I have been reading with more than a little interest about the results of
the chicken gravy that Bob come up with.  My guys tend to be picky, so I
wasn't sure if I could get them to eat it if I managed to make it.  Let me
tell you, all but one loves it.  The old man, Mort isn't sure he likes it
too well.  But I can get him to eat about a tablespoon before he gives up.
So I consider it to be well worth the time and effort.  But let me tell you
what I did to make the recipe with as little trouble as possible.
 
First I tried to get a store to grind the chicken, but none would for
different reasons.  I was resigned to trying to use the blender, when my
husband come up with a better idea.  We bought a manual crank grinder.  It
cleans up well, since all parts are heavy metal, and price wise it was not
very expensive.  Less than replacing the 60.00 blender if I ruined it!  I
paid 30.00 for the one I bought, and I probably could have found it for a
bit less had I looked around.  I bought the first one I saw, so I could get
started.  The butcher was kind enough to cut the chicken into manageable
sized pieces.  That really helps, so the corkscrew part of the grinder
catches them easier.  What I ended up with after about 20 minutes or so of
grinding was something that looked like store bought ground chicken.  It
wasn't hard to grind up either, the legs bones were the toughest and they
went through easy once they caught in the corkscrew part.  The noise is a
bit icky, so be prepared.  So far so good.  We cooked this in a large pan
until it was done and crumbly looking.  Then ran it through the blender
with any juice in the pan from cooking.  I only had to add water once, to
the last batch because all the juice was gone.  Now I have something
resembling the texture of meat baby food.  To this I added the remainder of
the good stuff needed.  At this point it was cool enough to feed to the
fuzzies, so we gave it a try.  Like I said, they love it.  I didn't even
have to convince them.  I didn't add any ground TF, because I wanted to see
if they would eat it as is.  We were victorious!  The best part is, as I
was grinding the chicken, I felt the mixture that was coming out.  There
are only tiny particles of bone.  The pieces we felt at all were the size
of cracked pepper.  Once the course grind was passed through the blender,
there were none we could see or feel.  I even bought a strainer to use,
and it caught nothing.  From start to finish, it took me about 2 hours to
do it all, from grinding, to cooking, to blending, to mixing and finally
packaging.  I ended up with over 7 cups of gravy, and it really thickens
as it gets cold.  I am not sure how long this will last my six, but it was
well worth the couple of hours it took me to do it.  Thanks Bob, for the
research involved it coming up with this.  My fuzzies thank you too, except
for maybe Mort!
 
 Here's to healthy fuzzies!
 Kim and the crew in Reno
[Posted in FML issue 2631]