The day so far...

[ksmith]

Managed coffee and cold cereal (with blueberries and sliced banana). Two loads of laundry done. Screwed-up-my-mail-in ballot-I-think. I will have to call the county clerk's office tomorrow and see if I need to get a new ballot, assuming it's 1) necessary and 2) possible.

Dinner will consist of roast pork tenderloin with an herb rub and a parsley-mustard sauce. Plenty of leftovers anticipated, which along with yesterday's beef veggie soup/stew should see me through the week.

I bought flowers for Mom yesterday. Today would have been her 90th birthday, which shakes me even though it's a virtual one at this point. Mom didn't think she would live to 90, and wasn't sure she wanted to. She hated getting old. She used to say that she didn't recognize the face she saw in the mirror.

So. Bit of a melancholy day. At least it's sunny outside.

Comments

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

So far? Woke up with vertigo (gone now) and Himself woke up with double vision. Kid (26, but still 'the kid') woke up with a cold. We're a fine example of family solidarity...one down, we're all down. But creatively, each with his/her own individual little disaster.

Friday's soup is, impossibly, *even better* today, on its third eating day. I realized yesterday that even if four people showed up today, the soup was rich enough that just adding a can or so of beans and some water would stretch it without thinning it. I'm going through beef stock like crazy, though, so this afternoon the next set of bones goes in. Always before I've made beef-based soup "directly", without making stock first and then using stock to augment the soup. I'm converted. My other soups were good, but these stock-based soups are definitely superior.

I'd like to start the summer with 8 lumps of chicken stock and 8 lumps of beef stock to carry me through the hottest weather--but I'll have to quit using them now...or continue making stock right up to the margin of the hot weather.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I used canned--well, boxed--beef stock for my soup. It has decent flavor because I browned the lasater stew beef really well and loaded up on carrots, celery, and herbs. But I am sure that real stock would have made a difference. I do have beef bones in the freezer, but not sure I have the time--is it a labor-intensive process? I chew up enough time over the weekend just cooking.

Kid is 26 already? *sheesh*

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

It's mostly cooking time, but there is the straining time. Because I'm making humongous (20 quart pot) amounts at once, I put 15+ pounds of bones in the oven to roast--while they're still frozen, so they're on for 8 hours at 200, about. Overnight works well. Then the bones and everything else needed goes into the pot (usually the next morning), though today's bones may be ready for the pot by bedtime, in which case the stock will simmer overnight.)

Prep for the other stuff is relatively simple, because everything's going to be strained out (I just colander-strain at the end because I don't really want clear stock.) Rough chop of the leaf ends of the bunches of celery, rough chop of parsley, carrots. Quarter the onions. I've just seen a cook online (Ming of "Simply Ming") cut the tip end off a whole head of garlic and drop it in with the skins on. I've always peeled the individual cloves of mine, but I don't chop for the stock stage and I guess there's no reason peel 'em, really. Chopped stuff can be stored in the fridge in bags until the moment of truth. Bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, sage, basil, peppercorns, anything else you want in there. If you have one of those little bags, some stuff can go in the bags, though again, you'll be straining the solids from the stock later. If you want to salvage meat from the bones, that takes more time.

Once the bones have all the goodness out of them (they look "dry" like old bones in a field, even though they're in the liquid), strain and decide if you want to reduce further. Then chill, peel the fat off the top and discard, and put into freezer containers & freeze. If you're busy, you can stick it into the fridge for a day or so until you get to it.