So remember a while back when I told you how to flatten a chicken? I told you to keep the bones, they’d be great for making Chicken Stock. Well the time has come… I actually put them in the freezer because it was late that night and I didn’t have time to really do anything with them. I didn’t want them going bad though, so the freezer seemed like the right option.
That is, until I guess I forgot about them in there. Woops! That’s ok, they stayed good… or at least as good as any chicken bone can.
Saturday hubby was cleaning out the freezer after we’d made a trip to the store and had groceries to put away and he pulled this dish out and said, hunny, what’s this? It took me a minute but then I remembered, oh yeah. So I set out on a mission to create Chicken Stock.
I must admit, I’ve never done this before. I had plans of doing it with my turkey from Thanksgiving, but forgot until the bird carcass {boy, that sounds crass doesn’t it} went bad.
What I love is I still have a grandmother living who is all about making it yourself. One simple phone call and I was on my way to making my own homemade chicken stock.
She told me I needed:
Chicken bones…. check!
water… oooo that might be a toughy… lol, check
Seasoning Salt…. check
Black pepper…. check
Onion…. check
Celery. Oh crap, I didn’t have that. Not to worry, she said to use Celery Seed or Celery Salt if need be. whew… I had the celery salt.
Yehaw I’m on my way to making my own Chicken stock.
Grandma said to place your chicken parts (or a whole chicken even) in water and cover it with about 2 inches of water higher than the parts. Um… mine kept floating sort of so I just guessed. It’s all a matter of how much stock you want and how many parts you have, but I’m not sure there is an exact ratio.
No, I didn’t go to Afghanistan, however my sweet husband did. This is his memories. I just happened to be going through photos on our computer yesterday afternoon and saw these and asked if he’d mind sharing them.
For those of you who don’t know, this is my husband. He was on a flight from Bagram Airbase to FOB Sharana on a C-130 (that’s a military plane).
This is the morning after they landed at Bagram looking out toward the mountains.
This was a view of the mountains closer to the FOB (FOB stands for Forward Objective)
This is his buddy Tim. He was stationed there at Bagram.
This is also in the C-130 headed from Bagram to Sharana.
This was his new office before he took possession of it.
Day 1 they took a trip around the wire. This is looking out off the side of the mountain they were on.
Another view.
And yet another view.
This is on the FOB looking out on the backside of the airstrip looking at the living area.
And it’s a camel. He said they were giving camel rides.
This is their office during the initial inspection. That is why all the equipment is laying out, open.
This was his living quarters.
This was the other side of his living quarters.
This is out of the back of a Blackwater plane delivering supplies to remote FOB’s.
Another view.
Look they have a plane following them. He was delivering supplies too, not trying to shoot them down.
And yet another view.
Can you even imagine what this landscape looks like? He told me the sand over there they referred to as “moon dust” because it was so powdery fine. On a side note I’m cutting apart some of his old uniforms to make him a quilt and I’m still finding sand from over there, and those have been washed and back in the states since 2009.
And yet another view. If you look real hard kind of the middle left, you can see their plane shadow.
At this point he said he has his head hanging out the back of the airplane scared to death he was going to drop his camera.
He said this was a farming complex. He said that the farming complexes were surrounded by stone fences/walls.
Now this is Welch entering his room. If you notice the green thing, that’s an old parachute that he put over the roof of his living quarters. The white thing is a tube going to the AC to try and help cool his room.
This was a relax/play day of sorts. Very low key. They BBQ’ed, they sang, played BBall, Volleyball, just a day for them all to relax.
They were visited by many people including the St. Louis Rams Cheerleaders, Kid Rock, Toby Keith, Taylor Swift to name a few.
Boy doesn’t Welch look happy? And a little like Will Smith too…. Just sayin… Although when I met him and I said that he looked at me and knew I’d been talking to my husband. LOL.
Swiffer Wet Jets were their friends.
If you need to smoke… they have an area designated for you.
And if you need a nap, I guess just lay your head down in the office. See the large white screen above Welch? That’s a 6 foot screen where they played video games. Apparently they didn’t sleep at night, instead they played video games until it was time for work the next morning.
Sargent Welch got a promotion to Staff Sargent Welch.
This is hubby’s desk and those were his guitars he used to pass the time.
This was the C-130 that we rode from Bogram to Sharana.
And if boring wasn’t enough… see what he’s holding… it’s a magnet. Apparently they would throw it at the ceiling. And when they broke it, eh, they just taped it back together with medical tape.
Hubs being a “cool” guy hanging his feet out the back of the plane. Don’t worry, he was strapped in.
Yet again…
And this time he had company.
That is a small compound inside of a FOB that he visited.
There’s the corner and the mountainous view.
This he believes was at Bagram.
And K36 was the KHut they lived in for a year.
So Thank you for sharing these memories with us. I just find it so interesting to see other countries and sometimes can’t wrap my head around what it might have been like living there.
So I learned to drive a truck in a freak lightning storm. I’m still not a fan but I’m not as scared as I used to be. But that night my dad had about 60 acres of hay down on the ground. Now luckily it was baled up, he just had to get it loaded and in to the barn before it rained. We actually didn’t even start loading that hay until like 9pm. It was dark, the only light was from the headlights and the lightning in the sky. So I was in the truck and my dad was driving it from outside. The truck is a standard so you could put it in 1st gear and Low 4 wheel drive and it would drive itself down the rows with a little steering directions every now and then. Well I was screaming every time it would flash lightning so my dad asked if I wanted a job. I told him sure. I wasn’t tall enough to see over the steering wheel so he slid his hard hat (worked in a wire mill until he became the safety guy and even then still needed the hard hat when he had to go into the plant) into the driver’s seat and I sat on it so I could see over the steering wheel. He told me to keep it between the rows and not to hit any bales. I think that night I only actually hit about 4 bales. Not bad for 60ish acres :). But I learned how to turn the truck and trailer around without hitting the fence, always a plus. We got all that hay put up that night but about 2am and none of it got rained on, always another plus!
So then a couple years later, about the time I was 6 or so (remember my birthday is the end of July so who knows exactly my age :)) my dad got a company truck. It was like an 88 or an 89 Chevy S10, automatic. Well that truck I could slide the seat all the way up and reach the floor petals. So I’d go flying through the field in that truck. But my favorite thing to do was load the dogs up in the bed and haul them around with me. We had like 3 or 4 dogs at the time :). Anyway my grandma saw me come flying through the field one day and about had a cow. She didn’t know I could drive, little lone drive that truck I guess because she freaked out and jumped in the passenger seat with me. So I’d slam on the gas and slide the dogs to the tailgate and then without notice slam on the break and slide them back into the cab. She asked me what I was doing and I told her, “Grandma, they like it.” (referring to the dogs) Yeah I guess I was kind of an ornery kid 🙂
Truthfully, we all take pictures for lots of different reasons. And we don’t always take a photo for the same reason. But the next time you take a picture, ask yourself before you snap that camera, why am I taking this picture? It just might help you get a little bit better photo to capture that special event :).
I really like Bell Peppers… hubs is a bit on the fence about them. Sometimes he likes them, sometimes he doesn’t. He likes the colored ones much better than the green though. However if you ever notice going to the store, the green are cheaper! Go figure.
We found a grocery story in Tulsa that we really like and they generally have extremely good prices on bell peppers so we tend to buy them when we are there. Not that we eat them all that much or anything…
So a couple months ago when we did one of our runs and bought bell pepper we bought way more than we’d eat at that time… shucks. I didn’t want them to go bad so I did a little research and here we go… another great save!
1.Wash up your peppers. Tori laughs at me because I washed mine with soap, but really you never know who touched them with what on their hands.
2. Anyway moving on… The only time I ever have whole bell pepper would be for stuffed peppers… ask me how many times I’ve had those in the last umpteen years! I usually either slice or dice my peppers. Perfect. Slice into your bell pepper so you have 2 halves.
Let me state for the record, I am not a fashionista. Some days I see outfit posts by people and think, boy I wish I could do that or dress like that or whatever, but a lot of times, that just isn’t me.
So I thought I would show you my Cowgirl style because that’s the way I roll.
Trust me, if I could get by wearing jeans every day, I would. That’s just how it is. I like getting all “gussied” up and looking pretty and wearing fancy party dresses, etc, but when it comes down to it… I’m all about the boots and jeans.
Every once in a while I get into a bind of my fruit won’t last until I’m ready for it or need it. I had that problem with oranges here recently. I really wasn’t in the mood to eat them {I ate a lot earlier this year so I’m still kind of burnt out} but I didn’t want them to go to waste either!
So I used my Microplane or zester, whichever you’d like to call it and took off the yummy outside. Hey it’s great in recipes as long as you don’t get into the white!
1/2 cup salted butter – softened
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 pkg Andes Creme de Menthe Baking Chips
2 2/3 cups sifted all purpose flour
Blend butter, sugars, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla and eggs until mixed. Stir in Ande’s mint chips and then flour. Chill approx 1 hr in fridge. Measure out approx 1 oz of dough. Form ball and slightly flatten. Raise oven rack one level above middle and bake on non-stick baking pans. Bake at 350 degrees for approx 8-10 minutes. Cool on pans for 2 minutes before removing
