Day 35: Another Roasted Chicken, Roasted Carrots, Rice, and Pecan Shortbread!

WARNING: I am channeling Ina Garten for the next couple of days!  I made her pecan shortbread squares today, and plan to make her soup and biscuit recipes tomorrow.  Because I need more chicken stock for the soup, I made another roasted chicken for Sunday dinner today.  And rather than make chicken salad with the leftover meat, I'm simply doing to shred it for salad toppings for lunches this week.

For my recipe for roasted chicken and gravy, see Day 21.  Today I served it with garlic & herb rice, and roasted carrots.  To roast the carrots, I cut them small and placed them on a baking sheet.  I drizzled extra virgin olive oil on top and sprinkled with fresh thyme and rosemary, salt, pepper, and minced onion.  I baked them at 400* for about 20-25 minutes.

Chicken Stock
Place the chicken carcass in a pot and cover completely with water.  Add 1 onion, quartered, and 2 cloves of garlic, halved.  Add 1 or 2 stalks of celery AND carrot sticks, roughly chopped.  Season liberally with salt and pepper.  Bring water to a boil, then simmer for a few hours.  Cool, then strain the liquid into storage containers.  Cool completely, and skim off the far that settles on top.  Now you may freeze or refrigerate your stock.  If you don't have celery or carrots on hand, that's okay, the stock just may not be as flavorful.  You will still get the benefits of a good homemade stock by using just the chicken bones, onion, garlic, and seasoning.  

I used some red onions just because I had them!

First drain: just getting the big scraps out.

I always strain my stock twice, the second time with a fine strainer just to get all the little bits out.  Once it cools more, I'll be able to scrape that fat off the top.

Pecan Shortbread
Randy LOVE shortbread!  When I was making this today, he had pulled a chair into the kitchen to watch me and talk.  He loves to eat the dough.  I even asked him if he wanted the pecans in, just to make sure.  Many times when I make something sweet, he may eat a little, but it's mostly for me.  This is one dessert that I know I'm making mostly for him!
3/4 lb unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
3 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350*.  Cream the butter and sugar together.  Add the vanilla and almond extracts.  Sift together the flour and salt.  Add them to the creamed mixture and mix well.  Stir in the pecans.  Bring the dough together, wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
Roll out the dough to 1/2 inch thick and cut into bars, circles, or different shapes and place on ungreased baking sheet.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Allow to cool and serve.