Winter blahs, trying new recipes

[Ol Gabe]

Del & All other CAS Foodies,
What with the looooong boring winter weather we have been experiencing here in the upper midwest, I've been trying out some old family recipes and cooking tips from our oldsters cookbooks and journals just to help bide time til we can all dig out and enjoy some Spring air.
Two that have been enjoyable follow. Del, I'm thinking you have some comparable recipes and am looking for ways that you think they can be tweaked to be more enjoyable or historical.
1. Ground beef on rye bread. My old Norwegian relatives cookbooks talk about the homemade rye bread they made from scratch, they baked it and sliced it thick, 1/2" or so by hand then "...set it aside to harden.". Then they took the strippings from roasts or beef bellies they had butchered in the Fall and ground it up into what we would now call 'hamburger'. They canned or cold-packed it for storage til used in the Winter months. One story has them making it into "...flat 3/4" patty's, stacked and covered with fresh tallow." They would then pull out the patties and fried or bake in the same tallow. Truly a 'heart attack on a plate' as the present day saying goes.
Anyway, they would then fry up the patties with a slice of their garden onion, toast the rye bread over an open fire or in an oven and cover with a slab of homemade cheese. I suppose you could use Pumpernickel or any other dark or rye bread and get the same results but we used a local dark homemade rye, fried Vidalia onion slices and Muenster cheese and it was indeed a Winter treat.
2. Chicken stock and noodles. Most of my oldsters always had chickens around and had stories about how they were used for eggs and roasting. The recipes they handed down always said to "...never throw away any part of the bird that looks like it'll be good in a soup or stew..."
Since they tended to live in colder latitudes they always had a place to keep things, as in in a basement food larder, cold and almost frozen. They claimed to store pieces-parts of chickens they dressed out for roasting and frying in glass jars. They would dress the chicken, duck or goose, home-raised or wild-harvested, then set the extra pieces aside. After the meal they would put all the leftover bones, etc., as well as the pieces-parts in a big pot and slowly boil it down for stock. After several hours of a slow boil they would set it out side in the cold and let it cool then put in big glass jars. It would jel up a bit and they would use the jel and juices with handmade noodles to make a cold night feast with fresh bread. Sounds yummy!
Well, looking to read some comments on these two as they both made our Winter a bit more enjoyable.
Best regards and good cooking!
'Ol Gabe

[Delmonico]

Sounds good, I make several different types of rye bread.