Sunday Carcass Sunday

Its Sunday morning. We are having a great family morning. The only thing that would make it better is if it were raining. We've been having such warm, sunny weather, and I feel so much pressure to be outside doing outdoorsy things. Rainy days are such a good excuse to stay inside and do insidey things like stay in bathrobes and make warm breakfast and do puzzles and stuff like that. So, that's what we're doing today, despite the fact that its sunny and seventy degrees outside. There's this song by Loudon Wainright III where he says "I don't know about you, I get so sick of blue skies where ever they always appear." That's how I feel. I'm ready for a sweater and closed-toe shoes. I'm ready for umbrellas and windshield wipers. I'm ready for stew and soup, and chicken pot pie. I made meatloaf and mashed potatoes the other night and it was good, but the weather was too warm for it, really. It was salad weather, and I can't tell you how sick I am of salad.

Anyway, Leila and Rob spent part of the morning doing kitchen science. This is where Leila creates a recipe, puts together all the ingredients, and continues to futz with whatever she's created until she gets bored. This morning, the recipe included, "Salt, shugur, bacon soda, bacon powder, flower, viniger, sinnamon, oil, coffe beans, buter, lemon juice and vanilla." I freakin' love her spelling. Don't you wish there were such a thing as bacon powder? I love it already. I'd sprinkle it on cereal. Anyway, she combined all these things with a whisk, all the while describing what she was doing like the star of her own cooking show, then filled a pot with water, poured her mixture in and simmered it on the stove for twenty minutes. Used a kitchen timer and everything. Then she ground some coffee beans and added those with some lemon juice, and then Dad cut up part of an onion and they put that in, too. They transfered the concoction to a container (nixing my idea of straining it, but I don't do the dishes on the weekend) and now its in the fridge. The plan is to freeze it, and then thaw it. Delicious.

I am doing my own kitchen science this morning. I saved a chicken carcass to make stock, but I've never made stock before. I looked up five different recipes, and they all have different directions. They all use whole chickens or at least chicken parts rather than carcass, but I thought the whole point was to make use of the carcass. I sauteed some onion, put in the carcass with some salt, pepper corns and bay leaves, and I'll leave it simmering on the stove until I'm bored. Then I'll freeze it and thaw it. Hey, wait a minute!

Later, I'm going to wash the dog. He stinks. I taught him to give his paw this morning, though, so he's a stinky genius.