Chicken Stock - just in time for Soup Season!

Alan caught my cold so I made him some chicken soup yesterday. That reminded me to finish my blog posting on how to make stock. This is just in time for "Soup Season"!

You can read the complete blog posting on my own web site: http://www.tracygoodbrand.com/blog.htm

I'll be posting some of my favorite soup recipes soon!

My Blog has Moved!

I have decided to move my "Unprocessing Your Food" blog from Blogger.com to my own web site.

You can find it here: http://www.tracygoodbrand.com/blog.htm

I found that I was getting frustrated with trying to get the layout and look I was striving for. My frustration led to losing interest, despite my passion for this issue, and therefore, not posting any new entires. On my own web site, I can also have all the recipes available as a .pdf to make it easy for everyone to print them for their own use, which is something people couldn't do here.

There are a few disadvantages - there is no ability to leave comments. If you have a comment, please just email me. When I get time, I will work on the code to set up a way for people to leave comments.

There is also no way to list 'followers'. I really don't care how many people follow my blog, so this isn't that important of an option.

I am planning on adding more blog posts and recipes more often, especially now that I have taken care of my frustration.

I hope you enjoy the information on 'unprocessing your food' and the recipes. I would love to hear what you think of the recipes when you try them. Also, feel free to share your recipes with me!

Vanilla

Vanilla
This journey of unprocessing food actually began with finding out we could make our own vanilla extract. That was 3 years ago and we are presently on our 4th bottle of home-made vanilla extract.

So many baking recipes require vanilla. Oh sure, you can buy the cheap vanilla extract, and you get exactly what you paid for - a cheap tasting product. Have you ever tried the real thing? It is more expensive, but the difference in taste makes it so worthwhile!

It is the expense of the real vanilla extract that is tough to swallow. Sure, the taste is worth it, but it is hard on the wallet.

I cheered when I came across a recipe to make your own! The recipe calls for vanilla beans which I had been using in recipes for a few years now. Vanilla beans aren’t cheap either. I found Costco had the best price on them (found with the baking goods and spices, usually in the fall, closer to Christmas). As I remember, I paid $10 - $12 for 2 tubes of vanilla beans and there were 5 beans in each tube. Safeway was $6.99 for a tube of 2. Definitely worth going to Costco! If you don’t have a Costco membership yourself, find a friend who does and join them on a shopping day.

The downfall to making your own vanilla extract is the time for the vanilla beans to infuse their flavor, about 4 to 6 months. Oh, the taste is so worth the wait! I started the second bottle when I was 1/3 of the way through the first bottle so I wouldn’t run out.

Cost Comparison

With the price of the Real Vanilla Extract being so high, it is certainly worth making your own vanilla extract. Home-made Vanilla Extract will cost you ½ of what it costs in the store.

Store Bought	Home-made
Artificial Vanilla Extract: $1.64 for 100 ml ($0.0164 / ml)	Vanilla Beans: $4.00 Vodka: $14.00 for 375 ml bottle Total Cost: $18.00 / 375 ml
Real Vanilla Extract: $10.00 for 100 ml ($.10 / ml)	($0.05/ml)

　
Here lies the problem with Artificial Vanilla Extract. It contains the additive Sodium Benzoate. Definitely an additive that you don't want to be ingesting.
Here lies the problem with Artificial Vanilla Extract. It contains the additive Sodium Benzoate. Definitely an additive that you don't want to be ingesting.
　

Health Issues
Sodium Benzoate (aka E211)	- Forms a chemical known as Benzene when in the presence of vitamin C, which is a known carcinogenic substance. - Has been found to damage an important area of DNA in the "power station" of cells known as the mitochondria. DNA damage is known to contribute to neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's, and more generally, is likely to speed up the entire aging process
Here is a source: http://handblender.us/sodium-benzoate-side-effects Feel free to explore some more on the health problems associated with these additive.

　
　
Here is the Recipe
　

Let me know when you make this and what you think of the flavor!