One Chicken, Two Pots

Did you know you could make your chicken work twice? You can -- and so can ribs, or any roast with bones. After you cook the roast and eat it, save the bones. Just keep a gallon plastic bag in the freezer, and throw the bones in there after each meal. When the bag is full, empty it into a slow cooker, and add

• one onion, cut in 1/8s
• 2 carrots, cut into cube-ish chunks
• 2 celery ribs, cut into large chunks
• a couple of bay leaves
• 6 peppercorns
• parsley if you have it
• 1T of white vinegar
• water to fill the pot (about a gallon)

Cook this on low for 6 - 8 hours, or till it looks and smells like chicken broth. (The vinegar is in there to leach the calcium and gelatin from the bones -- you won't taste it, and it makes for a wonderfully rich stock.) Free soup!