In The Backwoods Kitchen, 1/16/11

Last week in the Backwoods Kitchen didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it to.  First, my husband was home most of the week, which means helping him on large projects rather than focusing on smaller things that can wait.  Also, I've been majorly sleep deprived this week-which I'm sure most of you mothers, and many of you fathers, who are reading this, can empathize with.  I also became obsessed with cleaning my walls.  Since we use a wood stove for heat, the walls get grimy fairly quickly.  What I discovered in the dining room upset me quite a bit.  There is some kind of stucco finish on the walls in there, and I'm guessing that whoever put it on didn't do it correctly, because when I started washing those walls, it started coming off.  So we'll be adding another project to the never ending list.

I did get the gravy mix and bisquick done.  I'll be adding a tutorial and recipe for the gravy mix later this week, and posting a new bisquick one, too.  I also got permanent storage for my wheat berries.  I did not get the tortillas done, so I'll be working on those for this week, and the same with the apple pie filling.  I was just not coordinated enough last week to juggle everything!  And I know you can relate to that!

This week we're also doing a few broths.  My stock of several broths is running low.  When we moved in May, I pretty much stopped making stuff ahead of time, because I didn't want to move it.  We let our supplies and stockpile dwindle way down because, really, who wants to move a whole bunch of frozen stuff.  Well, who wants to move anything, honestly.  So I've been making broths as I needed them, and that has left only a small bit in the freezer, and those get used pretty quickly in this season of soups and casseroles.  I'll be posting tutorials on beef broth and mushroom broth (used, with a roux, as a substitute for condensed cream of mushroom soup), and you can find my tutorial for chicken broth here.  I tried making a chicken broth last week without roasting the chicken first, and was really disappointed.  I think there just wasn't enough cooking time for the heat to penetrate the marrow of the bone and get the good flavor into the broth.  Roasting the chicken can be done while you're busy doing something else, and makes sure that the broth has a yummier flavor.  Ideally, I could can the broths, but as I still haven't ordered my pressure regulator for my canner, I'm freezing them.

Here's my meal plan for this week, and recipes will be coming up!

I hope you have a wonderful week in your kitchen!