Second post of the day

UNBELIEVABLE HUH?

Well, here's some news for ya. Georgia farm women over a "Live on a Southern Farm" is having a giveaway of some chicken nest boxes that her and the hubby produce and sell. They look like this:

They are fantastic and now's your chance to try your luck at being the lucky winner of one. Go on over to "Life on a Southern Farm" and sign up..HAVE FUN! and GOOD LUCK!

Ok, now on to some delicious things.
Last Thursday was a park picnic day for us, so off we went to the park. I knew I would be pooped after a day at the park so I made sure dinner would be ready when I got home, enter the Crock Pot.

Into the crock pot here's what I stuck:
2 slices of boston butt, completely frozen (yep, hard as a rock)
 (this would be equivalent to a small roast. (we buy whole boston butts and have them cut into 1inch steaks and in this recipe, I used two)
1 small onion, rough chopped
1/2 bell pepper from the deep freeze
3 stalks of celery chopped
4 cups water
1 T. chicken bouillon
salt, pepper and a few dashes of soy sauce.
Turned the crock pot on high and walked out the door. When I got home, the aroma met us at the fence gate. YUM!!
Once inside, I gave the mixture a stir to 'pull' the pork apart, then added 2 cans of 'cream of soup'. You can choose whichever soup you prefer, chicken, mushroom, potato or celery. Since I had the mushroom on hand, that's what went in. I gave the mass a stir, boiled up some egg noodles to serve it over, veggie of your choice on the side, added a few dinner rolls to the fare and dinner was DONE!  DELISH! Try this one, you won't be sorry!
Ohh, this made enough to serve 6 that night, 2 work lunches and I still have a small/medium container in the fridge for munching on for lunches. If I have any leftover today, I'll put it in the fridge and when I've got some leftover mashed potatoes, I'll put it all together with some freshly chunked cooked potatoes for a hearty potatoe/pork soup! :) 

So you're frugal tip for the day, NEVER throw it at all possible. Think ahead about what you can 'change' it into and freeze it for later use. You MUST become the Fairy Food Godmother and wave a magic wand over some things to make them last!

Wanna see some canned chicken?

I've canned chicken and chicken soup as well as extra broth for several days now. Check out HERE to see pics!
Maybe this year I'll get a jump start on some garden canning since I'll be HOME!! :)  For now, the chicken, carrots and celery were on sale, I could not resist packing the larder just a wee bit!

Roasted Chicken and Scalloped Potatoes!

Ok..here it is..the roasted chicken and what I did.

H eat the oven to 350.

Salt and pepper inside and out. Drizzle olive oil over top, rub all over. Yeah, you're gonna get your hands dirty!

I cut up one clove of garlic into small slices and shoved it under the skin of the chicken. (Yeah..shoved)

Place in the roasting pan, , set your timer for 1 hour. :) Easy peasy!

Once you get your chicken in the oven start on your potatoes. Slice about 5 or 6 potatoes and one onion into thin slices.

Melt about 3 T butter in a large oven capable skillet (I used cast iron). Add salt and pepper. I use a big spoon, but I would guess it's about 1/4 C of self rising flour. Sprinkle flour into the melted butter. (HINT: This dish WILL take a good amount of salt)

Whisk it about, don't let it brown too much, you're making a white sauce. Some would call this bechamel sauce, some would call it white sauce, us country folk, just call it milk gravy!

I've added a bit of powdered chicken bullion in here too.
Now we're ready to add the milk. I've used 4 cups of milk, whisking the first two in. Pour and whisk at the same time. Once the first two cups of milk get incorporated and start to thicken, add the last two and whisk away till it starts to thicken.

TASTE IT!! Don't feed it to anyone until you've tasted it. It may need more salt, pepper or flavoring. Add some spices if you want, the option is yours. Make it spicy, make it Italian, make it however you want, but TASTE IT!

Now take those lovely sliced onions and potatoes and start slipping them into that hot gravy/sauce.

Get it all in there, and it'll look like this! Stir well making sure each slice is covered/coated in sauce.

Now, slip it into the oven beside the chicken. This process should not have taken much more then ohh 15 minutes or so. You should have about 45 mins or so left on your time, Go read a book, sew a seam or heck..write me a note!

Here's the done chicken, with all those lovely pan juices. DO NOT TOSS THOSE! I poured them over into a small container to safe for the next meal made with this very chicken. WHY in the world would you toss away flavor like that??..NO NO NO! Save it..we'll use it tomorrow!

When I took my chicken out, I added about ..ohh maybe 1/3 of a cup of grated Parmesan cheese to the top of my potatoes. This is not a necessity..it's just something I wanted to add. You could add anything you like, cheddar cheese, pepperoni diced up, bacon, green onions...or NOTHING..play with your food! (mom's not around to fuss!)

So...here ya go. Potatoes..scalloped Sage style!

Here's the completed dinner. I made some steamed broccoli and biscuits while I had all that time. I hope you enjoy!

Roasted chicken, scalloped potatoes, steamed broccoli, sliced tomatoes and biscuits. WHAT A MEAL!

SAGE