Saturday Cooking Bonanza

I spent most of the day in the kitchen, but got a lot made for the rest of the week and some things for the freezer!

I started out making Homemade Chicken Broth/Stock using Alice Waters' "The Art of Simple Food" recipe, but modifying as to what I had in the pantry/fridge:
1 whole chicken (mine was about 5 lbs)
Put into a large stock pot with 1 1/2 gallons of cold, filtered water and bring to a boil.
Add 1 stalk of celery (I washed it and broke it into 3 large pieces), 3 cloves of garlic (peeled off the paper but left them whole), a few sprigs of oregano, 1 Tbsp salt-free seasoning, about 1/2-1 tsp fresh ground pepper.
Skim the foam off the top and discard.
Lower heat to a simmer, and simmer for about 4 hours (until the chicken falls apart).
Let cool, remove chicken and veggies.

I threw away the chicken skin and bones along with the veggies, gave the livers to Darby for breakfast, and saved the chicken for a casserole and lunches this week. After the broth cooled, I put 8 cups of it into a container for the squash soup recipe, and put the rest into zip top freezer bags and froze for later use.

Breakfast Bars: I made these last week and Zach was a huge fan! I bought some peanut flour at Trader Joe's on Monday and found a butternut squash and an acorn squash at a farm stand on the way home on Friday. I roasted both squashes to make butternut squash soup from a pumpkin soup recipe I have, and decided to put some of the acorn squash into the breakfast bars for this week. I got this recipe a number of years ago from a friend, and keep tinkering with the recipe to increase the nutritional content, lower the sugar (but keep them yummy) and use up anything I have in the cupboards. These breakfast bars were one of the reasons I decided to start blogging what I was cooking, mostly to keep track of modifications.

Here's this weeks recipe:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In the work bowl of Kitchenaid Mixer, combine 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup of softened butter. Cream sugars and butter together.
3. Add 1/8 cup agave nectar, 1/2 cup applesauce, 1 egg, 3 Tbsp milk, 2 tsp vanilla (I eyeball the milk, vanilla, and agave nectar measurements).
4. Mix to combine ingredients.
5. Add 1 cup white flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup peanut flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1 tsp nutmeg (I also eyeball the cinnamon and nutmeg).
6. Mix well.
7. Add 3 cups of quick cooking oats, 1 cup raisins, 1/2 cup dry roasted sunflower seeds, and 1 cup of cooked acorn squash. Mix to combine.
8. Spread into 9x13 baking dish and bake 25-30 minutes.
9. Let cool on cooling rack in pan, then cut into bars and store in zip top bag or other sealed container at room temperature.

I have also been baking our bread for the week, but still haven't mastered the "perfect loaf". I found a "no knead" bread recipe and tried it, but made a few mistakes: 1. I did a poor job converting 1 5/8 cup of hot water into something I could measure in my 2 cup pyrex measuring cup, and therefore did not put enough water in the mix; 2. my kitchen is not 70 degrees all of the time, as Zach and I refuse to turn the heat on until absolutely necessary so the dough was not warm enough to rise.
When I realized on Saturday that the bread hadn't risen at all, I also made a "no knead" bread recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook, which is as follows:

Fresh Herb Batter Bread (with only slight modifications by me)
1. Grease bottom and sides of loaf pan
2. Mix 2 cups of all purpose flour, 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, and 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast in large bowl (or Kitchenaid mixer bowl).
3. Add 1 1/4 cups very warm water (120-130 degrees), 2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley, 2 Tbsp butter, 1/2 tsp dried rosemary leaves, 1/4 tsp dried thyme. Beat on low speed 1 minute, then beat on medium speed 1 minute. Stir in 1 cup of whole wheat flour until smooth.
4. Spread batter evenly in pan and pat into shape. Cover loosely with plastic wrap lightly sprayed with cooking spray and let rise in warm place about 40 minutes or until double.
4. Heat oven to 375.
5. Bake 40-45 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Immediately remove from pan to wire rack. Brush top of loaf with butter, sprinkle with additional chopped herbs if desired. Cool.

I will keep working on the other "no knead" bread recipe and keep you posted. :)