The guys will be away from the homestead for a few days at a time as they are working on remodeling jobs.
In order to keep costs down and provide them with something other than burgers to survive on, I concentrated on things that could be turned into soups and sandwiches. Another consideration was that they would need some real fuel for the heavy work.
I put 10 pounds of chicken leg quarters into the slow cookers, layered them up with spices and enough water to cover.
The smoked pork roast from last weekend went into a stock pot to simmer the meat off the bone.
Then a dozen eggs got hard boiled.
Once everything was cooked, the chicken and pork got deboned.
Some of the chicken went into chicken mushroom and rice soup. Chicken stock, rice, canned mushrooms, cream of mushroom soup and whole milk. Spices were a little garlic salt, black pepper and oregano.
Some of the pork got put together with some beans and pork stock in one of the now-empty slow cookers. This pork and beans will be cowboy beans with the addition of some more black pepper, garlic, onion, and a couple spoonfuls of tomato paste.
The rest of the pork will get shredded for pulled pork sandwiches.
The two half gallon containers of stock - one pork, one chicken - are in the fridge to let the fat rise to the top. I'll skim the fat off and freeze it separately, then I'll put the stock in plastic bags to freeze in smaller quantities.
The stock will see use in chicken vegetable soup, cream of chicken soup, tomato soup, beef and barley, souped-up mushroom rice, and much more.
(By the way, a cup of hot broth before bed helps one fall asleep faster and improves quality of sleep.)
