Eat Close To Home

Dear sweet merciful gods. This was so good:

• Sauteed onion
• Shredded chicken stew meat
• Homemade chicken broth
• Huge handfuls of fresh spinach, mizuna, lamb’s quarters, and baby kale leaves
• Dashes of smoked paprika and smoked sea salt

Served with a little brown rice and a cabbage salad (like slaw, but with a vinaigrette instead of gloppy sauce)

Note: I made the chicken from an actual stewing hen – a “retired” layer that was no longer pulling her weight on the Amish farm where she’d put in her working years. She was a tiny, tough, stringy little bird, and it took about 5 hours in the crock pot to get her tender. About 3/4 of the way through, I stripped the carcass to try to get more goodness out of the bones, but still didn’t end up with a very gelatinous stock. Still, it was very good: rich, flavorful, and deep yellow. If you can’t find a stewing hen, roast the chicken, pull the meat off the carcass, and stew just the bones. Otherwise, the meat will be dry and flavorless.