More Broth, Please

You know how you can go through food phases? Like sometimes all you want to eat is cheddar cheese or maybe every day for a month you just want dark chocolate and peppermint tea for dessert? (But if you want to eat dirt or clay or something then you probably have a disorder called Pica.)

Well, lately, I'm on a chicken broth kick. Weird? Probably. But I'm telling you, it's just so comforting and easy to make. You just roast a whole chicken (which is super easy - just wash it and then toss it into a pan and bake it in the oven), then after you eat the chicken, you have the beginnings of a wonderful broth.

Here's what you do: Put the carcass (as Aaron likes to call it) in a big soup pot. Add cut up carrots, onions, celery or whatever vegetables you want for a richer flavor. Cover it all with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and let it simmer for a couple hours. (I usually do this in the evening and then watch tv for a while.)

Turn off the heat on the stove and put the whole pot in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, you scrape off all the fat from the top of the soup and discard. Heat it up again so that it's not all gelatinous. Strain out the chicken bones and vegetables in a colander and catch the broth in another pot. (Throw away the chicken bones and used vegetables.) And presto! You've got broth. Now you can use it a soup base or just add chicken, rice and veggies for some homemade chicken soup. So good! And wouldn't Martha be proud?