peeled and chopped. Boil this for a while to bring out the veggie flavor. Add all the meat.





Now shake off as much extra flour as possible. If you leave it on them the soup will taste like flour.





Sprinkle in your noodle while its boiling, a few handfulls at a time so they dont stick and clump together. Boil this for five miniutes or so. It dosen't take long to cook the noodles. I forgot to take a picture of a bowl of soup sorry. Im sure you've seen chicken noodle soup however. This was good soup, I did have to add about a teaspoon of salt (for the whole batch) for my liking.

Chicken Dinner.

My first Food Blog... well not really. This is my first Food Blog posting on the blog devoted to complete meals made entirely of food. Here is the step-by-step process of how I made a Sunday Dinner, Self style.

Day One.

I started this on Friday. I know it sounds like a long time but really most of the time is spent in the refrigerator. Its a 3 day process but well worth it. Nothing is worse than spending time roasting a bird and having it have the texture of chicken jerky.




Start with two gallons of water.









Usually, I'm not too exact. I don't use measuring spoons all the time, but this is a time to use one. Too much salt will wreck a brine and too little will leave it too sweet. Add 2 Tbsp per quart of water, so here add 8 Tbsp of Kosher salt. Don't use table salt. It's too fine and will make it too salty. Use the Kosher salt.









Add to the salt water one cup of firmly packed brown sugar.







Use some fresh herbs, but not all of them I used about half of this package.
There's really no need to chop these up just throw them in the water.




Chop two onions in half, and quarter three apples.




I know it sounds goofy, but trust me. About 1 tsp. cinnamon. It adds an awesome aromatic.



Add about 1 tsp. of crushed red pepper.



This is the pre-minced garlic in a jar. Some people hate this stuff but I love it. It's potent, easy to use, and cheap. If you'd rather peel and chop it yourself then go for it, but I like this stuff. Throw in about 3 Tbs.



Look Good? Not really I know. Its like a cauldron of weirdness... but trust me its going to be good.





Put it on the stove and boil it for an hour. Remove from heat and smell the awesomeness... let it cool down and refrigerate over night.





Let it rest in the fridge and forget about it until the next day.

Day Two.

Saturday. The second day is definitely the easiest.







Cold brine, taste it now if you want before you get the chicken in there.



Open up your chickens and yank the bag of giblets out of the cavity. Rinse them off and put them in the pot O'Brine.




There's three of them in there. Put the lid back on and put them in the fridge again and forget about them until the next day.

Day Three.

I didn't get too crazy with the veggies. In fact I bought what was colorful and on sale.





Yellow squash, zucchini, red/yellow/orange bell peppers and green beans.




Chop them all up.









Throw them in a bowl and cover with your favorite Italian dressing and let them sit until you need them.




Of course I invited some friends over to enjoy this feast with me. Brandt came over a little early to help out. It was great to have the hand so I could shoot photos.






We tied the chickens at the legs and wings so they would rest easy on a beer can. Now that the birds are out of the brine and tied up, take the brine and discard of properly. Remember it had raw chicken in it and could host food born illness.




Now for the beer. Drink half, or pour it out if you'd rather. I added half the remaining herbs used in the brine, chopped this time so they'd fit. I also put about a half tsp. of the minced garlic in there too.







We manufactured a little too. Only had two can racks, so we made one.




Time to bub down the outside. First lightly bastes with oil. This will help with the browning process. Then rub down the outside with your desired spices.








We used this and the rest of the chopped herbs.







One ready...







All ready and into the oven. Originally I planned to do this on the grill. They wouldn't fit on my grill. So into the oven they went, at 325 degrees. I probed the largest breasted one with the probe thermometer. I love that tool. It has a heat proof cord, you never have to open the oven until its done, which reduces cook time. Now leave the birds alone for a bit and work on the rest of the meal.




Taters. Start with a half of minced onion.







Peel and chop your spuds...







Add some of that minced garlic.




Cover with water and heat to a boil. Cook until soft.




Meanwhile keep an eye on your temp. I know poultry is supposed to be 165 degrees, but pull these at 160.













Looking good! Remember, food will continue to cook, even after OUT OF THE OVEN. That's why I take them out at 160 and wrap in a foil tent. Let it rest for 15 minutes before cutting. This is a MUST with all

roasted meats.








Finish up everything else while the chicken is resting.










Drain and mash potatoes. Add to them bacon crumbles, sour cream and some butter.












This is just Stove Top from a box, easy. Delicious. For the veggies, heat up the pan and flash fry all veggies in the Italian dressing just until tender but with a snap. Don't over cook unless you like baby food.







Now carve up the chicken.





Plate up all the deliciousness and ENJOY!



Whatever chicken isn't eaten SAVE. Save also all the drippings, and the the leftover bones or "carcass" from the carved birds. Out of all this we will make soup. Thats the next blog so stay tuned...