Cooking is something I’ve enjoyed since I was a child.  Actually, I enjoyed baking more than cooking, but as a child I thought it was all the same.  Travis and I have been married almost seven years and one thing I learned quickly after tying the knot, was that I really didn’t know as much about “cooking” as I thought.  I could follow a recipe just fine, but when it comes to, what I call, free-style cooking like my mom, aunts, and grandmother do, I was clueless.  They are all fantastic cooks and seem to just be able to come up with meals out of nowhere.  AND they just happen to have all of the ingredients ready and waiting in the fridge and pantry.  I’m convinced they have some sort of super-power gene that I did not inherit. 

I had a breakthrough last night, though. 

I purchased one of those fantastic rotisserie chickens at the grocery store yesterday.  I was going to make one of Giada’s (Food Network Giada, of course.  Yeah, we’re on a first name basis.) dishes that called for one of these chickens.  After I was finished removing all the meat, I was about to throw away the bones and skin when I remembered something I recently heard or read or maybe totally made up in this crazy head of mine…you can use the carcass (sounds sick, I know) from these chickens to make your own homemade chicken broth.  I’ve made homemade broth a bajillion times before, but always with a raw cut up chicken.  I was under the impression you had to have the meat in order to make broth.  Au contraire, mon frere!  Not so!  Evidently, broth is all about the bones. 

Of course, I called my mother first to make sure I wasn’t delusional.  She said you can absolutely do this, there just wouldn’t be as much fat in the broth.  Even better!  I always skim the fat off my broth anyway, so this seemed perfect. 

Into the stockpot, the bones and skin went.  Then I added the following that just happen to be in my kitchen, longing to be used before they went bad.

5 peeled carrots

6 celery stalks

1 onion, quartered

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 Tbs. sea salt

1 Tsp. pepper

I boiled it for just over an hour and it was delicious!  Now, I’ll have homemade broth in the freezer the next time I have a chicken noodle soup craving.  Maybe I’m the last woman on the face of earth to find out about this easy-breezy concoction, but I don’t care.  At this moment, I feel so domestic.  Never again will I allow one of these precious skeletons go to waste.  From my kitchen, to yours…Bon appetit!