Monday...

My back has been killing me all day. Overdid it over the weekend, I guess. Worse, I took all my pain meds home from work a while back...

Bitter cold, a wicked wind and snow started falling just as I left work (supposed to get 2 to 4 inches tonight and tomorrow). Stopped to get gas and checked all the tires (one was a bit low) but damn near froze to death doing that!

When I got home, I dug out the gallon-sized freezer bag that's filled with chicken bones (one fryer carcass and a lot of leg bones) and threw that in my stock pot. Added an onion, quartered (skin and all), two cloves of garlic I smashed (again with the skins on) any celery that had started to go limp and a half a bag of baby carrots that were turning white. Added a handful of fresh parsley (stalks and all), a lot of pepper and a little salt and covered it all with cold water.

Turned on the burner! Won't do me any good tonight, but once I let it simmer for several hours, strain it, let it cool and refrigerate it, I should be able to make some killer chicken noodle soup tomorrow.

I planned on sanding the workbench tonight, but I think common sense should prevail (not that I let it happen that often, lol!) and I chill out, take some Vicodin and let things calm down a bit.

For tonight's dinner, I grilled bratwurst on my indoor grill pan (vent on high). No buns, so I used sourdough bread. Being German, I never met a wurst I didn't like! (okay, I stole that line, but you get my drift.) And, as my beverage, I chose St. Pauli Girl Lager, imported from the St. Pauli Brauerei in Bremen, Germany. For two reason, actually: one, I seem to have a theme night going, and that's always fun; and, two, I am madly in love with the German barmaid pictured on the label. Oh mein Gott, what a Fr�ulein!

Watched TV, and checked on my chicken stock every so often. At 10:45 PM, I turned off the heat and poured the mixture into my metal colander, inside my biggest aluminum bowl. I then dumped all the "stuff" into a slightly smaller aluminum bowl to cool. Then I poured the liquid through a finer strainer, back into the stock pot.

At 11:15 PM, I donned two latex gloves (I keep a box of non-powdered latex gloves for gross things, ever since the chicken police showed up on the culinary scene) and began to pick out usable chicken bites from the mess. It always amazes me how much edible chicken is left! Those bits go back into the stock. The remaining "stuff" goes in the trash, the stock pot goes in the fridge and I wash up the oversized bowls and the colander.

I check outside weather conditions: only a dusting of snow so far. Maybe we dodged the bullet, again? After 58 Michigan winters, I can appreciate "dodging the bullet" every now and then! Ready for tomorrow's soup, I then retire for the night.