Today I got a hankering for vegetable soup. The only soup Bobert will eat is canned tomato soup. He never eats leftovers, and I was getting tired of throwing away what I see as good food. Since its been a good while since I fixed a healthy pot of veggie soup, I decided to dig around in my refrigerator to see what I might have to get started with. There was plenty. I make my own chicken stock. Each week I broil a family pack of chicken for Izzy. I place the chicken in a deep roasting pan, and I slowly broil it for about 1 to 1&1/2 hours. I did say slowly. When I remove the chicken there is generally a couple cups of juice left over, which I pour off into a 2 cup glass measuring cup to chill in the refrigerator. The next day I run a knife around the glass edge of the measuring cup. This allows me to pop the chicken fat off the top in one piece, which I can then wrap in old plastic grocery bags to keep it from getting all stinky in my trash can. My end product yields about a cup of good gelatinous stock. So today I dug around in my freezer and pulled out about 8 cups of this stock. Bobert wasn't too happy with what I was fixing, and immediately asked me what was in all the little ziplock bags. I told him, and he said, "Oooo, why do you do that, you can buy broth in a box now Grams". So I explained that the stuff in the boxes is called broth, not stock, and of course he said, "Same thing Grams". No wonder this young man has no desire to do anything other than the required necessities of life. He doesn't have enough energy to motivate anything else. He does eat better than when he first got here over a year ago, but I can now see that reeducating him is going to be a looooong struggle. But I now have my soup, and enough for two more dinners.
Ina that {My end product yields about a cup of good gelatinous stock.} is what your body needs in the joints it is called cartilage. When you boil bones and joints slowly adding a little vinegar will dissolve bones and cartilage into the water making a good source of nutrition for your body.
@Martin Alonzo , Thanks for the tip. I didn't know about adding the vinegar. I use to give my father a 16 oz cup of stock every day. When my father came to live with me, his doctors said he had maybe 30 days left. He lived five more years, and then he died quietly in his own bed at home. Back then I always had a house full. So there was an abundance of food to be cooked, and for my parents I fixed a lot of soups. To me, soup isn't soup without starting it off with a good strong stock. I use to be able to ask my butcher for his leftover bones, and he would gladly "give" them to me, just to get rid of them. Not anymore, now they charge for them as much as .79 to .99 cent a pound. I can get plenty of bones from the little Mexican store for .29 cents a pound, and if the older gentleman that owns the store is there, I get them for free. I do have a question for anyone that might know about cooking goat. The little Mexican store sells a lot of goat, but when I cook the bones down, they seem to have a funny twang to the flavor. Anyone have any ideas on how to avoid or fix this problem.
@Ina I. Wonder - "Goat meat is a lean meat that tastes similar to beef, but with less fat. It has a deep, earthy flavor that pairs well with strong spices. There are many ways to cook goat meat, all requiring slow cooking and low heat, plus moisture to tenderize the meat. Learn what cuts of meat to try to cook to create a succulent, rich result. These recipes yield 6 servings".