Soup

One of our staple meals is a roasted Cornish hen with baked sweet potatoes for dinner. I've been making that ever since we moved here to Missouri in 2001, before Bow was born. Up till now the Cornish hens cost 1.98 a piece. I would feed the drippings to the dogs, in order to supplement their fat intake. But quite recently, after disappearing from the shelves for a couple of weeks altogether, the inexpensive Cornish hens came back -- priced at 2.75 a piece.

There are many different ways to deal with something like that when you are on a fixed income. One way is to go for a less expensive type of chicken. An older, tougher chicken that is pumped full of hormones. But I chose the Cornish hens we eat for two reasons: they taste really good, and they are natural. So I decided to try to make up the difference in price by having the same Cornish hen provide me with the fat intake for lunch, too. This means no more drippings for the dogs.

Instead, every night when I am washing up, I save the drippings in a container for use in the following day's lunch.

Here is how I used the drippings yesterday to make chicken soup.

The soup was not the only item on the menu for Bow or for me.

Bow's lunch consisted of two apples, two bananas and soup. The soup met with mixed reviews. Bow enjoyed fishing out each of the carrots, and he did slurp a bit if the soup, too. But it was not good to the last drop, as far as he was concerned. Next time, I'm adding onions!