Another Week Has Passed

It was good to be able to go to my Pilates class Monday and to the spa (Apple Athletic Club) on Wednesday and Friday. Wednesday we helped Norma Kirby celebrate her 93rd birthday. She has been going to the spa since before I have(I started in 1988). She is quite stooped and walks with a cane and lives in Lincoln Court (an assisted living center) but comes quite regularly despite her age. She is a very sweet lady. I told her that reaching her age was quite an accomplishment and something to brag about. She replied, "You think so?"

It was good to work out up stairs and in the pool Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week. I did miss it last week. Yesterday, on the chest press and the forward rowing machine I have been doing 30 pounds with a five lb. weight lying on top. I couldn't find the small free weight so I tried a "little" bit larger one. It was really hard to do. My muscles were really burning. When I checked out how many lbs. the free weight was I discovered that it was a 15 pounder! My tho't was, "I might just as well have moved down the pin to the next weight!!" Since the next weight with the pin was 45 lbs. I walked around until I found a five lb. free weight. It made my muscles burn enough after doing three sets of ten reps each. I could really feel my muscles today tho'. :)

Tuesday I called Smith's Food Store and asked if they had chicken legs on for 39 cents per lb. or 10 lbs. for $3.90. Since it hadn't been in the flyer (we looked when we got back from Utah) but it was in the Utah Smith's store, I called. They said they did have them. So we went and got 20 lbs. or two packages. I put them in my large magnelite roaster along with an onion, two anihim (sp?) peppers, garlic, carrots, celery, bay leaves, sweet basil liberly sprinkled around the legs, and sprinkled generously with savory salt. I baked it on 400 degrees for one hour then turned it down to 375 for one hour then 350 for one hour. And it was done. We set it out in the car until Thursday morning when we deboned it. I got eight freezer bags. It made good broth too that my husband strained. He took the skin off of most of them because my mother told me that the flavor was better with the skin left on. We definitely noticed that the skin was much easier to get off before it was cooked than after. I also got three freezer bags of broth that I can use later for soup plus the broth that I used to make a bath of soup in my crock pot Thrusday. The recipe for the soup is:

Chicken Soup
4 potatoes scrubbed and diced
20 mini carrots
1/2 onion
2 stocks celery
2 cups chicken
1 bay leaf
2 tsp Mrs. Dash
1 tsp basil
and enough broth to cover everything.
5 chicken bullion cubes

The last 20 mintues of cooking I put in a couple of handfuls of noodles.

It was soooo good.

This much made three meals for my husband and me. So it should easily make six servings at least. The amounts can be adjusted for larger crockpots and families.

We've waked up to snow three or four mornings this week. It has been above freezing so most of it has melted. We have had some good snow pack in the mountains this winter which we have really needed. But I am ready for spring! The trouble is here in Idaho we don't get spring until at least well into April and sometimes May.