What's Cookin'

Well, it's 10:30 at night. What do you think is cooking?

Beef stock, for one. I'm following the prescribed rules of my Food Bible (Nourishing Traditions, and I'm worse at following it than I am the Real Live Bible), and making some hearty, tasty broth. Everyone does this overnight, do they not? My favorite way is to use a crockpot or big roaster thingy. Since I'm using a big bunch of soup bones, I'm using the roaster thingy. You know what I'm talking about, right? Like a crockpot, only metal, rectangular, and with a thermostat instead of misspelled relative temperature options? Sorry, it's late, and I get a little crazy when it's late.

Anyway, I put the bones in water and a bit of vinegar (helps draw calcium and minerals from the bones into the soup - not sure what it does to me when I use it in salads) and let them sit an hour before heating it. Then I turned it up "high" (not 'hi' - 450' to be exact) until it boiled. I skimmed off the impurities, but there weren't many. These might not be beef 'knuckles', perhaps. Then I turned it to simmer, where it stayed for the day, and will stay for the night, and maybe some of tomorrow as well. I'll remove the bones (and MAYBE give them to our naughty dog), tear up the meat, and strain the broth. Maybe I'll let it cool and remove the fat somewhere in that process. Then I'll put in more of all the lovely garden abundance and try not to eat it all in one day, like the last time I made it. Perhaps I'll have enough to freeze for later. Wouldn't that be fantastic?

I ALSO (because I am so amazing tonight) have chicken broth in the makings. And haven't even tripped a circuit yet. I roasted a chicken in the crockpot, and the uneaten parts (minus the feathery skin - gotta love home-processed poultry) are simmering with an onion and some garlic. I'll treat it like the beef stock tomorrow - remove bones (and likely give them to the naughty dog)*, separate meat, strain broth - then add veggies and some sort of starch. I'm undecided if it'll be barley, rice, or homemade noodles. The noodles are grand, but Organique hasn't eaten wheat yet (that I know of - her under-the-table expeditions might have introduced her to it by now), so I might forego those. I'll use potatoes with the beef, so not the chicken.

I even washed and dried diapers tonight, too.

But before I start floating away with all this inflation-of-ego, I better go make sure I set the dishwasher to ACTUALLY wash, because I'm pretty sure I forgot that.

*okay, I wouldn't really give the dangerous, splintery, cooked-chicken bones to our dog. Probably.