I always cook my chicken/turkey bones a second time after removing the meat and storing it away. I keep the first broth in the fridge in quart-sized freezer containers, but I only fill each half way because I want to mix the second stock into the first before I pack it for the freezer. People are always surprised to see what nice broth you can get from just the bones, skin and gristle. Sometimes I will add water to the bones again after draining them, and stir this around. If the water starts looking like chicken stock, I'll cook the bones again. When I'm finished with the bones, they are soft and will collapse to a sort of a paste when you pinch them between your fingertips. I smush this stuff and bury it in my garden. I have to do it when the dog isn't watching though, and set something on top of it for a few days. I love my crockpot, too! I've never looked into what it costs to run it. I also have one of those big electric roasters that I always cook my Thanksgiving turkey in (and later use it to simmer the bones for broth) and Dawn, if you want something that cooks up a huge amount, you need that! But it would be hard to carry to a fire, now that I think about it. And I do save bits and tads of things. I don't like mixing my meats together so I will usually put them in wide-mouthed tapered pint canning jars and label them as to whether they are poultry, beef or pork. Sometimes I will make up a "tv dinner" if we have maybe one serving left of something, and put it in the freezer for later. I collect the liquids from canned vegetables and bits and pieces of veggies like tomatoes, celery, asparagus and outer cabbage leaves, in a plastic coffee jug in the freezer. When it's full I thaw it out, add add whatever I think it needs more of. Usually this is chicken or beef, some broth, and maybe a jar of canned tomatoes. A chopped onion. Add a can of mixed veggies from the store or a part of a bag of frozen. Actually I prefer the canned as it has potatoes in it. Heat all this up, add enough cornstarch to give it a nice smooth consistency. DH has a sensitive stomach so I don't spice it up. Just salt and pepper. If I'm feeding kids I add a little sugar, unless there's lots of liquid from canned corn in that batch. Yum.

Ok, ladies of the gardens, (and kitchens), let's let it ALL hang out now and go for it! We've worked all spring, summer and fall, and now it's time to talk cooking! And enjoying the fruits, (or veggies) of our labors. Like the rest of you, fall is the time when I love to get in the kitchen and cook, filling the house with wonderful smells. That's one of the reason I love Oklahoma, the change of seasons. Fall just brings with it, a change in the feeling of things as we change from one mode to another. It's time for soups, and stews, and baking breads, pies, muffins and biscuits,( slathered with butter and jam or jelly of choice). Tonight, I'm making, more for DS than me, chicken and biscuits. Only I make the biscuits separate, so they don't get soggy baking in the oven with the liquid part of the concoction. Then, he splits them once done and ladles the chicken "gravy" over all. Of course there are a hundred variations on the theme, and I've tried most all of them at one time or another, but that's what's on the menu tonight. I came across this blog and started reading. Great stuff, you can tell these ladies, (and guy) know their way around a biscuit. The one moniker cracked me up, "Old ladies in Fist Fights". Anyway, they were discussing the pros and cons of biscuit making. I am making mine ala Carol's, by the BIG BATCH, with the exception that I use butter. I keep my batch in the fridge or even freezer to keep the butter cold and fresh. I do mine a little different that those discussed in this blog. I melt a large batch of butter in the microwave, and then cool and put it in the freezer til it's ice cold and solid. Then, I work in the cold butter bits, one half at a time, to coat the self-rising flour mixture, to prevent as much gluten from forming as possible. Everythings done with the lightest touch possible and the least mixing. When the biscuits are patted out and cut, in this case, "Cat Head" biscuits, I dip them in melted butter, and pop them in a preheated 450 degree oven til nice and golden. I always make buttermilk biscuits, buttermilk pancakes, buttermilk cornbread, and as often as possible. Carol's method makes this painless. I suppose we could make many of our standard quick bread mixes this way. Salute Carol! Ladies, start your engines, (I mean ovens)! Barbara Here is a link that might be useful: Joes's Biscuit Blog

Muffins and breads freeze well, as does cookie dough or baked cookies and cupcakes without frosting. Pizza freezes nicely, as do calzones, cabbage rolls, savory pies like chicken or beef pot pie, meatballs and pot roast! Anyway, soup. One of my favorites is beef vegetable, but I have no recipe. I take every vegetable that I can get my hands on and chop them up. Chop up some beef into bite sized pieces, brown in the pan with some onion and celery. Add a couple of quarts of water and all the vegetables and cook until everything is done. Add salt, pepper, herbs. I like tarragon. If I have a jar of tomatoes open I'll add that, or leftover spaghetti sauce or whatever is in there. Leftover gravy? In it goes. Part of a jar of home canned beef stock? Double bonus, into the pot. I've used hamburger in this, venison, leftover steak, Italian sausage, kielbasa or a mixture of things, it's all good. I keep adding to the pot, adjusting seasonings, until it tastes good and the refrigerator is cleaned. (grin) It's never failed, but sometimes it grows quite large, which is how I know it freezes well! Good luck to your friend, I hope she comes through with flying colors. Annie

- Vegetables tend to get a little mushy, especially potatoes, but I don't find it a problem for myself. I've made tons of vegetable soup and stew containing potatoes and have frozen it. - Cream/dairy often tends to separate or curdle. Constantly stirring during reheating can help prevent this. Gravy (in stew) tends to separate when thawed and won't be as thick, but the flavor is fine. - Barley, beans, and pasta also can get a little mushy. I tend to under-cook these ingredients for freezer storage. - I add spices just before I freeze the soup, and perhaps additional seasonings during reheating. - Garlic tends to get bitter when frozen for longer than 3 months. Onions and paprika can change flavor during freezing. Peppers can also alter in flavor and texture. Celery and celery seed can get stronger. - Salt can loose it's savor, so I add salt when reheating. - I tend to make a concentrated form of the soup and add water during reheating. This helps to save on freezer space. - I reheat cream soups over boiling water in a double boiler to help prevent separating. - Be safe when cooling the soup. You need to quick-cool a pot of soup in an ice and water bath to quickly bring the temperature down. After it's cool, it's safe to store in the refrigerator or freezer. Stir it occasionally during chilling so the inside cools as well as the contents of the pot closest to the outside of the pot. - DO NOT cool large pots of soup/stew/chili in the refrigerator. Large quantities of hot food can bring the temperature below a safe 40°F. in the refrigerator. The inner soup in a large pot may take too long to come to food safe temperature and bacteria can grow. - Do not place a lot of containers of hot soup into the freezer at one time - quick chill the soup first in the ice/water bath. Place the containers in different areas of the freezer so you don't reduce the freezer temperature below 0°F while it freezes - especially if freezing in large containers, like quarts or larger. - I like to cool the soup, then portion it into single serving sizes (1/2-cup or 1-cup) plastic containers. Be sure to leave head-space for expansion during freezing. When solid, pop the soup out of the containers and stack the blocks of soup and vacuum seal the soup in FoodSaver bags. Take out the number I need and reseal the bags. - Frozen soup has a 3-6-month freezer life. Longer if you vacuum seal it. - Reheat all soup to a rolling boil, or at least 165°F. -Grainlady