Cleaning the things you clean with

Have you ever went through your house and cleaned then just put the tools away?  I am very guilty of doing so.  I just finished cleaning the bathroom due to the onset of insomnia and then I realized that my broom was NASTY!

Think about it!  You sweep the floor, scoop up the debris and find yourself pulling dust bunnies and etc. out of the broom bristles.   Why not just run your broom under the bathtub faucet or swish and rinse in your mop water?  Makes since don't it?  Although I had just finished cleaning the bathtub, I decided to spray off the plunger, its holder, and the broom and dust pan.  I left them in the tub to drain and dry overnight and then in the morning I can just put them up, rinse the tub, spray disinfectant, then mop the floors.

Along with cleaning the broom, dust pan, and other commonly used bathroom tools like the plunger and its holder on a regular basis, we should also concider cleaning vaccum cleaners, sponges (if you use them), scrubbers, dish racks, cleaning storage areas, the mop, and anything else that you use the clean with.  Let's face it! They get dirty too!

Chicken about Chicken

As I am a Crafty, Cooking, Baking, going to school mother and wife you would think that I would know how to cut up a chicken.  Add in the fact that my husband is a butcher and chicken is at the top of his list, you would expect that I would know how to cut up the fowl, but GUESS AGAIN! 

My mom, my daughter, and I made a trip to Sam's today.  As we were checking out the food sample station, my mom jumped down the little aisle where the chicken was.  I usually avoid even looking and the fresh meats because my husband keeps us in check with meat at home, but this time I mosied on over there after mom hollered for me. Once I got to where she was she asked me if the .98 cent per lb price on the the whole chickens was a good deal,  (I am a sucker for anything costing less than dollar).  Before I could even answer her question, I glanced down and saw a REDUCED sticker on a twin pack of hens.  I picked up the birds and began looking the package over well.  Ok, so there were a couple of things wrong.  1.  The outer bag had been open, but the bags actually keeping the bird from leaking were just fine, and 2. The date.   The sell by date was for tomorrow.  BIG DEAL!  The reduced sticker meant that we were going to spend $1.50 less.  WOOO HOOO!  I snatched those birds up and kept my eye on them until they made it into the cooler as though it was Black Friday at Wial-mart (crazy I know). 

Once home I tossed the birds into the kitchen sink while I put the remaining items from out shopping spree up.  I soon caught myself avoiding the subject of putting the birds up.  I finally made myself do it.  I couldn't figure out why I kept avoiding these boogers.

I finally opened up one of the birds rinsed and inspected for stray feathers and stashed it into my crock-pot.  Chicken and Dumplings for lunch and supper tomorrow!  Now what to do with the other bird?  Hmmmm.  It needs to be cut up so that I can freeze it in portion amounts.  How?   How in the world was I supposed to cut up this bird?   I know that it has two of everything but neck and tail (pretty much). So I grabbed my sharp knife and began butchering this extra bird. (Hubby was at work or else I would have rooted his butt off the couch and made him cut it up).  So I started with the basics.  Wings:  two of them. Found the shoulder and cut to that joint then popped the bone out of the socket.  Next?  Legs and thighs.  I like them both together so I found the "hip" and cut to the joint and popped that bone out of the socket... Ok so after separating the limbs from the body I then had to work on the body itself.  Soooo....  Breasts!   Two of them.  I began by cutting the the sides of the bird, then cut the meat from the ribs and the breast bone.  Wow!  I got the breasts separated.  I looked down were I had cut out the breast and found that I had also cut out the tender.  Yay! 

I cleaned up my chicken mess and bagged the pieces for freezing and labeled them.  Now what?  I was stuck with the back, neck, tail and ribs with the breast bone. I just tossed it into my crock pot of the other chicken.  Why waist that yummy flavor?

Now that I finally took the time to butcher my own chicken,  I think I will start checking out the discounted meats more often.  Hmmm..... I wonder if the hubs will be up to teaching me how he does it next time?