Free Giveaway over at Cheeseslave!

You know Le Creuset, right? The gorgeous colors, the enamel on cast iron, the hefty price, the amazing quality?

Cheeseslave is giving away a Le Creuset stockpot. What? Still here? Get on over there and sign up!!! You can enter over there. Come on! Hurry!

Come back here later on, and I'll talk about what's for supper this week.

But now, go!

Squeezing the pennies tastes OH so good....

What do you do with a perfectly good carcass after you bake a free-range chicken? I hate to throw those pricey little bones away...so I boiled them in my smaller stockpot(it holds a little over a gallon) with a nice little splash of red wine(the acidity draws out all the nourishing stuff from the bones) and a little sip to, ahem, make sure the wine was still good.

After a well-deserved nap with the fussy teething baby, I awoke to the pleasant smell of chicken soup. The only problem was that, when trying to eat gluten-free, there aren't as many quick options for "filler" in the soup. This is important when your big strong husband comes home wanting big, strong food in his bowl.

I had some left-over risotto in the fridge. Not the fancy, followed-a-recipe risotto, but a basics-are-covered simple risotto with a nice amount of Parmesan cheese. The ice-cream scoop was laying on counter (I won't say why) from its use earlier in the day, and so I scooped 3 neat balls of risotto, packed tightly, into my soup bowls, then dumped some frozen peas in the stockpot for a second to simmer with my stock and the sad little straggly amounts of chicken still clinging to the bones(which I removed while talking to the husband who had just walked in the door). I spooned the broth with peas and tiny bits of chicken over the room-temp risotto and placed the steaming bowls on the table...mmmmmmmm. It was instant comfort food, for a song, and I used up some of my leftovers as well!

supper plans

Yes I intend to plan our meals AHEAD of time this year.

What better day to start than Epiphany? Get to make a small feast, for a great reason, and that's what I'm thinking about now....what do I have in my freezer?

Yellow squash. Chicken. Cranberries. Spinach. Wheat flour. Nuts.

How about:
Roasted chicken.
Cranberry clementine sauce on the side (instead of gravy)
Yellow squash casserole(a healthier version than normal)
Whole wheat rolls w/ fresh butter.
And...drum roll please...
Chocolate cake. with icing.

It all sounds good. Now if I can just DO it... :)